1-95 Summary
These pages comprise fourteen short sections, which alternate between the four young narrators, all of whom are experiencing the same devastating time in history. It is 1945 and Joana, Florian, Emilia, and Alfred are enduring the harrowing conditions of WWII in East Prussia while harboring secrets that haunt them as loudly as the terrifying sounds of war. As the novel begins, thousands of displaced refugees are walking to the coast to escape the encroaching Russians. Joana, a twenty-one-year-old Lithuanian woman, along with other refugees, trudges along an icy road, as planes drone overhead and bombs reverberate through the nearby forest. Her group of haggard survivors includes Klaus, an orphaned six-year-old boy whom they refer to as “the little boy” or “wandering boy”; Heinz, a kindly, old cobbler lovingly called the “shoe poet;” Ingrid, an intuitive blind girl; and Eva,a “giant,” outspoken woman.
When the little boy discovers a dead Latvian girl buried under the snow, Joana takes her identification papers. Meanwhile, Emilia, a traumatized fifteen-year-old Polish girl, seeks refuge in an abandoned cellar, where a Russian soldier discovers her. Were it not for the sudden appearance of Florian, a wounded young Prussian who has been hiding in the forest, Emilia would likely have been raped and killed. After Florian shoots the soldier, Emilia, who is hiding her pregnancy, follows Florian to the road, though he tries to lose her. At the port of Gotenhafen, seventeen-year-old Alfred, an arrogant German soldier, hides in a supply closet. Yet, in an imaginary—and delusional—letter to his alleged childhood sweetheart Hannelore, he grossly exaggerates his status in the German army.
When a senior officer finds him, he is sent to the port to assist with the extensive evacuation and to avoid becoming “Moscow’s girlfriend” (19). That night Joana’s group coincidentally encounters Florian and Emilia in an abandoned barn. Joana, a trained medical assistant, tends to the injured. Florian secretly admires Joana’s beauty. Emilia is too frightened and ashamed to let Joana examine her. Eva, the blunt “giant,” speaks Polish and discovers that Emilia has fled from near Nemmersdorf, where Russians have committed unthinkable atrocities. Eva concludes that Emilia’s intellectual father was murdered by the Russians.
These pages comprise twelve short sections that move the characters farther along their treacherous journey. After everyone is asleep in the barn, Joana removes embedded shrapnel from Florian’s infected wound. Emilia watches protectively. Although he is taken by her beauty, Florian refuses to tell Joana his name and accuses her of trying to steal from him. He shares his only cigarette with her, and she confesses, “I’m a murderer” (42). After Joana falls asleep, Florian steals a drawing made by Joana’s cousin from her bag. Sitting nearby, Ingrid senses his violation.
A conversation between Eva and Emilia reveals that thousands of Poles have been killed, including Emilia’s dearest friends. In another boastful letter to Hannelore, Alfred describes the throngs of desperate people arriving in the port, “weary and filthy from their long treks” (38). He is sent to prepare the massive ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, for the thousands of refugees fleeing the impending attacks. At dawn, Florian leaves the barn, determined to get to the port without distraction. He recalls his bittersweet days as a gifted restoration apprentice in a museum, working for the manipulative Dr. Lange, one of Hitler’s cronies.
Emilia chases after him, afraid to trust the others. When Florian tells Emilia she’s safer with Joana’s group, Emilia hopelessly reflects, “Safer? He didn’t realize. I was already dead” (47). Florian gives Emilia the dead German’s gun and tells her to “go away” (53.) When the shoemaker declares, “Time to rise. Feet are strongest in the morning,” Joana and the others set out to find an abandoned estate once belonging to Prussian aristocrats (48). Ingrid proves her intuitive ability to “see people” and describes Emilia and Florian to Joana. Joana reveals how she met Ingrid, who had been left stranded at a train station. Miraculously, the exhausted group eventually finds the ravaged estate.
These pages, containing fifteen short sections, begin as Florian and Emilia make their way through the dark forest. Florian gives Emilia a piece of sausage he pilfered from the soldier he shot in the cellar but plans to abandon her that night. Meanwhile, Alfred observes that “anxiety swelled in the harbor with each minute that passed” (65.) Operation Hannibal, the extensive evacuation, is officially underway. He fantasizes about his homecoming as a war hero, and boasts to Hannelore, “I have been selected for a very important mission to disinfect this land” (66). In reality, he is cleaning toilets.
Straggling behind her “knight” Florian, Emilia spies a German soldier stalking him, gun drawn. She shoots him, then Florian finishes the job and buries the body. They quickly run from the scene. Joana’s group explores the ransacked mansion and discovers the remains of the aristocrats’ final meal rotting on the table. Ingrid senses danger. “‘I don’t like it,’ she whispered,’ clinging to Joana” (71). Florian and Emilia see smoke coming from the mansion and walk towards it. Emilia collapses in pain. Joana discovers that Emilia is eight months pregnant and in premature labor. Horrified, Florian wonders, “Did war make us evil or just activate an evil already lurking within us?” (79) In the warm firelight, Joana and Florian connect over a bowl of bean soup, while the shoe poet and the little boy Klaus bond polishing their boots.
The kind, old man dances with Joana while Florian admires her. The group plans their upcoming trip across the frozen Vistula lagoon and makes plans to hide Emilia’s (Polish) and Ingrid’s (blind) identities, as disabled people were considered inferior by Hitler. By the hollow sound of his step, the shoe poet notices that the heel of Florian’s boot is hollow and says, “The shoes tell the story” (89). As Joana and Florian raid the kitchen for supplies, Eva’s screams pierce the air as she discovers the Prussian aristocrats murdered in their beds.
1-95 Analysis
This section develops the identities of the major and minor characters as well as the book’s significant themes and motifs.The setting is East Prussia, January 1945. Hitler and Stalin are battling as the Allied presence grows.The Red Army is targeting German forces in Poland and East Prussia, with battle zones running from the Lithuanian coast to the Balkans region.As the novel begins, Operation Hannibal, the mass evacuation from East Prussia and the Polish corridor, is officially underway, and hundreds of thousands of refugees are making their way to the port of Gotenhafen, where massive ships will take them to Kiel. Alfred is in Gotenhafen and the other characters are in East Prussia, a couple days walk to the port.
The story is told through four, first-person narratives, which take shape around the four principal characters: Joana, Florian, Emilia, and Alfred. Their unique points of view and personal histories are told in short, alternating sections, sometimes as few as two pages long. The wise shoe poet, the innocent little boy, bold Eva, and insightful Ingrid do not have individual sections. They appear through the stories of the other characters. Sepetys provides her readers with a diverse cross-section of narrators and thus a broad view of World War II’s impact on children, families, and social structures across Europe.
Themes such as “reinventing the fractured family” and “coming of age through trauma” appear early in the narrative. Sepetys also investigates the psychology of the fascist dictator through Alfred, a delusional seventeen-year-old soldier, and invites readers to decide whether or not it is possible to feel compassion for him. When Joana and her group join Florian and Emilia, they cautiously begin to trust one anotherand to work through their traumatic histories. Although they resist getting close to one another initially, they quickly forge authentic bonds that show human kindness and hope for family still exist in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. The strong female characters drive the narrative forward and establish an empowered feminine archetype during wartime.
The main turning point in part 1 occurs when the group convenes by chance at a ransacked mansion owned by Prussian aristocrats. The contrast between the remnants of the once lavish interior and the destruction the group finds shows the brutality and senselessness of war and its impact on the home and family. The group relaxes over a warm meal in relatively cozy accommodations. What bonds them isa traumatic experience, which they share with one another when Eva discovers the family murdered in their beds. The image that best describes what Eva’s gruesome discovery evokes contrasts Eva’s strength with the exploited vulnerability of children harmed by war: “Eva’s face was so white it looked blue. A stuffed rabbit dangled from her massive hand. One of its ears was missing” (95).
