Why a Booktrail?
ww2: Can a group of Norwegian children ever hope to survive the Nazis once they invade their idyllic village?
Snow Treasure
What you need to know before your trail
A classic Norwegian tale of what happened in a small Norwegian village in the winter of 1940. When Nazi troops were spotted parachuting into the area, the villagers are horrified and the children afraid. Uncle Victor tells them that the Nazis could be defeated, how they can fool the enemy if they can carry out a dangerous plan.
The plan is indeed dangerous for it involves piling their sleighs with gold – and lots of it – and sneaking it past the guards without them noticing. Surely a group of children can’t overcome evil? Or can they?
Travel Guide
The story of the Norwegian children who outwitted the Nazis during WW2 really does have some basis in truth. The author herself mentions in a note that children in Norway really did smuggle a huge amount of gold past the Nazis during the war and onto the freighter Bomma which then sailed to Baltimore in the US. Many details are changed but the way the children outwitted the soldiers and put the gold on their sleds is accurate.
The town, on the cusp of war is a frightening place to be. Norway is safe at first although there is a Nazi presence. Although the people there try their best to build shelters and protect themselves from the invasion, life goes on.
The plan for the children to use their sleds is ambitious or foolish depending on how you look at it. But it is a sign of patriotism. When the plan is almost thwarted, the local doctor pretends that there’s an illness which will keep the children off school – so more children with more sleds will not be an unusual sight.
The plan is to take the gold to a waiting ship and save it for their country before the Nazis get it.
Then, in a strange twist of fate, the villagers capture a man wearing a Nazi uniform ……will the plan succeed or are they in too deep?
Where Next?
