Many writers of books for children and adolescents struggled to get their work published in exile. As exiled children and young people were often quick to learn the language of their country of refuge, opportunities to have (old and new) works translated were also particularly important. Furthermore, writers of books for children and adolescents often worked in isolation. The plan to set up a working group for networking purposes, which had been proposed at the First International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture in Paris in 1935, never came to fruition. A manifesto-like text such as the “Kinderliteratur” (Children’s literature) article by Alex Wedding (i.e. Grete Weiskopf) in the literary magazine “Das Wort” (1937) – in which the author calls for a socialist focus in children’s literature – remained an isolated exception.

In contrast to Nazi literature, which aimed to turn children and young people into unquestioning vassals, values such as humanism, cosmopolitanism and solidarity are at the forefront of the works by exiled writers. Alongside themes such as adventure, family and friendship or encounters with other cultures, many works written in exile also began to reflect on the experience of exile and war, the loss of home and new beginnings.

Authors who wrote exclusively for children and young people included Auguste Lazar, Ruth Rewald, Lisa Tetzner and Alex Wedding. Others wrote occasionally for children and young people, or wrote works that were intended for both adolescents and adults. These included Bertolt Brecht, Willi Bredel, Elisabeth Castonier, Maria Gleit, Iwan Heilbut, Anna Maria Jokl, Mascha Kaléko, Irmgard Keun, Kurt Held (Kurt Klaeber), Maria Leitner, Jella Lepman, Erika Mann, Hermynia zur Mühlen, Maria Osten, Hertha Pauli, Felix Salten, Walter Schönstedt, Anna Seghers, Margarete Steffin, Adrienne Thomas and Erich Weinert. The illustrators of works of literature for children and young people included Lea Grundig, Fritz Kredel, Erna Pinner, Ricarda Schwerin, Walter Trier and Hellmuth Weissenborn.

A strand of exile research focusing on literature for children and young people was only established relatively late on, in the 1990s.

Further reading:
Fernengel, Astrid: Kinderliteratur im Exil. Im „modernen Dschungel einer aufgelösten Welt“. Marburg: Textum 2008.