Hitler's Daughter

Hitler’s Daughter is a historical fiction middle-grade novel written by Jackie French. It is part of the Hitler trilogy and was originally published in 1999. Jackie French is an Australian author, environmental activist, and historian, and her books have won over 60 awards internationally. Hitler’s Daughter was named a Blue Ribbon Book and a Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year for Younger Readers. It was also adapted into a play. The narrative mixes fact and fiction to tell a story within a story about a fictional girl named Heidi, who was Hitler’s daughter. The story transforms the listener, Mark’s, view of the world at an impressionable age. The novel explores themes of Storytelling as a Means of Understanding the World, The Importance of Questioning, and Awakening to the Horrors of the World.

The guide refers to the 1999 Harper Collins edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of religious discrimination, antisemitism, graphic violence, emotional abuse, death, racism, and antigay bias.  

Plot Summary

Four children (Mark, Anna, Tracey, and Ben) wait at the same countryside bus stop daily and sometimes pass the time by listening to Anna tell stories. On a rainy week, Ben falls ill, and Anna tells Mark and Tracey the story of Heidi, Hitler’s secret daughter. At first, Mark finds the story strange and nonsensical because Hitler never had a daughter, and he can’t imagine Hitler ever loving anyone anyway. Soon, however, Mark is engrossed in the story and starts coming to the bus stop early each day to hear more. Hearing the story inspires Mark to start asking important questions about right and wrong, whether children are bound to turn out like their parents, and whether his parents would still love him if he were like Hitler. Mark’s parents struggle to answer his questions because they aren’t overly concerned about the issue. Mark also asks his teacher, but he gets similarly vague responses. On the bus one day, the bus driver rants about how everyone seems to follow the herd rather than think for themselves.

Anna is somber as she tells the story very seriously. Heidi was Hitler’s secret daughter and lived in an isolated country home with Fraulein Gelber and Frau Mundt. Frau Mundt often talked to Heidi about things Heidi wasn’t meant to know and told Heidi that Jewish people were meant to be taken away. Heidi was isolated and naive, and she didn’t know anything about Jewish people other than what the adults in her life told her. What she did know was how it felt to be cast out for being deemed different, because Heidi had a birthmark on her face and a limp in her walk, which is why Hitler had hidden her away.

Heidi had to move to a more remote home as the war raged on, and her father visited her less and less. Heidi was instructed not to talk to the new cook, Frau Leib, but developed a bond with her and began to learn about the outside world. Frau Leib gave Heidi a rabbit to raise and began to treat her as her own. She learned that a nearby farmer was arrested for hiding a Jewish man, and she decided to build her little shelter in case any Jewish people came by and needed help. Though none ever came, Heidi did what she could. One night, Heidi and Fraulein Gelber were driven out to meet Hitler, and Hitler told Heidi only to listen to Fraulein and nobody else.

Heidi and Fraulein Gelber eventually left for Berlin to hide in a bunker when the Allied Forces began to occupy Germany. They endured constant bombs and ate little food, and Fraulein Gelber soon abandoned Heidi. Heidi saw her father in the bunker one day, and he appeared distraught; he also claimed not to recognize Heidi and ordered her to be sent out. Heidi walked through the city as bombs fell around her and was caught in an explosion. A woman and her son found Heidi and adopted her, changing her name to Helga. Helga grew up and kept the story of her life a secret until she was nearing death. At that point, Anna suggests that her grandmother was Heidi/Helga, and Anna was the only one she ever told. The story ends with this ambiguous conclusion, as Mark suspects that Anna’s story wasn’t fiction after all.