0:00:02 > 0:00:03Come on then, Puss, come on.
0:00:05 > 0:00:06Come on, then.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26AIR RAID SIREN
0:00:40 > 0:00:41CHILD SCREAMS
0:00:41 > 0:00:45- It's come to see you.- Oh, hello, hello then. It is the other one.
0:00:45 > 0:00:46They take it in turns.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Judith Kerr is one of our best loved children's writers and illustrators.
0:00:53 > 0:00:54She was born in Berlin,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58but had to flee with her family from the Nazis when she was nine.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02The dangers she has been through in life lie under
0:01:02 > 0:01:03the surface of her fiction.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Yet she creates a warm, safe world we can all respond to.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14She has just turned 90 and has published a memoir, Creatures.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20She is being feted in Britain where she has lived all her adult life.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23She is one of the great writers of children's literature,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27and not just in this country but throughout the world.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31She is a remarkable lady who has had the most remarkable life.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37And in that life, which has not been easy,
0:01:37 > 0:01:43she has produced the most extraordinary range of books.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Please, welcome the wonderful Judith Kerr!
0:01:46 > 0:01:48CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:02:20 > 0:02:23# Happy birthday to you
0:02:23 > 0:02:26# Happy birthday to you
0:02:26 > 0:02:30# Happy birthday dear Judith
0:02:30 > 0:02:35# Happy birthday to you! #
0:02:37 > 0:02:39She is totally unique.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45Her writing and her books are her absolute life.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49She is absolutely devoted to it.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52And she writes during the morning, then she has a little break
0:02:52 > 0:02:56for lunch, and I think a little sip of Martini,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59because she says it gives her a bit of sugar,
0:02:59 > 0:03:04and then she finishes like early evening and that is her regime.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06And she sticks to it.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11And she does an evening walk all the way around Barnes.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16It is over an hour's walk and there she is striding along, fantastic.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Toadstools.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42She is always walking down to the shops much faster than I ever do,
0:03:42 > 0:03:44rushing past us. I say, "Judith, hang on a minute."
0:03:44 > 0:03:47"Oh, OK," and she slows down and you have a chat.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50And we talk about all sorts of lovely things.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54She was our children's favourite authoress.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58All the Mog books, The Tiger Who Came To Tea,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01we've read vigorously, and excitedly every night,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04so she's very much part of our lives.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11We don't know that whole hinterland that Judith has.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14It was a nightmarish time that she came from.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18But this is a wonderful resource for children's writer.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22At these publishing dos, she is always the person
0:04:22 > 0:04:23I want to talk to
0:04:23 > 0:04:28because she is the most fun person there, usually.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33She is so much in the present. She is not living in the past.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36She has an immediate reaction to things.
0:04:36 > 0:04:43That's what makes her feel like such an optimistic person.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46She is kind of squeezing every ounce out of the day.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Hey, Judith, are you trying to have a race?
0:04:56 > 0:05:00- You steam up those stairs every morning...- Yes.- ..at a pace.- Yes.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07Is this is where you've worked for 50 years, more or less?
0:05:07 > 0:05:0940-odd years, yes.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12When we first moved here, I was looking after the children
0:05:12 > 0:05:16when they were small, so I couldn't work then.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20But, yes, I love this room.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Everything I've done, I've done on this thing.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31I don't know what would happen if I had to work anywhere else.
0:05:31 > 0:05:32I don't know if I could.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35What are you working on now?
0:05:35 > 0:05:38I thought of doing this book,
0:05:38 > 0:05:42much of which takes place in a sort of jungle, and I thought, because
0:05:42 > 0:05:46I am not good at trees and things, and I thought I can't do that.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50But then I thought, Rousseau, if I look at Rousseau,
0:05:50 > 0:05:55- if I think of Rousseau, I might be able to do it.- Jungles in cities.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Yes, he is a wonderful man.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02- And Chagall.- The fantasy?
0:06:02 > 0:06:10Yes, there is a lot of flying in Chagall, couples and animals flying.
0:06:16 > 0:06:17Yes, that is Chagall.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20I mean, it is not Chagall, God knows, it is not Chagall,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23but he has lovers floating.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27It just seemed the right thing for this book.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33"They think I am sitting in this chair just waiting for my tea.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37"In fact, I'm flying through the air with Henry holding me.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42"My Henry died and went to heaven, but now he's got his wings.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47"They let him out from 4 till 7, and we do all sorts of things."
0:06:47 > 0:06:48JUDITH CHUCKLES
0:06:50 > 0:06:54I mean, this is the great thing about doing a book like this,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57is that you don't have a plot.
0:06:57 > 0:07:03You can just pick something that amuses you and do it,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06and particularly if it rhymes.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11"It's things we've never tried before, they are the greatest fun,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14"like riding on a dinosaur which I had never done."
0:07:17 > 0:07:22You see an old lady sitting there and you think, that's
0:07:22 > 0:07:26just an old lady, and she has got all that going on inside her,
0:07:26 > 0:07:32because she has had a life, which may have been very ordinary.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36It should have been very ordinary, but it was marvellous to her.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40'Judith's husband, known as Tom,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43'the writer Nigel Kneale, died seven years ago.'
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Like everything else you have written, in a way,
0:07:47 > 0:07:53all your books are kind of autobiographical, all of them.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55And My Henry, of course,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59is about this afterlife you are living with Tom.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04Yes, I didn't mean particularly with Tom, I just meant any very
0:08:04 > 0:08:07happily married couple.
0:08:08 > 0:08:14I know so many widows and on the whole,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17the people who have been happiest,
0:08:17 > 0:08:24in some ways find it almost easier because one has had all that.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28It makes one stronger, I think.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35There's a picture there of, I take it, your father and mother,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39- and you and your brother Michael. - Yes, yes.
0:08:39 > 0:08:40That must have been in Berlin?
0:08:40 > 0:08:45It was in Berlin and I had just inherited my brother's tricycle,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49which was iron, as they were in those days, very, very heavy.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55I found that for the first time I could turn corners in it.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00And so when they said, come and have this photograph taken, I thought
0:09:00 > 0:09:07now, I must look like somebody who can turn corners on a tricycle.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10And that the expression of somebody who can go round
0:09:10 > 0:09:12corners on a tricycle!
0:09:15 > 0:09:16You are still the child, aren't you,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20somehow one feels that you are still inside that child's head.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24I don't know. I don't know.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31I feel much the same as I did then.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34I wanted to draw things and look at things
0:09:34 > 0:09:36and thought the world was very beautiful.
0:09:38 > 0:09:44Which I do more than ever now, because one does when one is old.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Judith's life's work is stored at this archive in Newcastle,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55the National Centre for Children's Books.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03They are holding a retrospective of Judith's life and work.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07German snakes and ladders. It's fantastic!
0:10:10 > 0:10:14Before the War, her father was a leading Jewish intellectual
0:10:14 > 0:10:18in Berlin, and her mother, 30 years his junior, was a composer.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25Judith has written a string of books based upon their experiences.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44These are drawings Judith did in Germany,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46before she left aged just nine.
0:10:48 > 0:10:54Now this one is the big city of Berlin, tram and cars.
0:10:56 > 0:10:57I remember doing this.
0:10:59 > 0:11:04I remember drawing this lady there with a newspaper
0:11:04 > 0:11:11and I've put "BT" because that was my father's paper that he
0:11:11 > 0:11:13wrote for, Berliner Tageblatt.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20There are some quite good back views of people, with fur collars,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23on their coats, and she's got a parcel.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27That's pure sort of '20s getup.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34I don't seem to have been able to draw noses, side view.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38They seem to have very little in the way of noses.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43But the sort of movement is all right.
0:11:46 > 0:11:52And here, you see, this one, I think we'd been to some kind of fair.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58I think that must be a stall where you could win things,
0:11:58 > 0:12:00because there seems to be a toy lamb hung up.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Oh, yes, and there's somebody shooting at a target.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13My brother and I were each given, I think it was a bit of paper,
0:12:13 > 0:12:18which meant we could go on everything free. And it was unbelievable.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22And then we lost it and we thought the world was over,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25everything was finished, but they just gave us another one!
0:12:27 > 0:12:30As a child, you always have worries
0:12:30 > 0:12:33and secret things that you think about.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41I remember very clearly drawing these children on the slide and
0:12:41 > 0:12:48I drew this one, who is sliding, you know, as you do with your feet front,
0:12:48 > 0:12:52and another one on his stomach, and then there had to be a third one
0:12:52 > 0:12:54and I knew it had to be different
0:12:54 > 0:12:57and I remember thinking about it very hard,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01and then coming up with the idea of her having knees bent
0:13:01 > 0:13:05and hair flying out behind and it totally worked.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07I remember being terribly pleased.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13One doesn't really change in these matters, I don't think.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27This is a good one, actually, I remember being obsessed with
0:13:27 > 0:13:32trying to draw children and people going in a circle.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36The difficulty is always the child at the edge,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41the ones at the front of the circle, you have back views, and the ones at
0:13:41 > 0:13:43the back you have front views,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45but the ones at the side are of sort of tricky.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52A girl here who is sort of tilting slightly
0:13:52 > 0:13:54as though she's really dancing.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58This is obviously a great party.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03Men all wearing top hats and the ladies dressed rather splendidly.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08And I like this man sitting on the grass and smoking a cigarette.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15And this, I think, was a sort of lantern with a little candle inside.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22We used to have them a lot as children, and bunting.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32It was purely a very joyful time, must have been.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36At least, that's all I drew at that time.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41But this was my world in Berlin.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46It seems to be all shopping and parties!
0:14:48 > 0:14:54It's very touching that these are pictures I did before we left
0:14:54 > 0:15:02Berlin and my mother had to pack a few cases in a great rush because...
0:15:03 > 0:15:05We had to leave in a great hurry
0:15:05 > 0:15:07and it was all dangerous.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10I still find it extraordinary
0:15:10 > 0:15:13that, with all the things she had to try and remember to pack,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16she packed my best drawings,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18which she was quite proud of.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Her father was a leading writer and theatre critic
0:15:24 > 0:15:26and in the Germany of the '20s and '30s,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29that was inevitably political.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Pre-war Berlin was a wonderfully diverse city,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46a cultural hub and the family were in the thick of it.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51But it was also under the shadow of a rising Nazi Party.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54While they lived here, her father was in great danger.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02"She did not remember the streets, only the feel of them.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05"She and her brother Max walking home after dark.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08"Playing a game of jumping on each other's shadows
0:16:08 > 0:16:11"as they slid and leapt between one street lamp and the next.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15"Herself thinking, 'This is the best game we've ever played,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19" 'we'll play it always, always, always.' "
0:16:37 > 0:16:41By 1932, Alfred Kerr had to have bodyguards to go to work
0:16:41 > 0:16:45and was said to be second on the Nazis' death list.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50The family fled this house the very day before Hitler took power.
0:16:50 > 0:16:51It has haunted her imagination.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59"Suddenly, Anna remembered their old house
0:16:59 > 0:17:01"so vividly she could almost see it.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03"In her mind,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06"she walked right through the house from top through to bottom.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10"But it was no use going on going on thinking about it,
0:17:10 > 0:17:12"so she closed her eyes and went to sleep."
0:17:22 > 0:17:23Hello.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34"It was hardly recognisable, it had been extended so much.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36"Then she noticed something unchanged -
0:17:36 > 0:17:38"the steps leading up to the front door
0:17:38 > 0:17:40"were exactly as she remembered them.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42"The steepness, the colour of the stone,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44"all exactly as it had been.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50"She stared at it, remembering how after school she had raced up there,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53"pulling at the bell, shouting, 'Is mummy home?'
0:17:54 > 0:17:56"A small person did not say, 'Is mummy home?' -
0:17:56 > 0:17:58"she said, 'Ist mama da?'
0:17:59 > 0:18:02"Anna felt shaken by her sudden emergence."
0:18:17 > 0:18:19I used to sit up there and draw.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24And once I fell down the steps.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28In a way...
0:18:31 > 0:18:35..it's as though it had happened to somebody else, you know.
0:18:35 > 0:18:36I...
0:18:38 > 0:18:41The only thing that's the same, I feel is exactly the same,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44is that person who used to sit up there and draw.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56And...
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Once, in a very, very brief religious phase I had,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07I thought I ought to sacrifice one of my drawings to God.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13And first I was going to tear it up, but then I thought that was a pity.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17And so then I thought, "Well, he might not even want it"
0:19:17 > 0:19:20so I shut my eyes and threw it in the air and said,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23"Here you are, God" and I waited a long time,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26but he didn't take it, so I put it back.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31I thought, "We don't want to waste it, really" -
0:19:31 > 0:19:32it was quite a good drawing.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46It was a different world though.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50I suppose it always is, wherever you were aged nine is a different world.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54But this is extra different, I suppose.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01- Guten tag.- Guten tag.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59This street, the sort of feeling of the street, is much the same.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04I never really missed it that much, but my poor parents...
0:21:11 > 0:21:13SONG IN GERMAN
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Before the Nazis came,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Alfred Kerr was really the most influential critic in Berlin.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34Berlin was the capital and he was the most important person.
0:21:35 > 0:21:41He, very early on, understands that the Nazis are an evil influence,
0:21:41 > 0:21:46so he campaigns against the Nazi regime.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48And puts himself at risk.
0:21:48 > 0:21:49Yes, he did.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52These Jewish intellectuals like Alfred Kerr,
0:21:52 > 0:21:57they immediately understood that this was an attack...
0:21:57 > 0:21:59on the whole humanity,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01not only on themselves,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05and they were, in a way, followers of the great poet Heinrich Heine,
0:22:05 > 0:22:10who had said, "When there are books to be burned,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13"human beings will be burned afterwards."
0:22:15 > 0:22:20And, of course, Alfred Kerr's books were burned in '33
0:22:20 > 0:22:23in the famous Autodafe
0:22:23 > 0:22:26that Goebbels directed.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30CHILDREN PLAY INSIDE
0:22:38 > 0:22:43"The Nazis certainly are very stupid", said Uncle Julius.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46"How could you possibly be an enemy of Germany?"
0:22:46 > 0:22:48"You know, of course, they burned all your books.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51"I was in very good company", said Papa.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54"What books?" asked Anna.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57"I thought the Nazis had just taken all our things,
0:22:57 > 0:22:59"I didn't know they're burned them!"
0:22:59 > 0:23:03"These were not the books your father owned", said Uncle Julius.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05"They were the books he's written."
0:23:05 > 0:23:07How attached do you think he was to Germany?
0:23:07 > 0:23:11How difficult was it for him, do you think, to leave Germany?
0:23:11 > 0:23:14For Alfred Kerr, like many of his companions,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18of course it was a heartbreak, it was a shock.
0:23:18 > 0:23:19Because then...
0:23:19 > 0:23:23they not only lost their country, they lost their language,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25and this was his instrument.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31- This is from the Deutsches Theater. - Oh, yes.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35And it must be in 1930.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Alfred Kerr, he's sitting in the first line.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41He was a famous man in this time.
0:23:43 > 0:23:44And then here...
0:23:46 > 0:23:47..is this Alfred and Judith?
0:23:47 > 0:23:49This is his daughter Judith.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54He was 66 when he had to emigrate.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58- You can see that this is an older father as well.- Yes.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02An amazing picture and taken when...
0:24:02 > 0:24:05he was obliged to go to Prague and leave his family behind.
0:24:06 > 0:24:12He'd been warned by somebody he'd never met - a policeman -
0:24:12 > 0:24:15that they were trying to take his passport away.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19I couldn't understand where he'd gone overnight.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22He wanted us all out of Germany before the elections
0:24:22 > 0:24:25because he thought they'd hang onto us to get him back.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30And my mother told us that we would be leaving as well.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38My immediate reaction was, "Oh, yes, I hope so."
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Because I thought it would be so exciting.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46My mother said, on the last day at school,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49at the end of the day I was to tell my teacher
0:24:49 > 0:24:51that I wouldn't be coming to school next day
0:24:51 > 0:24:54because we were going to Switzerland.
0:24:56 > 0:24:57So I did that...
0:24:59 > 0:25:03This I do remember, I think the classrooms are off to the left.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08My teacher...
0:25:08 > 0:25:10I don't think she was that surprised.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25My mother said,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29"When we get to the frontier, a man comes to look at our passports,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33"I want both of you to be absolutely silent, you're not to say a word."
0:25:42 > 0:25:45So when we got to the frontier, the man came
0:25:45 > 0:25:50and looked at all the passports and, as he went out, I burst out.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53I was going to say, "There you are, nothing's happened"
0:25:53 > 0:25:57and my mother just gave me a terrible look, so I stopped.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02And I think now, you know...
0:26:02 > 0:26:04what I might have done to my family.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11My father went to Zurich from Prague and he was there to meet us
0:26:11 > 0:26:12at the station.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20And he told me afterwards that...
0:26:20 > 0:26:24the 20 minutes or so that he spent waiting for the train
0:26:24 > 0:26:27were the worst 20 minutes of his life.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36"All the famous people had had what was called a difficult childhood.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40"Clearly you had to have one if you wanted to become famous.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43"As the train rumbled through Germany in the darkness,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46"she kept thinking, 'Difficult childhood, difficult childhood' ".
0:26:54 > 0:26:57They were refugees and desperately short of money.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02In 1934, marooned in Paris,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05her father wrote to his friend Einstein for help.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11He had the plan to go to America and ask Einstein, who was there,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14if he could help him.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18He's opening himself, his heart up, to Einstein
0:27:18 > 0:27:20and telling him of his problems,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24and then there's a letter in reply from Einstein.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:27:30 > 0:27:34I was shattered to receive your letter, is what he's saying.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:27:37 > 0:27:40I am so comfortable here where I am by the sea,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42and you're having such a terrible time.
0:27:42 > 0:27:43Yeah. Exactly.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47But America would not let them in.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50The letters...
0:27:50 > 0:27:54from my mother to my father are totally shattering.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57A lot of talk of suicide,
0:27:57 > 0:28:02even one from my father to somebody saying...
0:28:02 > 0:28:05"I'm sorry I haven't written, but...
0:28:05 > 0:28:06"I've been...
0:28:08 > 0:28:10"..frantic, really...
0:28:12 > 0:28:15"..because my wife's talk of suicide,
0:28:15 > 0:28:20"not just for herself, but the children as well.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23"I've had to be terribly careful."
0:28:26 > 0:28:29I saw the date on it and I said,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32"I just learned to speak French at that point."
0:28:32 > 0:28:36And the thought of all that being wasted was very, very annoying.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42The worries must have been terrible.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47My mother was either very happy or very despairing.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52But she was wonderful, I mean, she got us out.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58One doesn't know what one would do in those circumstances.
0:29:02 > 0:29:03This picture of your mother...
0:29:03 > 0:29:04Yes.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06..did you paint this?
0:29:06 > 0:29:07Yes, I did.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12There is something about this, there's real sadness in her eyes.
0:29:13 > 0:29:14Yes.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19She was the one who really had the hardest time
0:29:19 > 0:29:22because my father...
0:29:22 > 0:29:24had had a very full life
0:29:24 > 0:29:29and had a great talent for happiness.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32He was looking at things all the time,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35and if you do that you don't despair.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41He would think "Yes, this is bad, but it's interesting."
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Just like you, Judith, you're always looking.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47If you make things, I think you do
0:29:47 > 0:29:52because there's this awful thing in one that always thinks,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55"Oh, that might come in useful one day."
0:29:55 > 0:29:56Isn't there?
0:30:05 > 0:30:08"She did not care what England was like,
0:30:08 > 0:30:09"just as long as they got there.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16"A kind but incomprehensible porter
0:30:16 > 0:30:18"put them on the slow train to London.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25" 'Where are we now?' Asks Mama.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28"Anna spelled out the name of an illuminated sign.
0:30:28 > 0:30:29" 'Bovril.' She said.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34" 'It can't be,' said Max, 'the last place we stopped was called Bovril.'
0:30:34 > 0:30:35"Mama looked for herself.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37" 'It's an advertisement,' she said,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40" 'Bovril is some kind of English food.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42" 'I think they eat it with stewed fruit.' "
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Judith was 13 when they arrived in London in 1936.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56They lived in a small hotel on this site.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59It was bombed out of existence during the Blitz.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10"As she picked her way among the fragments of glass
0:31:10 > 0:31:12"scattered on the pavement,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15"she noticed how the sun sparkled on them.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18"Her legs were brown from the endless fine weather
0:31:18 > 0:31:20"and she suddenly wanted to run and jump.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23"How awful to feel like this, she thought,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25"when people had been killed.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28"But suddenly she could feel nothing
0:31:28 > 0:31:31"but a huge happiness at still being alive."
0:31:35 > 0:31:37After 1940,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40then the Germans were at Dunkirk.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Well, we thought that was the end.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45I didn't think I would ever grow up
0:31:45 > 0:31:48or be able to do anything I wanted to do.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52Nor did everybody else.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55They were just waiting for the invasion.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Is it true that your parents had suicide pills...
0:31:58 > 0:32:01- Yes. - ..prepared?- Yes, because...
0:32:03 > 0:32:04Well...
0:32:04 > 0:32:09my father would have had very special treatment by the Nazis and...
0:32:10 > 0:32:14..so Doctor, a friend of ours gave him suicide pills.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18And I said, "What about me?"
0:32:18 > 0:32:22And they said, "Well, you speak perfect English,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25"you may be able to survive."
0:32:27 > 0:32:31"One day Anna discovered a rusty car with no wheels
0:32:31 > 0:32:33"and two broken bedsteads dumped in
0:32:33 > 0:32:36"the middle of the grass of Russell Square.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38"The hotel porter explained to her
0:32:38 > 0:32:40"that it was to stop German parachuters from landing.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45" 'Could they really land in Russell Square? There doesn't seem room.'
0:32:45 > 0:32:47" 'There's no knowing what they can't do.'
0:32:51 > 0:32:54"Anna tried not to think about them.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56"But sometimes at night her guard slipped
0:32:56 > 0:32:59"and she saw them dropping silently down among
0:32:59 > 0:33:01"the trees of Russell Square.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07"They set off toward the Hotel Continental
0:33:07 > 0:33:08"to look for Jews."
0:33:17 > 0:33:20Back in Germany of course, things were far worse.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24Before she was forced to flee Berlin,
0:33:24 > 0:33:26Judith often came to the zoo here.
0:33:26 > 0:33:27Look at that?
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Isn't that marvellous?
0:33:29 > 0:33:32They always look as though they are smiling.
0:33:37 > 0:33:38Hello, then.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40Hello.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42Look at this face.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45I mean, look at this, this is a person.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47Yes.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49That's one of us.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56He's looking at our world.
0:33:56 > 0:33:57- Isn't he?- He is.- Yes.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02With the hand, that's us.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Judith used to come to this zoo with a family friend,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12who in her books she calls Uncle Julius.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18In the book When Hitler Stole The Pink Rabbit,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21Uncle Julius has a sort of sad end, doesn't he?
0:34:21 > 0:34:22Yes.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25He always went to the zoo. He loved it.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29And he had a Jewish grandmother
0:34:29 > 0:34:32and so they took away his pass to the zoo,
0:34:32 > 0:34:36and I think that was the last straw,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39apparently that's when he killed himself.
0:34:41 > 0:34:42So that was a true story?
0:34:42 > 0:34:44Yes.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Apparently in 1938,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52they made a law that Jewish families couldn't keep pets,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57and they had to be collected, you weren't allowed to kill your pet,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59you had to hand it over
0:34:59 > 0:35:03and you didn't know what was going to happen to it.
0:35:03 > 0:35:04And then...
0:35:04 > 0:35:07in 1942...
0:35:07 > 0:35:10when they must have had other things on their minds,
0:35:10 > 0:35:14somebody decided that mixed families,
0:35:14 > 0:35:19if there was a marriage between a Jew and an Aryan,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23and they'd stayed together, but they couldn't keep pets either.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30Who thinks of things like that?
0:35:30 > 0:35:32I mean, why?
0:35:38 > 0:35:39Extraordinary.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44I don't believe in God at all,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47but whoever it was, was a very good designer.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53And not only to...
0:35:53 > 0:35:57make that extraordinary shape, but then cover it in a pattern.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06In war, I was drawing more
0:36:06 > 0:36:11and being staggered by all these incredible creatures.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28During the war as the bombs fell, Judith was drawing obsessively.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34"She felt almost painfully aware of all the sounds,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37"shapes and colours around her and wanted to draw everything in sight.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40"She filled one notebook after another,
0:36:40 > 0:36:42"and when she was not drawing, she thought about it.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50"She felt as though she had been asleep for years
0:36:50 > 0:36:52"and had just woken up."
0:36:58 > 0:37:00In 1945, she won a scholarship to
0:37:00 > 0:37:03the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.
0:37:07 > 0:37:08We ran up these stairs...
0:37:11 > 0:37:14..and the life room was on the top floor.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20She hovered on the brink of an affair with her teacher.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25" 'I'm being kissed,' she thought.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28"And was horrified to find herself looking past him at
0:37:28 > 0:37:30"the mirror to see what it looked like.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36" 'You're very young,' he said, 'I wouldn't want to disturb you.'
0:37:36 > 0:37:40" 'Disturb me?' She said. 'If I made love to you now..."
0:37:40 > 0:37:43I think this must have been the life room.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45I think this must have been it.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49"What did he mean, make love to her?"
0:37:49 > 0:37:51" 'An English girl would know', she thought desperately,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55"why couldn't I have grown up in one country like everybody else."
0:38:06 > 0:38:09Her German roots seemed to emerge in her paintings,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12a kind of brooding expressionism.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14I think she's just such a lovely painter.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18And her colour is beautiful.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23And there's a sort of energy in them that's really amazing.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29The light and everything that she gets into that piece of work.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33I love this place.
0:38:44 > 0:38:48Painting was her first love, but she got work as a textile designer.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53I love these textiles, they are like paintings.
0:38:55 > 0:38:56And they're like illustrations.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01But they make the most wonderful prints, and they're very sensitive.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03And strangely in a way, quite modern,
0:39:03 > 0:39:06there's something about them that feels very contemporary.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09Her palette is lovely.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13But the fact that you can sort of see the paint in them,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16and in this one there's no real line,
0:39:16 > 0:39:18but they are so elegant
0:39:18 > 0:39:22and the way that she gets this sense of movement in everything.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27And I shouldn't be surprised because she's an illustrator,
0:39:27 > 0:39:32but I am surprised that she could design such amazing textiles.
0:39:40 > 0:39:41It was a training ground for
0:39:41 > 0:39:44the children's illustrator she would become.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53Her career was taking shape, but her father had struggled in Britain.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57In 1948, exile appeared to be over at last.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01When he got off the plane in Germany,
0:40:01 > 0:40:04there were journalists and photographers
0:40:04 > 0:40:08and he normally made a special face for being photographed.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11- And he didn't have time... - What was his special face?
0:40:11 > 0:40:13It was sort of...
0:40:13 > 0:40:14A writer's face, you know.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21And they got him as he really looked, you can see him smile,
0:40:21 > 0:40:22and like himself,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24which was lovely.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34He was welcomed as a returning hero.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37It was one of the first public recognitions of all those who
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Germany had thrown away.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52But he was not to live to enjoy it.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56That very night he had a stroke and made the decision to commit suicide
0:40:56 > 0:40:59in which he was assisted by his wife Julia.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08While he was actually dying, having already taken the pills,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12he wrote these letters to Julia whom he called Mouse.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:41:18 > 0:41:19You were everything to me.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24And the last hours gave me everything.
0:41:27 > 0:41:28For god's sake, be happy.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30Don't be a widow.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48You were the sweetest in all eternity.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52And the two children also.
0:41:52 > 0:41:53Thank you.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58I feel that I am dying.
0:42:09 > 0:42:14Judith's mother too had attempted suicide and would do so again.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17In a sense, the war had destroyed them both.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29In 1951, Judith found her security.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41She met Tom, better known as Nigel Kneale,
0:42:41 > 0:42:44in the canteen at the BBC where he was a script writer.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47She was teaching art at a school across the road.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Tom, Nigel Kneale, went on to create Quatermass,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58it was a landmark series which had the nation glued to their screens.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03The thing is about astronauts going into space
0:43:03 > 0:43:05and they hadn't actually done that,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08they didn't do that for another eight years.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Three go up and only one comes back.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13They're gone. They're gone!
