I Am David

Anne Holm provides a few contextual details of the timeline of I am David, allowing the text to be interpreted from several different historical perspectives.

I am David is often studied from the point of view of Nazi Germany; the term “concentration camp” became synonymous with the genocide carried out by Germany between 1939 and 1945 when dictator Adolf Hitler declared his aim to the world to exterminate the Jewish race. Within this program, other “undesirables” were also targeted, imprisoned, and “exterminated,” such as gypsies, intellectuals, and mentally or physically disabled people. The Nazi program of extermination and the war triggered by their policy of aggressive expansionism resulted in the displacement of millions of people across Europe. Countless people were left homeless by the violent war that raged across Europe, East Asia, and the Pacific.

For these reasons, I am David is often interpreted by many readers as the story of a boy traveling across Europe in the final stages of World War II. However, contextual clues indicate that this reading may be inaccurate. “Undesirables” held in German-run concentration and extermination camps were forcibly relocated between 1939 and 1945. David is 12 and has no living memory of life before the concentration camp; this suggests that he has been held for longer than six years.

Another contextual clue is that David’s experience in Italy is characterized by happiness, peace, and generosity. However, during WWII, Italy joined the war as part of the Axis powers, becoming a warzone. Extensive devastation occurred as fighting occurred throughout the country. There is no indication of this as David travels extensively from the south to the north of the country, mainly on foot.

Another contextual clue that suggests that David is not traveling during World War II is the fact that the man, the unnamed guard who devises David’s route and supports his escape, directs David to travel through Germany en route to Denmark. This seems an unlikely route for a concentration camp escapee had the events taken place between 1939 and 1945. The risk of David’s recapture would be high in Germany at this time; David carried no identifying paperwork, forged or genuine. Furthermore, apart from the presence of armed police, there is no suggestion that the Nazi party rules Germany at this time; David moves about freely for the most part, and people generously offer him lifts through the country.

Furthermore, the British couple David talks to about Britain asserts that no king was ruling Britain at that time “because the last king had had no sons, only daughters” (46). Instead, the man explains, “there was a queen […]. She was a very good queen […] and beautiful too” (46). These details suggest that the story’s events occur after Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne, which occurred in 1952. This contextual detail supports the interpretation of the story as taking place during Stalin’s rule of Eastern Europe, during the decades of the repressive Iron Curtain and the subsequent Cold War.