96-186 Summary
These pages contain twelve short sections, beginning with Florian’s. At sunrise, the group joins “a massive procession of people and carts…as far as the eye can see” (98).While Joana attempts to help the injured, Eva investigates the crowd.Joana devises a plan to masquerade young Emilia as the dead Latvian women whose papers she holds. Florian utilizes the SS courier pass he forged to impress the checkpoint guard but resists claiming association with the others. Before they can proceed, a plane appears, and “a cluster of human beings…exploded with a bomb” (109).
In a harrowing scene, Ingrid, who has bandaged her eyes to appear injured, pretends to see a soldier’s scarf to avoid arrest. The resourceful shoe poet masterfully distracts the young Nazi at the checkpoint by offering to repair his shoes. In Gotenhafen, Alfred continues to weave tails of grandeur in letters to Hannelore while stripping the ship of furniture and décor in preparation for voyage. Joana discovers that the drawing from her cousin is missing from her suitcase. Florian sneaks away from the group and hides behind the organ pipes in a nearby cathedral where the others eventually congregate to sleep while the lagoon freezes. Florian privately admires what he has been keeping secret: a tiny swan, the “Fuhrer’s most favorite” treasure from the precious Amber Room, “a glittering chamber of amber, jewels, gold, and mirrors,” that the Nazi’s stole from Leningrad in 1941 (125).
These pages contain thirteen short sections, beginning with Emilia’s. The shoe poet awakens the group to cross the lagoon. Florian remains hidden but watching. Joana devises a clever story for Emilia’s identity. Ingrid, who claims she “can truly feel the ice” if she is alone, insists she leads the group across the frozen, blood-stained lagoon (130.) Suddenly, Russian planes release a shower of bullets, firing holes in the ice.Ingrid is shot and falls into the freezing water while the others scatter. Florian heroically appears to save Joana from the cracking ice, as she attempts to rescue Ingrid.
The traumatized group retreats to the bank. The little boy cries, “Make it stop. No more” and a distraught Joana sobs (133). Florian is unable to embrace Joana. Emilia gently lifts his arms and places them around her (134).After several hours, the group makes the long trek across the fragile lagoon, though no one celebrates their safe arrival on the peninsula.Joana and Emilia pressure Florian to tell the checkpoint guard the group belongs with him. Florian uses his forged status to arrange for a boat to Gotenhafen.
Much to his chagrin, the group follows him to the dock after they arrange for other evacuees to take their cart and belongings to the port. Joana observes, “Nothing could have prepared us for what we found” in Gotenhafen (152). Wandering farm animals and distraught refugees fill the snow-covered streets seeking food and shelter. Even self-assured Florian is overwhelmed. After an unexpected encounter with a woman pushing a goat in a baby carriage, the group bonds over an inside joke. Florian’s unexpected and brilliant smile devastates. The group heads to a movie theater to sleep.
These pages are comprised of twelve short sections, beginning with Florian’s. Heightened military presence in Gotenhafen unnerves Florian. The German military’s systems are “meticulous” and include ruthless tactics for identifying and sorting the various groups of refugees (157). Florian fears his forged documents will fail inspection by high-level officials. Preoccupation with his own survival is eclipsed by concern for others. He reflects: “the feeling of desperation was so physically present I could have shoveled it off the dock” (157). A letter from Alfred’s“mutter” (mother) reveals that he has a secret butterfly collection in his room and that he and Hannelore are not even friends, let alone romantically involved. Alfred responds cruelly and dismisses her.
The resourceful and resilient shoe poet trades a pair of scavenged boots for a pot of warm porridge. At the theater, Joana and Florian get closer while Emilia deals with labor pains.Florian tells Joana about his concealed injury—he is deaf in one ear from an explosion—and asks her to claim him as her patient to avoid being recruited for duty. Joana admits doing “something stupid”—she left a note for the family in the mansion signed with her full name because she felt guilty taking their sewing kit without asking.
