I would first like to thank Netgalley for granting me permission to read an early access copy of the book The School that Escaped the Nazi's by Deborah Cadbury. The School that Escaped the Nazis is a Historical Non-Fiction book about a Jewish Teacher in Germany named Anna Essinger (Tanta Anna) who decides to defy Hitler and his Nazi Ideology by moving her school and her students to another country where the students could be free from oppression and allowed to focus on their education. I was surprised by how early her escape was in the book. When I first read the description of the book I thought that the escape would be taking place later on., However, Anna was was every smart and could see what the was happening to her country and realized that from there it could only get worse and now was the time to leave. The way that she ran her school was so interesting. It makes me wonder why there are not more schools like Bunce Court in existence. Especially considering the success rate that her students had after they left the school. The Kinder-transports really did save many children's lives. I'm surprised that there have not been a lot movies or television series about them. It's a miracle how many children were saved on those transports. Overall, the book did an excellent job detailing the students and the teachers life at the school and as refugees. This book sis a must read for History lovers and for people who are going into education to become teachers. A lot can be learned from how Tanta Ann taught in her school. I would give this book a five out of five stars.

Deborah Cadbury’s The School That Escaped the Nazis relates the story of Anna Essinger, called Tante Anna, a German Jewish woman who moved her progressive school from Ulm, Germany, to England before the start of the Second World War. For years she spoke out against the rise of Hitler, but the last straw for Anna was the requirement that she fly the Nazi swastika from her school. She planned out her escape, taking many students with her to England to restart her school in a more accepting atmosphere. From the first seventy students who joined her new venture, to the students who arrived during the Kindertransports in the nine months prior to the war, to the students who joined the school after the war ended, Cadbury presents the picture of a woman who does everything in her power to show these children what life can be outside of Germany and away from Nazism.

Cadbury sums up her book well in her conclusion, stating, “[Tante Anna’s] story could easily be lost to us, existing as it does principally in the minds of her elderly former students. She has been overlooked by a history frequently beguiled by male-dominated narratives of power and decision-makes. But Anna’s story arguably stands for the efforts of generations of women in history. She is a symbol of caring and loving; qualities that are just as important in shaping human history though much more easily overlooked.”

The School That Escaped the Nazis is exhaustive in its research and puts the story of Anna’s school in the context of the history of the Second World War. One of the sections I found most compelling was the British reaction to having this group of German people in their midst when war began. At times, this book read like fiction in that I found myself not wanting to put it down, but to find out what happened to certain characters.
That being said, I did have a few quibbles with this work. First, I think there was too much detail. That seems a strange thing to say, but there were times while reading this when I asked myself what the point was of a certain account. Eventually, I would find out, but sometimes not until one hundred pages later. I also don’t think it was necessary to know the nicknames of every single staff member. I found this to be a bit distracting, although I understand the author was sharing details like this to humanize the characters.

Second, the book could have benefited from a better edit. I try not to review a book based on its grammatical errors—every author has missed typos—but there were just too many for me to ignore here. I often found sentences with words mixed up, along with some misspellings throughout (for example was the teacher’s name “Gwynne” or “Gywnne”? I’m not certain, because it was spelled both ways quite often).

In the end, these critiques are minor, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn about this pioneering woman who saved a group of German Jewish children from the atrocities of Nazi Germany.