S.O.S. GENF. MIT 40 ZEICHNUNGEN
Zürich, Humanitas Verlag, No Date [1937-38]. Item #42906
1st edition. Original Publisher’s cloth, 8vo, 256 pages. Includes 40 illustrations by Susel Bischoff.Spalek & Srelka (Deutschsprachige Exilliterature seit 1933, New York; I:794ff; Deutschsprachige Exilliterature seit 1933, Bibliographien: USA p.1441). Sternfeld/Tiedemann pages 462 & 393.
Holocaust-era juvenile novel written by 2 Gay German Jewish exiles to promote peace and international cooperation on the eve of WW II. The story follows the adventures of a group of children who are evacuated from their homeland of Romania to Switzerland because their country is hit by a disastrous flood. In Switzerland they hear about the League of Nations set off to Geneva to ask for help for their country and their relatives. The children win support from many corners and, in the end, they win the support they were seeking–a metaphor for countries uniting to stop the flood that has already begun to hit Europe.
According to the jacket (not present here), the tale was written on a bet that the authors "could not write an exciting book about peace."
The jacket text continues, “Children of all ages will read the story with joy, and the educator who directs the gaze of young people away from the terrible current times and towards new possibilities will find this gift to be most welcome.”
Plant (aka Plaut) and Seidlin (aka Koplowitz) worked together on the book after fleeing Nazi Germany where they were in danger not only as Jews but also as open out homosexuals.
After emigrating to New York and Americanizing their names in 1938, Plant and Seidlin began intensive English language learning, part of which involved the writing of this very book. Both writers went on to long academic careers in the U.S., with Plant achieving prominence with his seminal study of the Nazi persecution of gay people, tiled, The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals (1986).
SUBJECT(S): Children -- Romania -- Juvenile fiction. Floods -- Inondations -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse. Switzerland -- Juvenile fiction. OCLC: 7358677. OCLC-Worldcat lists only 15 copies worldwide, none at any Ivy League institution and only 2 outside Europe (Cleveland Public, UOklahoma). A few small scuff marks to rear board, Very Good Condition, a very nice copy. (Holo2-162-17A-’+abcclex).
Price: $250.00