Classic Children's Literature: The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
I first came across this book as a child at Primary school. I fell in love with the book then and I love reading it to this very day. I have lost track of just how many children have acquired their own copy (as I did at their age) following me reading it to them. I can assure parents this is a wholesome book with historical value, full of adventure. One of the themes is about growing up and taking on responsibilities in extraordinary circumstances.
I recall as a teacher at a secondary school, I’d been reading it to my form class. A colleague, dear Bob Stirling told me, how as a schoolboy, he had been a pupil of Ian Serraillier. Bob explained with fondness how Serrailier used to read extracts to Bob and the rest of the class from a book he was writing, yes, ‘The Silver Sword’!
Plot Summary:
In war-torn Poland, the Balicki family lives under Nazi occupation after the German invasion. Joseph Balicki, a schoolteacher, is arrested by the Nazis and sent to Zakyna, a brutal work camp in the mountains of Southern Poland. Anxious to escape he manages to hit a guard with a small stone shot from a catapult, knocking him out and giving Joseph time to take his uniform and wear it; in this way, he is able to leave with the other guards. He hides in a cable car and is discovered by a Polish peasant; the peasant and his wife hide Joseph for a couple of weeks, at great danger to themselves.
Joseph walks for a month until he reaches Warsaw, but finds his family gone and his home burned down. His old neighbour tells him that the Nazis took his wife away and his children are most likely dead. He is picking over the rubble of his home when he spots a letter opener his wife had given him in the shape of a silver sword. He turns to see a boy watching him; this seemingly selfish and streetwise boy wants Joseph to give him the sword. Joseph agrees to do so on the condition that the boy, whose name is Jan, tells his children (should he run into them) that Joseph is making for their grandparents' home in Switzerland, and that they should meet him there. Jan agrees, and also returns the next day to help Joseph. Jan keeps the sword in a small wooden box that he keeps with him at all times.
After Joseph was arrested, the Germans took his wife to work on a German farm. Now their three children, Ruth, Edek and Bronia, who managed to escape after Margrit was taken, live in the cellar of a ruined house. Food is sparse, but Edek is a gifted smuggler and brings what they need. Ruth starts a school in the cellar; when she mentions this at the soup kitchen, she is given school supplies and a Bible:
‘They liked the stories from the Old Testament best. Their favourite was always Daniel in the lions’ den. They enjoyed it just as a story, but for Ruth it had a deeper meaning. She thought of it as the story of their own troubles. The lions were the cold and hunger and the hardships of their life….’
One day, Bronia and other children find a scrawny boy outside passed out from hunger. When he wakes, he tells them his name is Jan, but he is not very friendly. At first, he is too ill to leave; once he is well again, he decides to stay. He is the same Jan that met their father a year earlier and still has the sword he gave him in the wooden box!
The story develops over the long miles towards Switzerland and over five years. Naturally they have many adventures en route, but they also change. Jan was a street child who was orphaned in the war. He was quite wild, almost feral, as a result of taking care of himself on the streets of Warsaw. He was also talented at all the things that are illegal, such as fighting and pickpocketing. Jan was very combative; he hated Germans and soldiers, so it is possible that he saw his family taken away by the German military. He is oddly sentimental about seemingly worthless things throughout the book, such as three dead fleas given to him by an escaped chimpanzee. It is this love of acquiring and hoarding in his little wooden box that ultimately brings him together with the Balicki children and their quest to find their parents: Ruth recognizes the silver sword in his box from her house. Jan is not much of a people person, but he has a special bond with animals, all of whom love him, and with Ruth.
Do they make it to Switzerland? I could tell you but it would be better to read it and find out for yourself.
Cristóir Csorba
