Who knew Paddington Bear was Jewish?
This isn’t breaking news — it’s more an evergreen amazement — but I heard about it on a podcast that had nothing to do with train stations, hapless but hopeful bear cubs, or Darkest Peru.
But you know that adorable little bear who arrived in Paddington Station in London, in children’s books adventures chronicled by the British writer Michael Bond?
It turns out that Mr. Bond based the bear on one of his favorite stuffed animals, a bear who lived on his mantlepiece even though he — Mr. Bond, that is — was a grown-up married man. The bear was that kind of cutie.
Soon, Mr. Bond began to write books about Paddington, a cub whose Aunt Lucy sent to London, where he wandered the station whose name he took until he was rescued by the Brown family, who took him home and made their home his as well.
Paddington’s adventures show a sweet outsider trying to make sense of a new world, figure out the rules, and follow them, and also to have a little bit of fun. He looks a little different from the Brits around him — he’s a bear! In a raincoat! — but they seem to take it in stride.
It also turns out that Mr. Bond based Paddington, whose stories began being published in 1958, on the Jewish children who were sent to England on the Kindertransport from 1938 to 1942. Like Paddington, many of those children never saw their families again. Like Paddington, they arrived in England with one suitcase and a sign hanging around their necks. The refugee children’s signs had their names. The note hanging around Paddington Bear’s neck said “Please look after this bear.”
So thank you David Plotz and Emily Bazelon and John Dickerson of Slate’s Political Gabfest for telling Paddington’s story again. Immigrants and refugees are much in the news today. It is good to remember that some of them were met with kindness.
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