The Silver Sword is a children's novel written by Ian Serraillier and published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape in 1956 and then by Puffin Books in 1960.
[2] In an afterword to the 2003 edition Jane Serraillier Grossfeld, the author's daughter, identifies a Picture Post article about the Pestalozzi children's village as a source.
Joseph Balicki, the headmaster of a primary school in Warsaw, was arrested by German soldiers, a few months into the Second World War, and taken away to a prison camp.
Having fled his prison camp after knocking out a guard and stealing his uniform, Joseph took shelter with an elderly couple.
They were at first confused by his Polish speech and German uniform, but they accepted him after he told them about what had happened to him and showed them the prison number tattooed on his arm as proof.
Two soldiers had entered the house and they fired bullets up the chimney to discover if anyone was hiding there but they left (fearful of ruining their uniforms) after dislodging a heap of soot.
When he visited Ruth and Bronia in their bomb shelter home with the good news about Edek, he was attacked by Jan as he was a soldier and in the melee, his wooden box was broken.
Ruth, Bronia and Jan then made their way to Posen and eventually found Edek at a refugee feeding station; he was suffering from tuberculosis.
Once Ruth, Bronia and Edek were reunited they (in company with Jan) travelled by train to Berlin, intent on finding their parents.
Edek, whose health was worsening with tuberculosis, was arrested while following Jan who had been stealing food from American trains bringing supplies to the troops.
Both boys were prosecuted by a military tribunal, but Edek was cleared of any crimes whilst Jan led a spirited defence, claiming that certain American troops were equally guilty of stealing from the conquered Germans.
During their stay the farmer heard of an edict by the Americans that foreigners in the area were to be returned to their home country.
Edek volunteered to help, deceiving the man by speaking German, but Bronia unwittingly asked a question in Polish.
Before they left Kurt's pet dog had hidden inside Jan and Edek's canoe and stayed with them on their journey south.
Intent on reaching the Danube, the children paddled along the River Falkenberg and overcame a series of hazards, including an encounter with a soldier who fired shots at Ruth and Bronia.
Bronia developed a talent for art; Edek spent two years recovering from tuberculosis and went on to become an engineer; Jan mended his thieving ways and was regularly called upon to care for sick animals and Ruth became a teacher, married a Frenchman and started a family of her own.
[4] John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006), has acknowledged a debt to Serraillier's novel: "the book stands out for me as a great children's classic – [it] was my first introduction to the Second World War in fiction, to the horrors of the Nazi era, and the fear that capture could instill in the minds of its young heroes Ruth, Edek and Bronia.