Friedrich (novel)

"Friedrich" pronounced "free-drick" (in orig. German "Damals war es Friedrich") (1961) is a novel about two boys and their families, one family who were Jewish, and another who is of Aryan heritage. They both live and grow together during Hitler's rise to power and reign. It is by the author Hans Peter Richter.

Plot introduction

The book begins with a description of Polycarp, a garden-gnome worshiped by a certain Herr Resch, the landlord of the two main families in the story. Friedrich is a young Jewish boy growing up in an apartment house in Germany. Though the story is told by his friend of Christian/Aryan nationalism, Friedrich is the protagonist. His friend tells of the persecution of the Jews through Friedrich's eyes. Friedrich gets expelled from school and is thrown out of swimming pools and movie theaters, his father gets fired and has an emotional breakdown, and the Nazis went to Friedrich's house and one of them pushed his mother really hard and she died. (See Pogrom). Friedrich then finds a girlfriend, Helga, and really likes her. Soon he cannot see her anymore or she would be sent to a concentration camp. Then Friedrich helps his father hide the rabbi in their house, but soon Friedrich's father and the rabbi get arrested. Soon an air raid happens. Friedrich begs to come in the air raid shelter, but is kicked out by the landlord, Herr Resch. After the raid, Friedrich's friend, his family, Herr Resch and his wife, return to the house. There they find the garden-gnome Polycarp who 'survived' the raid with only the tip of his hat broken. Herr Resch remarks that it is fixable. After checking out the area surrounding the house, the group notices Friedrich on the stoop, dead by shrapnel. The landlord kicks Friedrich and remarks that Friedrich has died a better death than was expected.