She fears she will be implicated in their death. At the docks the next day, Joana approaches Alfred, who is rifling through abandoned luggage and steals a crystal butterfly. Florian describes him as a “first class booby” (177). Eva implores Joana to abandon the group when Alfred recruits her to assist the doctor on the Gustloff. Instead, Joana convinces Alfred to register everyone for voyage in exchange for her assistance. Observing wily Alfred in action, Eva remarks, “Is he the best that’s left? I’m sorry, but I’m not putting my future in the hands of this heavy breather” (177).
While Joana remains on the docks to determine which wounded soldiers are fit for voyage, the others make their way to registration with Alfred, who is pleased with himself for finding a capable nurse so quickly.Florian is thrilled he has encountered such an easily-manipulated soldier to enact his plan. He convinces Alfred that he is on a secret mission and arranges for Alfred to bring him one of the boarding passes he has “taken as mementos of course” (186).
96-186 Analysis
After the gruesome discovery at the mansion, the group is in much need of a break. Before they find well-deserved and unexpected comic relief at the port, they suffer a terrible loss and survive yet another trauma that ultimately brings them closer. This section of the book shows more of each character’s individual psychology and personal history, as well as their flaws. This is especially true of Florian, who continues to be ambivalent about staying with the group and behaves selfishly before realizing that there is value in putting others first. This section marks a major emotional transition for Florian (and for the others, too), as he is forced to face and overcome, at least in part, his fear of intimacy.
By the time the group reaches Gotenhafen, Florian has made a major shift. Although he pulls his disappearing act a few times along the path, Florian pops up to save Joana’s life when she attempts to retrieve Ingrid from the hole in the ice. Florian cannot help himself—he cares. While Florian tries to reject intimacy, Emilia and Joana seek it, both in one another and in meaningful connections with others in the group, which allows them to start dealing with their painful pasts. Importantly, Ingrid’s death foreshadows what is to come of the Wilhelm Gustloff and the thousands of refugees making their way to the port. Ingrid can also be understood as a symbol of the ship itself; she believes her intuitive abilities will allow her to guide the others to safety, but instead she is shot down by the Russians. Ingrid dies heroically, albeit tragically, reinforcing the power of the feminine shown throughout the novel.
When the grieving group comes together to comfort one another, particularly revealing is the scene that describes Emilia tenderly comforting Joana and then lifting Florian’s arms to hold her. This moment symbolizes the bond Emilia helps create between Joana and Florian and the family unit they will eventually form. After this event, Florian remains with the group, although he still struggles with a desire to leave them behind. In Gotenhafen, the chance meeting with Alfred on the dock brings unexpected dark comedy.
Alfred is someone people love to hate, and luckily for everyone, the general dislike of Alfred is shown humorously. He is both a fool and a burgeoning sociopath, with fear so great he develops a blistery rash on his hands. Through his misguided attempts at agency, Alfred’s delusions of grandeur reveal his darker side, one potentially capable of causing great harm. Alfred plays a critical role in getting the group assigned to the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff,and he, like the diabolical dictators his character represents, is most proud of himself for aiding in the rescue of others, though in fact, his actions ultimately contribute to their demise.
187-280 Summary
These pages include fifteen short sections, beginning with Alfred’s. Alfred assesses the group through an opportunistic lens as he helps them register; he sees “hope” in pretty, blonde Emilia, whom he describes as “a fine specimen of the master race” (188). Eva decides to go look for their cart, though the poet pleads with her to register. Emilia is terrified and doesn’t want to use the Latvian’s papers. After seeing a woman with a dead baby trying to board, her attitude changes.
Alfred concocts yet another imaginary letter to Hannelore, in which he brags that he has been given a special assignment “assisting a young recruit on a very important mission for Gauleiter Koch,” the regional Nazi Party leader known for his brutality (198). In fact, Florian is running from Koch, as well as Dr. Lange, whom he is afraid might have discovered the missing swan. Although Alfred is hiding in the toilets, he “tells” Hannelore, “My catalog of heroics is growing so rapidly I can scarcely keep track” (199). Alfred does deliver the blank boarding pass to Florian in the theater, where Florian gets chummy with him to further manipulate the unsuspecting Alfred. He tells Alfred to send Joana and makes a point of saying, “I’ve heard she’s already spoken for” (207).
Joana visits Florian as requested, but she is annoyed he has summoned her. Florian finally tells her his name. Joana takes a reluctant Emilia to board the ship, as her labor is progressing. The poet, little boy, and Florian bundle up in the projection room, where Florian shares his growing affection for the boy and cobbler. Emilia’s labor intensifies aboard the Gustloff, which Joana describes as a “floating city” (215). Emilia finds the steel ship claustrophobic and wants to go back outside. Her anxiety intensifies when the doctor assures her she will have a Latvian translator once the ship is boarded. Emilia discloses the ship’s history: it was named for Wilhelm Gustloff, the former leader of the Swiss Nazi Party who was murdered. She says, “The ship was born of death” (218).
These pages are comprised of fourteen short sections, beginning with Florian’s. Florian forges his boarding pass and remembers his father, who told him he should do more than imitate the work of others. Florian describes the dazzling Amber Room (stolen from Poland), from which the crystal swan was taken, as “six tons of pure, glistening amber” (226). In his hollowed-out heel, he hides the map and key to the bunker where the Amber Room is hidden. Alfred imagines another letter to Hannelore, remarking the “East Prussians are a different Germanic breed altogether” (222). Avoiding work as usual, Alfred walks around until a soldier sends him to the infirmary to have the blistery rash on his hands looked at; there, he plans “to spy on the pretty nurse” (230). Joana and Emilia sleep nose-to-nose on cots in the maternity ward, bringing Joana bittersweet memories of her cousin. Emilia goes into labor and remembers her mother’s death during childbirth six years ago; she assumes she will die, too. As her pain increases, she believes she is being punished for her lies. “You must tell the truth, Emilia,” a voice tells her (233).Emilia admits to Joana, “There is no August” (233). The hideous story of her pregnancy unfolds: Frau Kleist, August’s mother, gave Emilia to Russian soldiers when they tried to take August’s sister. The Kleist family watched as Emilia was “dragged to the cold cellar” and raped (239).
In the morning, Florian, the poet, and the little boy wade through crowds to get to the dock. Rumors of Russian attacks fill the packed streets with terror. A desperate woman tries to buy the little boy so she will be given access to the ship. At the checkpoint, the little boy unintentionally distracts the guard from Florian, who fears his forged documents will incriminate him.Eva appears to return their luggage and leaves to board the Hansa, another ship destined for Germany (that did not sink).
These pages contain thirteen short sections, beginning with Joana’s. Alfred is called a “bedwetter” by fellow sailors when he claims he is on special assignment to avoid duty (256). Florian makes it through an intense luggage inspection by boldly threatening to report the arrogant young Nazi in charge to Gaultier Koch. Unbeknownst to Joana, Florian provides a forged letter with her signature indicating that Koch has assigned Joana as his nurse. Later, Joana takes Florian’s stitches out in the infirmary and asks him to see Emilia. After Florian shares a touching moment with Emilia’s baby, “She is you, she is your mother, your father, your country” (261), both Emilia and Joana are smitten with his tenderness. Joana and Florian laugh about gullible Alfred, who Florian promised an award for his “service.”
They share their first kiss. Florian hides in a chimney. The cobbler and little boy make money repairing shoes. In a letter to Hannelore, Alfred describes the Gustloff as a “living, breathing city” for all the people and activity about. He is increasingly obsessed with his “allegiance to our country and our Fuhrer” (267). Emilia continues to process memories of the vicious Frau Kleist, who gave her to the Russians. The little boy introduces himself to her baby, “I am Klaus” (274) and the shoe poet calls the baby “a miracle” (275). The young Nazi from the dock whom Florian threatened questions Joana about Florian and tells her Florian said Koch assigned her to him. The solider says he is going to call Koch’s office. Alfred brings Florian a meal in the chimney and shares his extreme political views, which raise hairs on the back of Florian’s neck. He says, “This guy wasn’t a sailor. He was a sociopath in training” (280).
187-280 Analysis
This part of the novel shows the steady rise in the emotional intensity that has been building since the beginning of the novel. The plot becomes more action packed and relationships between the characters grow more intimate, as truths previously hidden are revealed. Alfred comes (mostly) out of hiding from his letters to Hannelore (though he still “writes” to her) and plays a key role in the events leading up the sinking of the Gustloff. He continues to be a target of well-deserved ridicule and source of comic relief for both the reader and those aboard the ship, who find him ridiculous. Alfred’s social and emotional isolation has an upside: it allows him to observe and document many subtle and telling details that foreshadow the ship’s demise in an almost mechanistic way. This is perhaps his one legitimate act of service. Alfred also aids Florian in finding a safe place to hide on the ship, whichaffects the fate of Joana and Florian in a positive way.
However, he remains motivated by self interest and fear, and his irrational thinking and behavior increasingly show a progressive decline towards the pathology associated with Adolf Hitler. Joana, Florian, and Emilia intensify the bonds that align them as a family unit of sorts. Florian also forges a new connection with the shoe poet, Heinz, and little boy. He receives mentorship from the old man and a chance to be an “uncle” to the little boy, which will ultimately prepare him for the next phase of his journey. Within the security of their new connections, each character is able to face and process critical moments from their traumatic pasts. Doing this helps them to grow emotionally and be more present for others. This is especially true for Emilia who, surviving childbirth with a beautiful baby girl, admits the truth about being raped.
This section of the novel marks a significant shift for young Emilia, who embodies the mother archetype and demonstrates unparalleled courage and maturity. The emotional intensity of the plot is mirrored by the equally extreme atmosphere aboard the WilhelmGustloff. All descriptions point to an unhappy ending, whether or not the reader knows the fate of the ship in real life. The ship is grossly over capacity and twice Alfred makes mention that there are ten missing lifeboats. The chaos on the docks and the extraordinary desperation of the evacuees also forecast an inevitably dark ending. Adding to this anxiety-provoking environment is the pursuit of Florian by Koch, who sends an ominous telegram. It seems there can be no escape for those aboard.
281-378 Summary
These pages contain fourteen short sections that begin with Joana’s. Joana is furious with Florian for implicating her in his scheme. Emilia begs her not to expose him. She continues to process painful memories of the cruel Frau Klein and the hideous events leading up to her pregnancy. Alfred seeks out Joana for Florian, and then spies on the hundreds of young female cadets staying in the empty swimming pool. They laugh at him when he is discovered. Joana confronts Florian for putting her life in danger. He admits to forging her signature from the note she left in the mansion. Joana is relieved the incriminating document is no longer in the house, but Florian is unsure he can trust her.
Back in the infirmary, Emilia names her baby Halinka, after her dead mother, and longs for Poland. The ship finally leaves the harbor, carrying ten times its capacity of passengers. Florian considers exit strategies for the arrival in Kiel, while Alfred deals with terrible seasickness. He tries to gain entry to the infirmary, where he is laughed at by the injured soldiers. Joana and Florian go to the chimney, so Joana can cut his hair to disguise him. Florian asks Joana what she told him the night in the mansion as he couldn’t hear her in his deaf ear. Joana says, “I told you that I am a murderer” (308).
