The night that never ended

The idea came from the newspaper 

• The two authors have written other books before. When Fredreik Hetmann opened the newspaper one day and found an article about skinheads who had a school class with a school trip attacked, he immediately called his friend and co-author Harald Tondern to ask if this might not be a title for a new book.

• Because Harald Tondern was totally enthusiastic about this idea and one way or another looking for new material for a book was sought, they immediately got to work and left "The night that never came to an end" develop.

• The act of story In reality, it took place in the summer of 1992 on the Baltic Sea. Several students and teachers of one class stayed there (mostly 12-year-olds with Turkish root) a school class from Berlin Kreuzberg, a class trip.

• One of the students, who is of Turkish descent, went to a nearby telephone booth with his German classmate one evening to call his parents. When they turned around, they saw that about ten skinheads had gathered in front of the phone booth.

• They interrogated the two of them and ordered them to be taken to the hotel where the school class was staying. Half of the skinheads went to a pub to riot, the rest went to the remote hotel and gathered all the students and the teachers in the dining room. It worked so well because the skins were armed with firearms.


Characterization - the wave

The wave - almost everyone had to read the book as school reading or saw the film ...

• In addition to the terrorist cravings they acted out that night, they gave the students an hour of fascist indoctrination.

• This whole horror ended up only because the skinheads got too bored and pulled them off again in the early morning.

"The night that never came to an end" is often used in schools

• This book remains an absolute bestseller to this day as it shows people what xenophobia can do. It shows the children's point of view, the fear, the anger that is felt. On the other hand, it also shows the skinheads' point of view. Namely that there are some among them who only participate in order to look cool themselves.

• The book also describes how people change in such situations or show true solidarity. In this way, the student realizes that the teacher, who is usually very respected, is actually the one who is most afraid. The teacher, however, who is not at all popular with the students, uses her psychological skills to prevent the worst.

• The different characters and courage of the children are also described. While one is sitting in the corner, frightened, the other even flees and is then fetched back by the skins.

• "The night that never came to an end" is a very popular topic in schools, for example for presentations. But also given up on reading so that important topics such as xenophobia can be discussed afterwards. But also about the equally important topic of solidarity and helpfulness. But above all about cohesion.

All in all a really very good book that deserves five stars. In addition, absolutely instructive and definitely a drive to think about some things, maybe even to rethink some things.