Behind the Bedroom Wall

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1996

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary

Korinna continues to help her mother to deliver food to the Krugmanns and decides to visit Rachel in the space behind the wardrobe. She notes how bad the space smells and how confined and airless it feels once the wardrobe is pulled back into place.

Korinna brings an old set of colored pencils for Rachel; Rachel is delighted and grateful but also surprised at the gift: “You don’t like Jews” (113). Korinna is embarrassed and uneasy with her candor; she doesn’t know what to say. They talk about the colors of the pencils and compare them to each other’s hair; Rachel tells Korinna that she wishes her hair were blonde—then they wouldn’t have to hide. Korinna draws a picture of her own house so that Rachel knows what it looks like. When Frau Rehme knocks, Korinna is startled and reflects on how scary it must be for Sophie and Rachel each time the wardrobe is opened. Korinna gives Rachel an old doll, and Rachel is thrilled. Rachel tells Korinna that she calls the kitten Tag, which is Hebrew for “day,” because she gets to play with him during the day. Korinna agrees that this is a great name for the cat.

Rita tells Korinna that her mother doesn’t seem very loyal. She asks why Korinna’s mother is too busy to attend Women’s Organization meetings. It’s awkward, and Rita apologizes. Rita, Eva, and Korinna go to their jungmädel meeting. Afterward, walking home, Rita tells Korinna that a local family, the Reinekes, have been arrested for hiding Jews. Korinna asks what happened to the Jews; Rita has no idea and is surprised at the question. Frau Reineke is Korinna’s mother’s best friend; Korinna downplays this connection to Rita, saying that the two are no longer very close.

When Korinna gets home, she finds her mother weeping. They hold each other. Korinna comforts her mother, feeling as though their roles are reversed.

Chapter 12 Summary

After the jungmädel meeting, Korinna nervously asks Rita whether she ever thinks of Anita Scheinmann, a Jewish girl who used to live next door to Korinna. Rita confesses to Korinna that she thinks of Jewish people a lot, and wonders if Korinna does too. Korinna denies this at first. Rita tells her that she feels sorry for Jewish people and just pretends to hate them. Excitedly, Korinna admits that she feels the same way. Korinna asks whether Rita has seen her black book; she can’t find it. Rita abruptly tells her that she has to go. Korinna feels uneasy.

At home, Frau Rehme tells Korinna that Sophie’s elder daughter and Rachel’s sister, Ruth, died. She was hiding with her father in a barn and became sick in the damp and cold conditions. Korinna, wanting to comfort Rachel, asks her if she wants to come out of the hidden room to draw with her on her bedroom wall. Crying, Rachel draws her sister, Ruth. Korinna notices that she has drawn Ruth with blonde hair and blue eyes and surmises that Rachel has forgotten what her sister looked like.

Chapter 13 Summary

Korinna awakes when her father enters her bedroom. He’s accompanied by Herr Krugmann, who picks up Rachel and hugs her and then hugs Sophie; it’s an emotional and loving reunion. Herr Krugmann shakes Herr Rehme’s hand and sincerely thanks him for helping them. Herr Krugmann joins Sophie and Rachel in the tiny space. Korinna hears their whispered voices as they reconnect; she goes to sleep in her parent’s bed.

Rita doesn’t wait for Korinna to walk to school the next day. At school, Eva avoids Korinna’s gaze; Rita is short with her, asking whether she’s going to the jungmädel meeting or whether she’s sick. Rita asks why Korinna looks so tired and whether something has been keeping her awake. All the other girls are looking at Korinna and excluding her. Korinna remembers when Anita, the Jewish girl, was excluded in a similar way a few years earlier.

When the meeting ends, Korinna walks quickly home. Eva, walking behind her, instructs her not to turn around or acknowledge her; Eva whispers that the Gestapo will raid the Rehme’s house that night and then abruptly walks away. Panicked, Korinna continues to walk quickly home—not wanting to attract attention by running. A family passes her on bikes. The young girl on the back waves; Korinna absently waves back.

She arrives home and tells her parents about the raid. They reassure her that the Krugmanns have moved on to their next hiding place; a group of three people arrived at the Rehmes’ front door, traded clothing with the Krugmanns, and left out the back door while the Krugmanns left with the borrowed clothing on bikes. Korinna realizes that it was probably Rachel who waved from the bike. She regrets never hugging Rachel or telling her how much she cared for her. Her mother assures her that Rachel knew that Korinna cared for her.

Korinna, knowing that the Gestapo will thoroughly raid the house, has an idea. She gathers her jungmädel pamphlets.

Chapter 14 Summary

The Gestapo come as soon as it’s dark. They intentionally destroy the home as they search. When they reach Korinna’s bedroom, they break down the wardrobe with an axe. An officer punches Herr Rehme in the stomach. When the hidden room is exposed, Korinna confidently tells them that it’s her secret room. She says that her parents don’t like how involved she’s in her jungmädel because she neglects her studies, so she created a space to keep the materials. She had spread the pamphlets over the floor, and pinned clippings about the Fuhrer to the walls. Korinna’s parents begin chiding her for neglecting her studies and disobeying them.

Hans, furious, yells that it’s a trick. He produces Korinna’s black book and asks what was on the missing page. Korinna says that it was a drawing of her cat. Hans says that she’s lying, that it said her parents were “traitors, Jew-lovers” (156). As the officers leave, Hans brutally kicks the kitten, Tag.

Chapter 15 Summary

Crying, Korinna picks up Tag, who is still alive but hurt. The family decides that it’s too dangerous to stay. Korinna reflects that Rita likely tipped off the search after their conversation about Jewish people. Korinna packs a small bag with essential clothing and Rachel’s drawings. Her father has left bicycles behind their house in case of emergency, which they’ll use to flee. She reflects that it might now be her who needs to hide in the hole in someone’s bedroom wall. It occurs to her that freedom is just as important as love.

Chapters 11-15 Analysis

In these final chapters, Korinna continues to distance herself from Rita and become closer to Rachel. This change in allegiance symbolizes her growing disillusionment with the Nazi regime, which the strictly patriotic Rita epitomizes. Korinna’s disillusionment results mainly from her growing sympathy for Sophie and Rachel’s plight. She spends time with Rachel in the secret room and reflects on how “confining” the space is; “Korinna still felt short of breath” (112) despite of the air holes drilled into the bathroom. Korinna is embarrassed and uneasy with Rachel’s candor; she doesn’t know what to say when Rachel tells her, “You don’t like Jews” (113). The young girl’s guileless honesty forces Korinna to face and redress her remaining unfounded hatred for Sophie and Rachel—and the Jewish race. Korinna finds it difficult to feel hatred toward Rachel, who is likable, affectionate, and grateful to Korinna for giving her colored pencils and visiting her in the secret room. Rachel has clearly become emblematic of the Jewish race for Korinna; she can no longer generalize the entire race as hateful and evil.

This illustrates Korinna’s growing maturity. When her mother cries over the arrest of her best friend, Frau Reineke, Korinna “pulled her mother close, feeling helpless, yet somehow in charge” (124). As she consoles her mother, Korinna reflects on their role reversal: “She suddenly felt quite grown up […] she wasn’t sure she liked the feeling, or the heavy sense of responsibility that came with it” (125). The stressful circumstances of sheltering the Krugmanns, as well as the stress of hearing about the nearby arrests of Jewish sympathizers, forces Korinna to grow up quickly. Her final realization in the closing paragraph, about the importance of freedom, illustrates that Korinna fully understands the effects of the Nazi regime: that it destroys freedom of religion, thought, and action—and replaces these freedoms with militaristic and violent control and suppression.

When Rachel draws her recently deceased sister, Ruth, with blonde hair and blue eyes, Korinna correctly surmises that Rachel was separated from Ruth for so long that she can’t remember what she looks like. However, the drawing also reveals Rachel’s internalization of Nazi propaganda, which depicts idealized images of blonde haired, blue-eyed German women as genetically superior to Rachel’s own darker coloring. This underscores the theme The Propaganda of the Third Reich and illustrates its insidious nature in that it influenced even those it oppressed.

These chapters further characterize Rita as untrustworthy and manipulative. Suspense builds before the second thorough and brutal Gestapo raid of the Rehme home. Rita questions Korinna about her mother’s notable absence at the Women’s Organization meetings: “Busy doing what?” (118). Her mounting suspicion that the Rehmes are harboring Jewish people is apparent. Rita’s trap, in which she confides that she feels sorry for Jewish people to trick Korinna into doing the same, touches on the theme Trust and Deception. Rita deceives Korinna, which Korinna fully realizes when her family home is destroyed and her father is beaten; Hans produces Korinna’s black book, which Rita stole from her. Realizing Rita’s role in the raid completes Korinna’s break of trust and loyalty with the Nazi regime and with Rita. The completion of her transformation is evident in how looking at the Fuhrer’s image on the pamphlets, which “had so impressed her” before, now “made her palms sweat” (148). Korinna’s choice to pack Rachel’s drawings as part of her meager possessions illustrates her continued loyalty and sympathy for the Krugmanns and emphasizes the theme Compassion for Jews and Disillusionment with the Nazi Regime. As her father predicted early in the novel, Korinna made the “right choice.”