Then she tells the sad story of how her actions unintentionally caused the deportation, and likely death, of her cousin’s family (308). Florian tries to comfort her, and they look forward to arriving in Kiel. Joana tells Florian the message given to her by the young Nazi searching for him: “Have Beck contact me directly. Tell DRL is dead. Keys needed. Urgent” (311). Florian assumes he will be the next to die. Emilia remembers an incident that symbolized her death: her wreath that was supposed to float down the river caught fire and burned. She wonders if Florian rescuing her change her fate since “Saint Florian was a fighter of fire” in Poland (301).
These pages are comprised of twenty-one sections, some less than a page in length. Alfred’s nausea worsens with the extreme weather; he retreats to the music room. There a little girl mimics his vomiting with her stuffed bear, and Alfred rips the bear’s eye off. Florian ventures to the deck to check on the little boy and shoe poet, who introduces himself, “I’m Heinz” (314). Heinz shares that he is a widower and encourages Florian to pursue Joana. At 9:15, a massive jolt rocks the ship: “BANG!” (316). Alarms signal danger. Three more explosions follow. Emilia takes action in the maternity ward, directing Joana and the others. Emilia flashes back to the burning wreath she thinks predicted her death. Joana wants to wait for instructions. Emilia insists they move.
Alfred discovers they have been hit by torpedoes. The little girl with the bear is crushed by a moving piano; Alfred takes a life vest from near her feet and makes his way out. Florian, Heinz, and the little boy push through the crowded halls. The little boy makes sure “Opi” (Heinz) has the coins they earned repairing shoes. Joana helps women out of the maternity ward as the hallway fills with water and hysteria. Trampled bodies are caught in the stampede. Alfred steals a coat and watches an officer about to commit suicide after killing his family. Alfred mentally documents the event: “Torpedo strike: Approximately 9:15. Ship’s capacity 1463. Passengers on board: 10,573” (328).
Ten of the twenty-two lifeboats are missing. Desperate passengers scramble toward the lifeboats. Emilia calmly protects her child while mayhem erupts. Joana watches a full lifeboat get crushed. Terrified Alfred thinks hateful thoughts and tries to find a raft. Florian screams for Joana. Emilia crawls to the edge of the deck, where Joana meets her and the others. Joana makes it into a raft. Emilia insists Florian goes first and takes her baby. Florian leaves his precious pack with Alfred, and the poet gives him his life vest. Emilia sends the little boy when there is room for just one more. The raft leaves with her baby and the others. Emilia kicks loose a frozen raft and grabs paralyzed Alfred. Heinz jumps from the ship with the bag of coins and drowns. The survivors watch as the sea begins to swallow the Wilhelm Gustloff “in one large gulp” (341).
These pages contain eighteen short sections and end with a long letter from a new character, Chris Christensen. Joana wonders what she will do with the baby and the boy. Florian wonders where Emilia and his pack are. Emilia has faith her “knight” Florian will save her baby. Alfred observes: “Bodies were strewn like human confetti. Would I still get my medal?” (345). Joana and Florian watch as thousands perish. Passengers trapped onboard pound the glass and choke on sea water. Infants are thrown at rafts and fall into the sea. Dead bodies knock against steel lifeboats packed with screaming passengers. Joana clings to Florian and the baby, as the snow and sleet batter their frozen faces.
Emilia longs for her baby and watches the sinking ship ignite in flames and disappear “into the black” (351). Florian and Joana huddle together with the kids and prepare to die. Florian tells Joana about his life. Joana thinks of Lithuania and her mother and remembers Emilia’s courage when she sent the little boy to the raft in her place. Florian sees a light. Alfred’s final letter to Hannelore reveals the truth about their relationship and why he could never truly love her. Alfred reported Hannelore’s Jewish father.
When they came to arrest the family, Alfred told the authorities Hannelore was “part of the master race” (359). Hannelore repeatedly screamed, “I am Jewish,” which Alfred found rude (359). Alfred slips into a psychotic state and accuses Emilia of stealing his medal. Without thinking, she defends herself in Polish. He attacks her, screaming “Einer weniger. One less” (361). Alfred then sings the disturbing song he made up to remember all the groups of people Hitler hates. Emilia begs him to stop. He lunges at her and slips, hitting his head. Emilia reaches to steady him. When Alfred jerks away from her hand, he falls into the water and drowns.
Emilia finally begins to relax and dreams of Poland and her mother. She feels she finally “made it home” (363). A ship arrives to rescue Florian and Joana. Joana slips on the rope ladder, kicking Florian into the water. He is rescued. Florian, Klaus, Joana, and the baby huddle together. Florian wonders who he will be when they arrive in Kiel. Emilia dreams she’s making fairy bread with her mother and daughter and passes away feeling safe at last.
Time moves ahead twenty-three years. Florian and Joana are married and raising the kids. Florian reads a letter from Chris Christensen, a Danish woman whose husband found Emilia’s raft on their beach a month after the ship sank. She contacts Florian after reading a story about Halinka, a renowned swimmer, in which Halinka Said she lost her mother, Emilia, on the Gustloff. Chris put the story together with the details in Florian’s notebook. No one else claimed Emilia. Finally, she found the connection to Florian through Halinka’s story. Chris assures Florian that his “savior” Emilia is buried under a bed of roses.
281-378 Analysis
The final section of the novel is distinguished by confrontation, violence, and, surprisingly, hope. As they prepare for voyage, Joana confronts Florian, who has implicated her in his scheme to evade Hitler. Joana’s directness appeals to Florian and brings them closer. Later, Joana is able to confront her terrible guilt when she tells Florian the story of her cousin’s deportation and likely death. Florian is forced to confront the fact that he is indeed being pursued by the fate he designed— Gauleiter Koch is on to him, and he is likely next in line to die. Brave Emilia confronts the horrible events leading up to her pregnancy.
The Wilhelm Gustloffis also confronted: it is struck by three Soviet missiles.Given the massive ship is carrying ten times its capacity of passengers, all aboard the sinking vessel confront a terrifying end to the voyage that brings out passengers’ most extreme survival instincts. Violence erupts when the ship is struck. People stampede in the crowded halls. Children lay trampled in the stairwell. Alfred watches as a little girl holding a teddy bear is smashed by a piano. He later sees an officer about to commit suicide after shooting his family. Violence begets violence over and over again. This is especially true for Alfred, who ends his life as a result of a violent attack on Emilia after slipping into a state of delusion.Refusing to confront the truth about his past contributes to Alfred’s tormented death. He dies trying to carry out Hitler’s vision of a “superior race” and in so doing, shows the reader that hatred harms those who harbor hatred most of all.
Alternatively, hope begins to heal Emilia, Florian, and Joana before the ship sets to sea, and the foundation of trust and intimacy they have built enable them to overcome great obstacles in the final hours of the voyage. Because they have confronted past wounds and shared their secrets, they are able to imagine and hope for the future, however bleak. Though the ship is doomed, the resilient characters possess an emotional freedom that allows them to transcend the fate of the ship and the thousands who die. As the ship sinks, Emilia’s hopeful inner hero emerges, allowing her to save her daughter and the little boy. She even has hope for crazy Alfred, whom she pushes into a life raft.
Later, Emilia tries to save Alfred after he attacks her. Emilia gracefully and faithfully keeps hope alive, though she herself dies peacefully in the raft. Finally, the family unit created by Joana, Florian, and the children offers the possibility of a truly hopeful future. This hope is confirmed by Chris Christensen’s letter to Florian twenty-three years later. In it, Christensen reveals that baby Halinka is a world-class swimmer and that Joana and Florian have stayed together to raise the children, including one of their own, thus providing strong evidence of hope’s creation.Most hopeful of all is the final resting place brave Emilia found in a beautiful bed of roses, where she is remembered and loved.