The School that Escaped the Nazis: The True Story of the Schoolteacher Who Defied Hitler

by Deborah Cadbury Narrated by Julie Teal

Overview

The extraordinary true story of a courageous school principal, Anna Essinger, who saw the dangers of Nazi Germany and took drastic steps to save those in harm's way

By 1931, Anna Essinger had read Mein Kampf and knew that Hitler's world view was violent, utterly destructive, and that many of her pupils in her small progressive school in Herrlingen, Germany were in terrible danger. She decided that in order to offer them a refuge, and a future, she must first move her school entirely out of the Nazis' reach. So, she did just that, creating a safe haven in Kent, England.*

Anna and the first seventy children escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, but in time she would accept waves of increasingly traumatized children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and then Poland as the crisis spread.* Some children had, by the time they reached Essinger, been violated by five years of escalating deprivations. For those who escaped the camps and ghettos, Essinger offered the only salvation that mattered, in the words of a student: “a great deal of love and determination to help us.”

Acclaimed writer Deborah Cadbury retells the remarkable story of Essinger, drawing on moving first-person accounts of the children who escaped and their reflections on the lives they created from the ashes of WWII. The School That Escaped from the Nazis is not just a Holocaust survival story - many of the students were Jewish - but an inspiring narrative of one woman's refusal to allow her beliefs in a better, more equitable world to be overtaken by violent force and political extremism. Essinger's determination to move her school becomes a triumph of humanism in a time of increasing violence and intolerance.

Editorial Reviews

JUNE 2022 - AudioFile

Julie Teal carefully narrates the story of principal Anna Essinger, a woman of unflinching spirit who was determined to save the children in her school in Nazi Germany. With impeccable English that shifts effortlessly to flawless German, Teal creates a well-paced depiction of “Tante Anna,” whose prescient decision to move her school and students beyond Nazi reach—from Herrlingen, Germany, to Kent, England, in the early 1930s—proved to be a salvation for many. Letting each unsparing detail of Nazi cruelty land with listeners, Teal also weaves in accounts of other students across Europe, including Jewish boy Sam Oliner of Poland, who hid “in plain sight” until he finally made his way to England and to Essinger—the principal whose love of children never wavered. D.H.R. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

04/04/2022

BBC producer Cadbury (Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking) delivers a stirring account of a German schoolteacher’s efforts to build an oasis for children fleeing the Nazi advance across Europe. Anna Essinger, the headmistress of a progressive boarding school in Herrlingen, Germany, was quick to see the coming horrors of life under Hitler and arranged to bring 70 of her students, some as young as nine, with her to Kent, England, in 1933. With help from local politicians and Quaker and Jewish groups, Anna transformed an old manor house called Bunce Court into a new school and eventually began accepting “waves of increasingly traumatised children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and then Poland.” Cadbury intersperses daily life at Bunce Court (which closed in 1948) with profiles of Anna’s students, including Sidney Finkel, who saw his father die at Buchenwald; Leslie Brent, whose parents put him on the very first Kindertransport out of Berlin; and Sam Oliner, who lost his family in the liquidation of the Bobowa ghetto in Poland and was brought from a displaced persons camp in Germany to Bunce Court in 1946. These and other youths ultimately found healing at Bunce Court, where students built greenhouses, grew their own food, and maintained the buildings and grounds. Impressively researched and vividly told, this is a captivating portrait of courage and resilience in the face of unspeakable horror. (June)

From the Publisher

"In The School that Escaped the Nazis, the British author and BBC television producer, Deborah Cadbury, provides a persuasive portrait of Anna Essinger as a lesser known heroine of the Holocaust and someone who deserves broader recognition…With her mix of idealism, pragmatism, determination and hesed – the Hebrew word for loving kindness – Essinger continues to set a compassionate example as we go about healing the newest generation of traumatised youths…"—Wall Street Journal

“[A] devastatingly affecting and moving book.”—The Times UK

“Deborah Cadbury tells the story of Anna Essinger and her extraordinary school very well. To one pupil, who had witnessed shocking violence in Germany, Bunce Court seemed like ‘paradise’. Cadbury’s book shows just why he thought that.”—The Daily Mail

“[F]ascinating and moving.”—The Guardian

“This is a thrilling and fascinating biography readers will no doubt find inspirational.”—BookRiot, “Best Biographies of 2022”

“A stirring account of a German schoolteacher’s efforts to build an oasis for children fleeing the Nazi advance across Europe. . . .  Impressively researched and vividly told, this is a captivating portrait of courage and resilience in the face of unspeakable horror.”—Publishers Weekly

“An inspiring, well-researched life portrait of a spectacularly heroic teacher.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Cadbury (Princes at War, 2015) tells the story of this remarkable school and its courageous leader as she details the lives of many of the children who made their way out of horror to a safe haven.”—Booklist

