The Outsiders of Oskoken Castle

The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle

Dust jacket for the 1967 edition
Author	Kurt Kläber
Original title	Rote Zora und ihre Bande
Translator	Lynn Aubry
Cover artist	Emanuel Schongut
Publication date	1941
Published in English	1967
Pages	353 pp
OCLC	1170405

The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle is a children's novel written by Kurt Kläber. The German original, Rote Zora und ihre Bande (Red Zora and her gang)), was published under the pseudonym Kurt Held in 1941. The English version was translated from German by Lynn Aubry, illustrated by Emanuel Schongut and published in 1967 by Doubleday.

The story is about the adventures of Zora and a band of children who live in the ruins of an Uskok castle on the coast of Croatia. The children steal out of necessity, because they have no parents or other family to look after them. They are frequently involved in conflicts with the town's residents and reject the authority of adults, except for Gorian, an old fisherman who helps the children. When he needs help the children repay his kindness by coming to his rescue.

Kurt Kläber was a German Jewish communist living in exile in Switzerland after his arrest on suspicion of involvement with the Reichstag fire. He adopted the pseudonym Kurt Held because he was known to the authorities as a political activist, so his works could not be published under his own name.

Kläber traveled to Yugoslavia in 1940, where he met Branko, Zora and her band. The book is based on his experiences with these orphaned children in the Croatian city of Senj, where there is a castle called Nehaj Fortress.

In real life as in the story, the first child Kläber met in Senj was Branko, a boy who had recently been orphaned. Zora told Branko that the police were investigating him for stealing food. So Kläber was introduced to Zora. He wanted to take Branko and Zora back to Switzerland with him, but his refugee status made that impossible. Instead he wrote the children's story, intending to make it a political tool to draw attention to marginalized people in Europe. Zora became the central figure because Kläber was impressed with the way she organized the children into a band and taught them solidarity. The boys accepted her as their leader.

The German title Rote Zora ... refers to Zora's red hair. The Uskoken in the English title refers to the Uskoks, a band of pirates from 16th century Senj.