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No Hero for the Kaiser
Jan, a fourteen-year-old Polish boy whose town is invaded in World War I, joins a German battalion and experiences the horrors of battle.
222 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 7, 2013
We read many war stories about WWII. And we read many war stories from the victor's perspective. But this book is remarkable, not only in its setting of Poland/Germany/Russia in World War I (the war to end all wars, remember?) But it is also remarkable in that anyone who remembers how that war turned out will know that our hero is on the losing side.
Young Jan is found by German soldiers after the farm he had been living on is bombed and he has no place to go. He finds acceptance and comradeship in their company and they find a guide who knows the countryside. Jan and his dog Flox become the mascots of the battalion and his observing nature help save them several times. But Jan becomes increasingly aware of the death and destruction his friends and the opposing army are heaping on the country. Men talk about "fatherland" and "honor" and "victory" but Jan sees people he knows who are killed and wounded. He sees good farmland, roads and bridges destroyed. And he asks "why."
This thought-provoking novel could be equivalent to "The Red Badge of Courage" except with a younger protagonist and suitable for middle school readers.
Young Jan is found by German soldiers after the farm he had been living on is bombed and he has no place to go. He finds acceptance and comradeship in their company and they find a guide who knows the countryside. Jan and his dog Flox become the mascots of the battalion and his observing nature help save them several times. But Jan becomes increasingly aware of the death and destruction his friends and the opposing army are heaping on the country. Men talk about "fatherland" and "honor" and "victory" but Jan sees people he knows who are killed and wounded. He sees good farmland, roads and bridges destroyed. And he asks "why."
This thought-provoking novel could be equivalent to "The Red Badge of Courage" except with a younger protagonist and suitable for middle school readers.
March 9, 2010
First written in 1931, an amazing anti war novel. Vivid, painful and a novel that was banned and burned and the author imprisoned three years later under the Fascist regime. It's taken me a long time to read but I'm glad that I did.
December 12, 2010
This is an amazing book. No wonder it won the Batchelder award. But something strange is that the author virtually predicts the Holocaust by writing "[The mighty ones in Germany] would say: now we make a war against the Jews in our country." Notice this book was written in 1931.
June 28, 2022
This afternoon I finished reading a book not only banned in Germany, but also collected and ceremoniously burned by Nazis after it was published in 1931. Rudolf Frank wrote No Hero for the Kaiser as an anti-war novel about Germany’s losing effort in World War I. It follows the story of a 14 year old boy orphaned in Poland after German and Russian soldiers fought over his hometown of Kopchovka. A German artillery unit adopts the boy and tries to persuade him that war is glorious. Jan, the boy, doesn’t buy what they’re selling, but he does assist his new crew for several months.
Based on the text alone, I’m not sold on this novel having an anti-war theme. The author certainly shares war’s meaningless violence such as in this description of a trench only recently held by the Russians: “And in the ditch and in the holes made by the grenades, great God, there they all were. The men were there, brown and gray like the earth and rubble, crumpled or stretched out in dust, blood, and dirt. Men’s faces gaped, human trunks stuck out of the ground like tree stumps, human arms and legs lay like hacked branches, human hands and fingers grew out of the earth like plants. This was the field they had dug and planted; this was the harvest that sprung from the seed of their bullets, filling the whole ditch.” Otherwise the author hid his disdain for the war and its combatants. Writing and publishing a more obvious text may have been too risky for the author at the dawn of the 1930s in Germany, but I wouldn’t have even guessed at that theme without help from his granddaughter who generously loaned her copy to me.
It’s an interesting read because it reveals an early teen’s view of WWI, but it’s not as engaging as some of the books my daughters have read about other war-torn European communities.
Based on the text alone, I’m not sold on this novel having an anti-war theme. The author certainly shares war’s meaningless violence such as in this description of a trench only recently held by the Russians: “And in the ditch and in the holes made by the grenades, great God, there they all were. The men were there, brown and gray like the earth and rubble, crumpled or stretched out in dust, blood, and dirt. Men’s faces gaped, human trunks stuck out of the ground like tree stumps, human arms and legs lay like hacked branches, human hands and fingers grew out of the earth like plants. This was the field they had dug and planted; this was the harvest that sprung from the seed of their bullets, filling the whole ditch.” Otherwise the author hid his disdain for the war and its combatants. Writing and publishing a more obvious text may have been too risky for the author at the dawn of the 1930s in Germany, but I wouldn’t have even guessed at that theme without help from his granddaughter who generously loaned her copy to me.
It’s an interesting read because it reveals an early teen’s view of WWI, but it’s not as engaging as some of the books my daughters have read about other war-torn European communities.
July 21, 2017
what a find! This is an anti-war book that transcends the generations.
Written in Germany in 1931, the author was arrestrd in March of 1933 after Hitler took power. The book was publicly burned on May 19, 1933. When Frank was released from prison he fled to Switzerland, where he lived until his death in 1979.
Read this aloud to your middle school aged and older children.
Written in Germany in 1931, the author was arrestrd in March of 1933 after Hitler took power. The book was publicly burned on May 19, 1933. When Frank was released from prison he fled to Switzerland, where he lived until his death in 1979.
Read this aloud to your middle school aged and older children.
April 26, 2022
Literatura juvenil. Curioso.
August 9, 2008
I believe this book is as good if not better than that of
"All Quiet on the Western Front".
I really enjoyed the adventure of the young man in the book and finally how he decided he had enough of the war.
I liked the main character because he liked to help people.
"All Quiet on the Western Front".
I really enjoyed the adventure of the young man in the book and finally how he decided he had enough of the war.
I liked the main character because he liked to help people.
November 12, 2012
A rather fascinating look at WWI from the perspective of the Germans. I really wish this book were more popular today. A better grasp of WWI as well as the opposition would help so many student understand history better.
November 17, 2007
Polish boy must travel with German troops during World War One. Touching story, as he sees war directly.
March 17, 2016
Boy orphaned in WWI witnesses war as a mascot for a company of soldiers.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews