Hitler’s Canary is an extraordinary children’s story written by Sandi Toksvig based on stories told to her by her father who was a child in Denmark when the Nazi’s invaded the country during the Second World War.
The book starts with some lovely stories of Denmark before the war. It sets up the characters so we know who is who and what everyone was interested in doing and how they interacted before war came. The story is told through the eyes of the child Bamse (based on Sandi’s father). Bamse has a wonderful family. A theatrical mother who believes there is a costume for every occasion in life who is always in a production on the stage, ideally some Shakespeare. Bamse’s father is a painter and a cartoonist who paints the sets for the plays. Bamse also has two siblings in their teens.
There are many characters captured in the book who make up the supporting players. People on the fringes of the family’s life who are very important to the family. The mother’s friend Thomas who always plays alongside her on stage and in life. Uncle Johan and Bamse’s best friend Anton and their family who live nearby. It’s a very close knit community where people care and look out for each other. Then one night the planes arrive with the Swastikas on the side.
The world is turned completely on its side when the Germans arrive. Everything has changed and yet many things must go on as before. The children go to school and the adults to work. But cracks form in families as views differ on how best to handle the occupation and on how much it is safe to push back against the invaders. It shows a fascinating picture of what would any of us do if this happened to us?
The book has a slow start. The beginning did feel like having multiple characters lined up for your consideration with no apparent plot. There was a lot of showing who a person was with the narrator clearly looking back as an adult upon their child years. I wasn’t very keen on the early section but I was very keen on the book by the end. It was worth persevering with.
What follows is a fascinating and personal story of a family’s time of war and a series of incredible acts of bravery during a very difficult period of the world’s history. Bamse becomes more and more aware as the war goes on of what it really means that his best friend is Jewish and the risk of what could and might happen to him. The bravery of the characters of the book is inspiring, even more so as they are based on real people.
It’s a brave story to tell and a brave story to write. Sandi doesn’t shy away from being very clear about what is happening to the Jews in this time period and the worst of what was going on. The book isn’t made nicer for children, it says exactly what happened. Given what happens and the personal nature of this being her family’s story it is told with particular kindness and a total lack of bias. The book begins and ends with a reminder that not all Germans were bad and not all Danes were good and that it wasn’t that simple. There are examples of this throughout. The characters are all people plunged into an unexpected and unwelcome war. All any of us can do is what we think is right and what will keep our families safe. Sometimes those two things are at odds with one another.
A spectacular capture of a family’s story of war. A tribute to her father and his family and an attempt to capture these stories for her own son and to share them with the world. These are important stories to hear and to share and it was an honour to read this book. It captures something of the time and preserves it for those of us who had no idea what happened. I thought I had a good understanding of the war from many years of history lessons but I knew nothing about Denmark’s part in the war. I’m very glad that I now do. Well worth a read.
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