“This is an atmospheric portrait of an inspiring moment in dark times.”—The Sydney Morning Herald

“Quaker educators will value this historic account of Anna Essinger and colleagues who met the crisis during a dark moment in history and kept the lights on. The School That Escaped the Nazis illumines how a prepared group of adults transformed the hearts and minds of traumatized children.” —Friends Journal

“[Cadbury] does justice to this moving tale, whose narrative twists and turns and colorful characters would make a great movie.”—Forward

“What gives this book its immediacy and freshness is the fact that Deborah Cadbury has spoken to so many of the witnesses to a phenomenal story. The woman who brought an entire school to Kent from Germany, and saved so many children from the Nazis, was a completely heroic figure. This story is an uplifting reminder of how courage, high virtue, and intelligence can overcome even the most appalling odds. At many points, with tearful eyes, I cheered—it is a book which stirs up deep emotion, and high admiration, for the author as well as its subject.”—A. N. Wilson, author of The Mystery of Charles Dickens

“Anna Essinger’s wartime school for Jewish refugees reminds us of the lifelong impact which one person’s compassion and imagination can make on others—even in the darkest of times. Cadbury’s story packs a real emotional punch.”—Caroline Shenton, author of National Treasures

Library Journal

05/01/2022

By now, almost everyone has heard the Talmudic teaching "whoever saves one life saves the world entire," famously repeated in the movie Schindler's List. During the grim years of World War II, stories such as Oskar Schindler's are the small bright lights in a world of death and destruction. The story of Anna Essinger and her school, relocated from Germany to England, saved the lives of dozens of Jewish children fortunate enough to have been sent there by their parents. Her dedication, resourcefulness, and deep sense of morality kept the institution she founded going through the very worst of times. In Cadbury's book, readers come to know in a very real way a woman whose dedication was not merely to educating but healing young lives. She seemed to intuit in the 1930s and '40s how to care for children and young people we would now say suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is a stunning read. VERDICT Cadbury's captivating book enhances an already voluminous body of WWII writing and is a testament to the best humanity has to offer. It has the potential to be a book club favorite.—Brett Rohlwing

JUNE 2022 - AudioFile

Julie Teal carefully narrates the story of principal Anna Essinger, a woman of unflinching spirit who was determined to save the children in her school in Nazi Germany. With impeccable English that shifts effortlessly to flawless German, Teal creates a well-paced depiction of “Tante Anna,” whose prescient decision to move her school and students beyond Nazi reach—from Herrlingen, Germany, to Kent, England, in the early 1930s—proved to be a salvation for many. Letting each unsparing detail of Nazi cruelty land with listeners, Teal also weaves in accounts of other students across Europe, including Jewish boy Sam Oliner of Poland, who hid “in plain sight” until he finally made his way to England and to Essinger—the principal whose love of children never wavered. D.H.R. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2022-04-05
A Holocaust-era biography about a courageous educator who, like many, found it impossible to see “how humanity could progress in the kind of society Hitler was making.”

Though Anna Essinger (1879-1960) is largely forgotten, BBC producer Cadbury’s compelling, often disturbing narrative will convince readers of her historical significance. Traveling to the U.S. at age 20, Essinger obtained a degree in education and inspiration from Quaker humanitarian values. Returning to impoverished post–World War I Germany, she worked in famine relief and visited schools, which employed almost militarily strict methods. In 1926, Essinger opened a progressive school where children and teachers lived together, sharing responsibility for education as well as discipline. It succeeded and received praise from local educational authorities. Most of the students were Jewish (as was Essinger). When Hitler took power in 1933, most German Jews temporized, but the prescient Essinger immediately determined to move her school to Britain. Remarkably, she was able to bring 70 children to Bunce Court, an impressive if run-down country manor. After much labor from staff and students, the school took off, as Essinger was able to integrate the school “into the British educational system while retaining its essential uniqueness.” Soon, desperate Jewish families inside Germany were pleading with Essinger to accept their children. Although always near bankruptcy, she kept the school open against overwhelming odds. In addition to lauding Essinger’s dedication, Cadbury emphasizes the school’s superior education. Students delivered lectures and performed plays, concerts, and operas for the community. After the end of the war, the school accepted survivors from Nazi-occupied Europe, and most thrived. Cadbury devotes a few chapters to their experiences, passages that emphasize the loathsomeness of Nazi behavior. Elderly and infirm, Essinger closed the school in 1948, but graduates continued to relish their experience and hold reunions. Mused one former student, “I can never understand why more schools are not run on a similar basis.”

An inspiring, well-researched life portrait of a spectacularly heroic teacher.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176045994
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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