It is based upon the early life of the author whose Jewish father, noted drama critic, journalist and screenwriter Alfred Kerr, was wanted by the Nazis. Kerr's family also fled their home in Berlin via Switzerland to escape to Paris and then England. She came to write the book when her own son was eight; after seeing "The Sound of Music" he remarked, "Now we know what it was like when Mummy was a little girl". Kerr wanted him to know what it was really like and so wrote "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit". The book gives a distinctive child's perspective on the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany and the experience of being a refugee, reflecting Kerr's positive feelings about her own experience: