1953 gave an unparalleled opportunity for children and adults to gain an insight into
survival; Anne’s buoyant outlook provides an inspiration to many on the meaning of life
itself. The fact that war affects everyone was shown through a German family’s
experiences in Margot Benary-Isbert’s The Ark (German, 1953).
The ability to laugh at oneself and one’s institutions is as important for children as for
adults, and perhaps the best example is Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking (1950) and
its sequels, and Edith Unnerstad’s Little O (Swedish, 1957).
Through the 1960s and into the 1980s, a more stable atmosphere encouraged
publishers to expand their horizons, resulting in a ‘golden age’ of translation. The vast
majority of books translated into English during this period originated from Western
European countries (White 1991), and included the emergence of writing about the war.
Without question Anne Holm’s I am David (Danish, 1965, translated by L.W.Kingsland)
and Hans Peter Richter’s Freidrich (German, 1970) are outstanding, the first a journey
across wartime Europe, the other the account of two German boys, one of Jewish
descent.
Richter has written two other outstanding accounts of life during the Third Reich: two
friends, Heinz and Gunter witness the changing ethos in I Was There (1972) and a 17-
year-old officer survives three disillusioning years in the army in a hauntingly realistic
account, Time of the Young Soldiers (1976). The war is also reflected in Jap ter Haar’s
account of the siege of Leningrad in Boris (Dutch, 1970), of partisans in Yevgeny Ryss’s
Search Behind the Lines (Russian, 1974), and escape with a baby through enemy lines in
Vasil Bykov’s Pack of Wolves (Russian, 1981), a glimpse of war’s impact on friendships
in Evert Hartman’s War Without Friends (Dutch, 1982) and Else Pelgrom’s The Winter
When Time Was Frozen (Dutch, 1980), life in the Polish Ghetto in Joseph Ziemian’s The
Cigarette Sellers of Three Crosses Square (Polish, 1975), and an overwhelming account
of young boys in Athens during the Nazi occupation in Alki Zei’s Petros’ War (Greek,
1972). A novel which deals with war in Israel is Uiel Ofek’s Smoke Over Golan (Hebrew,
1979), while the post-war scene there is dramatically portrayed in Uri Orlev’s The Island
on Bird Street (Hebrew, 1983), as a young boy hides out in a damaged building waiting
for his father to return.
Two picture books, designed for older readers, have helped to show the impact of war
on people. These are accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima in Toshi Maruki’s Hiroshima
No Pika (Japanese, 1882) and the changing war scene in a southern German town in
Christope Gallanz and Roberto Innocenti’s Rose Blanche (Italian, 1985).
During this period, many writers were beginning to address the social problems of the
times. Although considered rather tame in comparison to their British and American
counterparts, they did address such issues as: hiding a mentally challenged brother so
he would not be placed in a home, as in Friis-Bastad’s Don’t Take Teddy (Norwegian,
1967); the growing pains of a girl (Mia, Swedish, 1974) and a boy (A Room of his Own,
Swedish, 1973) by Gunnel Beckman; a mentally handicapped youngster in Bo
Carpelan’s Dolphins in the City (Swedish, 1976); a night time baby-sitter for a mother
who is a nurse, in Maria Gripe’s The Night Daddy (Swedish, 1971); an ageing
grandparent in Peter Härtling’s Oma (German, 1977) and Elfie Donnelly’s So Long,
Grandpa (German, 1981); and a changing family structure in Kerstin Thorvall’s And
516 THE CONTEXT OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE