“PADDINGTON BEAR” author Michael Bond, based his beloved character on Jewish Children who were Refugees in war-torn Europe (WWII).
The Paddington Bear story goes as follows: The Brown family finds a bear from “Darkest Peru” sitting on a suitcase at London’s Paddington train station.He has a note hanging around his neck that says “Please look after this bear.” The family takes him in and he embarks on a series of entertaining adventures…
“Despite being a magnet for trouble, the specific expression Paddington brings to mind is ‘keep calm and carry on.’
He is cheerful, adaptable and hardworking, and although he frequently gets it wrong, he always ‘tries so hard to get things right’.”
Bond’s first Paddington book was published in 1958, by the name “A Bear Called Paddington”.
Over two dozen books about the foundling Bear followed, and have sold over 35 million copies around the world since then.
Paddington has become one of the most beloved British fictional characters.
In a 2014 interview with The Telegraph, Bond said the Bear character was inspired by Jewish Refugee Children he had seen arriving at London’s Reading train station during World War II.
“I remember their Name Labels round their necks, each carrying their possessions in a single suitcase…
and then I remember going to the cinema and seeing on the newsreel that Hitler had moved into some new country and seeing footage of elderly people pushing prams with all their belongings in them.” he said.
Bond was a boy when he first saw Jewish children arriving in Reading, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
His parents took in two Jewish boys for the duration of the war.
The Jewish Refugee Children:
From 1938-1940, rescuers brought about 10,000 children to Great Britain from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland in what became known as the “Kindertransport”.
Most of these children were Jewish, who escaped Nazi-occupied Europe ahead of the Holocaust — many of whom would never see their families again.
About half of the Kindertransport children were looked after by British foster families throughout the war; others were housed in schools, hostels, farms and camps.
Bond, who attended a Catholic school as a youngster, also told The Telegraph that he was upset about a non-Jewish casting choice made for the 2014 Paddington Movie.
Regarding the cast of Dr. Gruber — an antique shop owner who becomes one of the bear’s best friends, he said:
“It does bother me because I’ve such a clear picture of Dr. Gruber.
I wanted someone foreign because he was based on my first agent, a lovely man, a German Jew, who was in line to be the youngest judge in Germany, when he was warned his name was on a list, so he got out and came to England with just a suitcase and £25 to his name,” Bond said.
Thomas Michael Bond CBE
(13 January 1926 – 27 June 2017)