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WW2: A boy growing up in Sweden befriends a traumatised Jewish boy during the war
Simon and the Oaks
What you need to know before your trail
Simon Larsson is growing up in Sweden and is a quiet and thoughtful boy who lives in a nice family and a nice community. Simon is half Jewish and is living with his Scandinavian aunt and uncle, who adopted him as their own at birth. He wants to find out more about his mysterious past as he feels alone with his dark hair and olive skin and drifts off into a mysterious world of his own.
He soon befriends an young Jewish boy from Germany and the two families grow close despite their different backgrounds.
War will change everything. Or will it?
Travel Guide
Gothenburg 1940s
Simon Larsson has a lot to deal with in life. He has been adopted by his Swedish Aunt and uncle but he knows that his real father was Jewish. So with his olive skin and dark hair, he already feels different to the other kids at school. His real parents fascinate him and he makes up stories and dreams about them, wanting to know more about where he came from. He goes into the forest and talks to the trees – ie the title Simon and the Oaks. He lives in this fantasy world where everything makes sense.
Isak Lentov is the Jewish boy he meets at school and is the son of a wealthy Jewish bookkeeper. He and his family have fled from Nazi Germany and the two boys strike up a friendship.
But Sweden was not an easy place to be if you stood out and the story of two Jewish boys from very different backgrounds. If you were suspected as being Jewish during the war, life was never going to be easy and the two boys help their families get along with each other whilst trying to make sense of their lives themselves.
The boys grow up, haunted by inner demons due to their heritage. This is their search for their place in life. Both boys have had difficult relations with their mothers and this stays with them during their lives.
This was made into a very successful Swedish film in 2011 starring Bill Skarsgård
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