The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

Louise Murphy’s The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a work of historical fiction originally published in 2003. Loosely based upon the classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the novel reimagines Hansel and Gretel’s story as a World War II narrative. The San Francisco Chronicle selected it as a “Best Book of the Year,” and it received a starred review from Kirkus. This guide references the 2003 paperback edition.

Plot Summary

It is the winter of 1943, and World War II has gripped Europe for more than 4 years. German forces control Poland, occupying even its small villages. On a cold night, a Jewish family races along a wooded road in the western part of the country with Nazi soldiers in pursuit. The unnamed family consists of a father, his wife, and two children, all fleeing a Polish ghetto. The adults, later known as the Mechanik and the Stepmother, decide that they must abandon the children in the forest if any of them hope to survive. Before the Stepmother and the Mechanik leave the children, she warns them not to use their real names or otherwise give away their Judaism. The Stepmother suggests that they go by Hansel and Gretel.

11-year-old Gretel Cegielski leads Hansel, her 7-year-old brother, through the woods. Hansel crumbles his last slice of bread as they walk in hopes that the Stepmother will follow his trail to find them. Eventually, the children reach an isolated hut. An old woman named Magda emerges and says that she cannot give them shelter. She performs a ritual to grant the children good luck and then returns to the cabin. Hansel and Gretel stay by the hut. When Magda next emerges, they follow her back inside, and she does not force them to leave.

The children learn that residents of Piaski, the nearby village, consider Magda a witch. Magda’s grandmother was a “Roma,” or “gypsy,” and Magda carries on many of her customs. Over the next several weeks, Magda obtains false identification papers for Hansel and Gretel. She leads them to the village to apply for ration cards so that they can receive allotments of food. In Piaski, the children encounter the Major, a Nazi assigned control of the village. He does not realize that the children are Jewish and admires Gretel’s blond hair and blue eyes.

Hansel and Gretel explore the snowy forest around Magda’s hut and admire the wild animals that inhabit it. Their guide to the wildlife is Telek, a local woodsman who loves Magda’s pregnant grandniece, Nelka. After Gretel recovers from a serious illness, she ventures into the woods by herself in search of wild ponies. Two men attack and rape Gretel, stopping only when the Stepmother, hidden nearby, kills them. The rape causes Gretel to lose her memory of recent events and become easily confused, thrusting Hansel into the role of older sibling.

A high-ranking Nazi officer, the Oberführer, arrives in Piaski. Obsessed with purity and order, he is tasked with evaluating the village children and sending any “perfect” ones to Germany. He develops a fascination with Nelka. When she delivers her son, the Oberführer takes him to keep Nelka from running away. To prevent other children from being selected, Telek injures and scars them.

While Hansel and Gretel stay with Magda, the Mechanik and the Stepmother join a group of partisan resistance fighters. They sabotage the Germans at every opportunity and cheer the arrival of Russian troops. But the Stepmother is killed by one of Gretel’s assailants. The Mechanik frequently passes near Piaski without ever seeing his children. He hopes that if they survive the winter, they will find their way back to Bialystok.

As spring arrives in Poland, the Nazis lose their grip on the country. Nelka and Telek rescue her son and escape into the forest. The enraged Oberführer sends Magda to a concentration camp, where she is killed. He tries to capture Hansel and Gretel, too, but Magda hides them in her oven. The children slowly walk to the city. Along the way, Gretel’s memories and mental clarity return.

Hansel and Gretel encounter the Oberführer in Bialystok. He chases them, but Russian soldiers arrive and take the Nazi away. The soldiers direct Hansel and Gretel to a refugee center where they reunite with their father. The children confess that they cannot remember their birth names. Tenderly, their father tells them who they are.