0:43:13 > 0:43:14What?
0:43:14 > 0:43:16- What's he talking about? - They're not inside.- They must be!
0:43:16 > 0:43:18Unless they opened the door and got swept away.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20I've checked all the instruments,
0:43:20 > 0:43:21that door hasn't been opened until now.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27Something else has got in and it grows into a sort of vegetation.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31All this vegetation came to life?
0:43:31 > 0:43:34It moved. It had to move on cue.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36It wasn't a recording.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38- This was live television. - Yes.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41Tom and I had to make the special effects.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44At exactly the right moment,
0:43:44 > 0:43:48he moved his fingers very, very, very, slowly
0:43:48 > 0:43:51and the entire nation was terrified.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54It was wonderful you could to that.
0:43:57 > 0:44:03A stored image is obtained of a race purge on ancient Mars.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08The monster is from Quatermass And The Pit,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10which is the best of them.
0:44:10 > 0:44:11Can I pick him up?
0:44:11 > 0:44:13He's lost one of his legs.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15Oh, my God, it's amazing.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Oh, there it is!
0:44:18 > 0:44:21Tom, being a Manxman, gave it three legs.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25I think it goes at the back probably.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28Tell me about this, how did this happen?
0:44:28 > 0:44:30What, that the leg came off?
0:44:30 > 0:44:32Victor! What happened?
0:44:39 > 0:44:43Judith and Tom bought this house in Barnes 50 years ago.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46I've got a Mog mug.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52I used to have two, I must have given it to somebody.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58They had two children, Tacy and Matthew.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00Judith stayed at home to look after them.
0:45:02 > 0:45:07It was in this kitchen that she invented The Tiger Who Came To Tea.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Tom was out filming all the time.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16It got really very boring, I mean, you go for a walk and have tea
0:45:16 > 0:45:17and then...
0:45:17 > 0:45:21that was it really, and we wished somebody would come.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24And so I thought, "Well...
0:45:26 > 0:45:29"..why not have a tiger come?"
0:45:29 > 0:45:32And so that's where the story came from really.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35- I'll pour the tea. - Thank you.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39I thought I'd try and make a picture book
0:45:39 > 0:45:43and because I told Tacy that story so often,
0:45:43 > 0:45:48I actually knew it by heart, every word, it hadn't changed.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52- Milk? - Yes, please.
0:45:52 > 0:45:53Thank you.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56In a way it's the only picture book I've ever done like that
0:45:56 > 0:45:59because normally I think of the pictures as I think of the story.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02But this I really had no idea how to do it.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05I wondered whether the tiger should wear clothes,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08I didn't what to do with it.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11The doorbell rings just as Sophie and her mummy
0:46:11 > 0:46:12are sitting down to tea.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Who could it possibly be?
0:46:14 > 0:46:17What they certainly don't expect to see at the door
0:46:17 > 0:46:19is a big, furry, stripy tiger.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25When A Tiger Comes To Tea, I mean, it is actually a tiger.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28For two and three year olds, it's quite hard for us to remember that.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31That when they see the tiger peep round the door and come in,
0:46:31 > 0:46:32well, that is a tiger.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36Because when you're two and three, why wouldn't a tiger come to tea?
0:46:36 > 0:46:39If you open the door, you don't know who's going to come in.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43But then obviously if you want to say, metaphorically,
0:46:43 > 0:46:46what is going on here, who is this tiger?
0:46:46 > 0:46:49It's the person who walks in and starts grabbing stuff.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52He drinks all the water out of the tap.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Well, I mean, he is a tiger, what do tigers do, they eat people.
0:46:56 > 0:46:57Yes.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59And so tigers are dangerous.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02Well, Judith knows about dangerous people
0:47:02 > 0:47:06who come to your house and take people away.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09You know, this was her experience as a young child,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11she knew this could happen, you know,
0:47:11 > 0:47:13she was told as a young child that her father
0:47:13 > 0:47:18could be grabbed at any moment by either the Gestapo or the SS.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20You know, he was in great danger.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24So, I mean, I don't know whether Judith did it consciously or not,
0:47:24 > 0:47:25I wouldn't want to go there,
0:47:25 > 0:47:30but the point is he's a jokey tiger, but still...he is a tiger.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34The tiger, I never found threatening.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36It's just a strange happening.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39I like the way that the mother and the daughter,
0:47:39 > 0:47:40they're not scared of it.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43They're just trying to offer their hospitality.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48And then in that, kind of...
0:47:48 > 0:47:52They don't tell it to stop - they just let it eat everything,
0:47:52 > 0:47:54drink everything and then it goes.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01It's all a very polite sort of interaction,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04there's nothing sinister about it.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06It's just that you end up with a bit of a mess
0:48:06 > 0:48:08and there's nothing to eat.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10That's the only bad thing.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15I also love the shopping trip.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17They restock their larder
0:48:17 > 0:48:21and they buy something in case this should ever happen again.
0:48:21 > 0:48:28But I like the slightly sad note that it doesn't happen again,
0:48:28 > 0:48:30there's something about that that's...
0:48:30 > 0:48:32You actually want it to happen again,
0:48:32 > 0:48:34but it's lovely that it doesn't.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44And then in what is one of the most memorable scenes in this book,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47or really in any children's book and one of the first ever,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50was a positive picture of the city.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53So, here we have the family moving through the city,
0:48:53 > 0:48:55it's new and exciting.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04Tiger was published in 1968 and has never been out of print since.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08Her next books would be prompted by her son's reaction
0:49:08 > 0:49:10to the reading schemes available at the time -
0:49:10 > 0:49:14like the Janet and John series.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16I remember the one he had,
0:49:16 > 0:49:22the climax was that his parents bought him his school uniform
0:49:22 > 0:49:25and, for some reason, in a fit of confusion,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28they both bought him a cap.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33And so the climax of the whole story was John has two caps.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36And for that you are supposed to learn to read!
0:49:37 > 0:49:41Matthew said, "I'm sorry, Mummy,
0:49:41 > 0:49:45"but I cannot read these books any more, they are too boring."
0:49:45 > 0:49:49And I began to say, "But you've got to learn to read,"
0:49:49 > 0:49:53and he said, "I am going to learn to read with The Cat In The Hat books."
0:49:53 > 0:49:58- Dr Seuss. And he did.- So, when you came to do your picture books...
0:49:58 > 0:50:03This influenced me very much when I did the Mog books.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08Never, ever, write something that's already in the picture.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13They can look at the picture and they knew that already
0:50:13 > 0:50:16and they've made all that effort.
0:50:16 > 0:50:21"He had a sh...shirt."
0:50:21 > 0:50:23You know, it's mad.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28I knew nothing about small children.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33You know, you're trying to get them to do this or that and I made
0:50:33 > 0:50:39this great discovery that it was all much easier if it was funny.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43Children must get terribly fed up,
0:50:43 > 0:50:48because everybody always knows more than they do.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51People say, "No, no, that's not right, don't do this.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55"Do that," or "Trees grow in the ground,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58"they don't fall from the sky," or whatever a child might believe.
0:51:00 > 0:51:06Tacy used to make me play a terrible game which was called Big Wawas.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10And a wawa was some sort of a creature which I had to be
0:51:10 > 0:51:15and I had to crawl about on the floor while Tacy walked ahead of me.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19And I had to pretend to be frightened.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22"He won't hurt you. He likes you."
0:51:22 > 0:51:25And she'd say, "Oh, no, Big Wawa, that's all right."
0:51:25 > 0:51:30Obviously, this gave her a terrific sort of sense of power
0:51:30 > 0:51:32and confidence -
0:51:32 > 0:51:35that at last there was somebody who knew less than she did.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40That's the attraction of Mog.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45She's not afraid of scaring the child.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49When I've read books with my children, this might well be
0:51:49 > 0:51:51the kind of spread where they go,
0:51:51 > 0:51:53"I don't want to look at that one. Turn that over."
0:51:53 > 0:51:55And then secretly they go and have another look at it,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58because books are about facing fears.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00Because at the end of the day it's not you in the sky,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03you're not facing those birds, somebody else is doing it for you.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07Mog is saying, "I am not the supper."
0:52:07 > 0:52:10"But who else can fly in the dark?
0:52:10 > 0:52:13"The big birds with teeth! They are here in the dark!
0:52:13 > 0:52:16"They want supper and who is the supper?"
0:52:16 > 0:52:20Now, this is the terrifying thing at the heart of many children's books -
0:52:20 > 0:52:22will you be eaten?
0:52:25 > 0:52:29It's in many fairy stories, think of Hansel and Gretel.
0:52:29 > 0:52:34So, here is a core fear - might you be consumed?
0:52:36 > 0:52:38RADIO: 'Mog is dead.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40'Sorry to be brutal about it to those of you who were brought up
0:52:40 > 0:52:43'on the Mog the cat stories, but there's no getting away from the fact
0:52:43 > 0:52:45'that after 30 years of Mog books,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48'Judith Kerr, her creator, has killed her off.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52'Mog's died. I'm really sad.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56'I really like Mog and I used to read the books a lot.'
0:53:01 > 0:53:06- MICHAEL ROSEN:- Very few characters who've become established die.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10People are preserved in a kind of childhood eternity.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13That is the tradition of the children's book.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18La fin! The end!
0:53:19 > 0:53:22There's a whole subtext going on of the kitten
0:53:22 > 0:53:24being able to communicate with the spirit of Mog.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27She's gone into kind of pagan territory.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31Mog goes to the sun, so that replenisher of life
0:53:31 > 0:53:34is installed at the end in our imagination,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37so it's risky territory to go there for children's books.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42I guess she's facing up to her own mortality.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44Many of the people in her life have passed away.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50She knows she's writing about a tough thing, but the key thing
0:53:50 > 0:53:53about a writer, if you do that, is not to be afraid of it.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03You say that you wrote When Hitler Sold Pink Rabbit
0:54:03 > 0:54:08because your children didn't quite get your childhood.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11We went to see that awful film, um...
0:54:13 > 0:54:14The Sound Of Music.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17SIRENS BLARE
0:54:17 > 0:54:20- Awful? Some people would feel... - HE LAUGHS
0:54:20 > 0:54:24Well, we went to see it anyhow. All the other children were going.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26Its dramatic images of escape
0:54:26 > 0:54:29didn't reflect the reality she had experienced.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31DOORBELL RINGS
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Quickly! Quickly! I have a place you can hide.
0:54:34 > 0:54:40Tom and I looked sort of slightly, you know, "Oh, God!" Um...
0:54:40 > 0:54:44Matthew was terribly pleased and he said, er,
0:54:44 > 0:54:49"Now we know exactly what it was like when Mummy was a little girl."
0:54:49 > 0:54:52'I had been thinking about writing something.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54'And I thought, "Well, perhaps it's time I did." '
0:54:54 > 0:54:56All right, if the borders are closed...
0:54:58 > 0:55:01..then we'll drive up into the hills and go over those mountains on foot.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04- But the children!- We'll help them, they'll be all right.
0:55:04 > 0:55:05We can do it without help, father!
0:55:14 > 0:55:15"When she was small,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18"she'd been comforted by the sound of a goods train
0:55:18 > 0:55:21"rumbling interminably through the night.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24"After Hitler, of course, goods trains had carried
0:55:24 > 0:55:27"quite different cargoes to quite different destinations.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33"She wondered if other German children had still been comforted
0:55:33 > 0:55:36"by their sound in the night, not knowing what was inside them.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43"She wondered what had happened to the trains afterwards
0:55:43 > 0:55:44"and if they were still in use."
0:55:52 > 0:55:57Perhaps the strangest twist to Judith Kerr's story is that
0:55:57 > 0:56:00When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit has been acclaimed,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03not only in Britain, but in Germany too.
0:56:03 > 0:56:04SCHOOL BELL RINGS
0:56:04 > 0:56:07It's a set text in German schools.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46'It is definitely something,'
0:56:46 > 0:56:50with the children, it's their age group and it's something...
0:56:50 > 0:56:57fear, um, family life that has been totally, er...totally interrupted.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01That is something that the children can relate to.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56'Tammy and I, we're also Jewish.'
0:57:56 > 0:58:01It's not so nice that they don't, um, like Jews,
0:58:01 > 0:58:06that Hitler don't like Jews, and it's, um...
0:58:06 > 0:58:09a little bit hard for her, because you that care...
0:58:09 > 0:58:12You don't want to be some different person,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15because everybody is the same,
0:58:15 > 0:58:20and she feels like she's one other person.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28The other book that I imagine German children read at school is
0:58:28 > 0:58:31- The Anne Frank Diaries.- Yes.
0:58:31 > 0:58:33I'm not Anne Frank.
0:58:35 > 0:58:37My life up to that point,
0:58:37 > 0:58:43the first three years of being refugees, was an adventure.
0:58:43 > 0:58:47Nothing awful happened to us. Compared with what happened
0:58:47 > 0:58:51to the people who didn't get out, it was nothing.
0:58:51 > 0:58:53ANNOUNCEMENT IN GERMAN
0:58:58 > 0:59:01This was Judith's local station,
0:59:01 > 0:59:04which the Nazis would put to a different use.
0:59:08 > 0:59:13This was where the Jews were transported to Auschwitz.
0:59:20 > 0:59:28"In memory of the people who were deported between 1941 and 1945
0:59:28 > 0:59:31"by German trains to the death camps."
0:59:33 > 0:59:37It was put up by the German railway company.
0:59:42 > 0:59:45I remember, when we were in Switzerland, saying,
0:59:45 > 0:59:49"When I'm grown-up, I'm going to murder Hitler,"
0:59:49 > 0:59:51and being told not to be so stupid.
0:59:51 > 0:59:54SHE LAUGHS I had no idea.
0:59:57 > 1:00:04We reached Zurich on the 4th of March and the elections were on the 5th.
1:00:04 > 1:00:11And we heard afterwards that, er, at eight o'clock the following morning,
1:00:11 > 1:00:15on the 6th, they came to our house for our passports
1:00:15 > 1:00:19and so, it's extraordinary to think, you know...
1:00:19 > 1:00:27all this very happy life I've had is because of that
1:00:27 > 1:00:29and, er...
1:00:31 > 1:00:33..terribly lucky...
1:00:37 > 1:00:45"11th of June, 1942. 15. Berlin to Theresienstadt."
1:00:45 > 1:00:48"12/06/1942.
1:00:48 > 1:00:53"50 Juden..." "50 Jews. Berlin to Theresienstadt."
1:00:55 > 1:01:00On the 13th, we've got 746.
1:01:04 > 1:01:09Auschwitz was the end, wasn't it? Theresienstadt, they had a chance.
1:01:13 > 1:01:16- 956 to Minsk.- Yeah.
1:01:17 > 1:01:21- And then here - 1,002.- Yes.
1:01:21 > 1:01:25So now, they're going in their thousands.
1:01:25 > 1:01:27- Each one of these now... - Yes.- ..is huge.
1:01:40 > 1:01:43What they would feel looking at this, you know.
1:01:43 > 1:01:46It's all very well, but nobody did anything.
1:01:50 > 1:01:51No.
1:02:01 > 1:02:07In a way, you feel you owe it to them to do something with our lives.
1:02:10 > 1:02:15What they wouldn't have done was just a little bit of what we had.
1:02:27 > 1:02:30This is not one of Judith's drawings.
1:02:30 > 1:02:33It was drawn and scribbled out by a child
1:02:33 > 1:02:37who was held at Theresienstadt and later gassed at Auschwitz.
1:03:07 > 1:03:11- MICHAEL ROSEN: - '99% of children's books end
1:03:11 > 1:03:13'with some kind of coming home,
1:03:13 > 1:03:16'some kind of redemption, some kind of safety.'
1:03:18 > 1:03:21But, of course, that's reflected in Judith's own life.
1:03:21 > 1:03:27She went on a nightmarish journey, she didn't know where she was going.
1:03:27 > 1:03:30After all that scary stuff, poor old Mog,
1:03:30 > 1:03:35with his downward-facing mouth, and then we get to the end.
1:03:35 > 1:03:38Mog's in his basket again. Oh, and he's got a fish in his mouth.
1:03:38 > 1:03:42Here, the kind of home that Judith wanted to make.
1:03:42 > 1:03:46And look, they're all having supper.
1:03:46 > 1:03:48There, and Mog asleep.
1:03:52 > 1:03:53If you're Kafka, you can make a world
1:03:53 > 1:03:55that is perpetually terrifying.
1:03:55 > 1:03:58If you're attracted to children's books, you will create,
1:03:58 > 1:04:01you will find this safety place is there waiting for you.
1:04:06 > 1:04:09JUDITH: 'Tomorrow, I'm going to have a day off.'
1:04:15 > 1:04:19"So they went out in the dark and all the street lamps were lit
1:04:19 > 1:04:22"and all the cars had their lights on.
1:04:22 > 1:04:25"And they walked down the road to a cafe."
1:04:50 > 1:04:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd