Friedrich

Chapter 16: “Reasons,” provides the greatest opportunity for discussion in the novel, because it attempts to put forth reasons why German Jews didn’t leave Germany, why Germans accepted, tolerated, and supported the Nazi party, and how these reasons can be extrapolated for universal use on discussions of racism. Furthermore, it shows how easily “reasons” can be mistaken for, and can become, excuses. The narrator’s father’s actions highlight that many Germans knew about growing Jewish persecution. The father returns from a party meeting greatly agitated by what he has learned, and his first desire is to warn his Jewish friend to flee the country. The narrator’s father knows something he does not want to say out loud—something terrible. Of course, Herr Schneider provides a succinct and poignant argument for not leaving Germany.

Jewish people did flee Germany during this time; some made it to countries that were continually safe from Nazi persecution, such as Great Britain or the United States. Many others, however, fled to France or Denmark, only to find their Nazi enemies in control of those nations as well. Just as Herr Schneider points out, antisemitism may have found its extreme in Nazi Germany, but it existed in every other nation as well.

The reasons the narrator’s father gives for joining the Nazi party rings true for many Germans at that period; joining the party came with certain benefits that made their lives more prosperous. This highlights just how firm the Nazis’ grip was on the citizens; in many cases, the only way to take care of one’s family and have a decent life was to conform to the new regime. This improvement in German lives begs the moral question of whether or not such reasoning is justified when it means that another must suffer for one’s rise in affluence.

Chapter 17: “In the Swimming Pool,” illustrates an extreme scene of antisemitism based on the stereotype that a Jew is untrustworthy, which is first illustrated in Chapter 9: “The Ball.” The incident with the boy at the pool is an escalated version of the incident with the ball. This chapter speaks to the novel’s epigraph in the German version, which draws a parallel between antisemitism and other forms of racism in the line, “Over there it’s […] [Black people] today.” The swimming pool scene parallels racial segregation in the United States between white people and Black people.

This book was published in 1961 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, adding even more significance to the message and the impact Richter weaves into these scenes of casual discrimination. Another historically significant fact in this chapter is referenced when the pool attendant calls Friedrich “Friedrich Israel Schneider” (77). The italicized middle name refers to a law passed in 1938 that required Jewish individuals to have Jewish first names. If their names were German in origin, then they either had to have Israel or Sara as second/middle names.

Chapter 18: “The Festival,” like Chapter 5: “Friday Evening,” introduces aspects of Jewish religion and culture. It’s also an important depiction of the joyous, celebratory, and sacred aspects of being Jewish—not just the hardships. The descriptions of Friedrich’s Bar Mitzvah, a Jewish right-of-passage that occurs when a child turns 13, parallel aspects of Christian confirmations. The German Konfirmation is a rite of passage for all Protestant German youths. It’s called Firmung in the Catholic church in Germany. Similar to Friedrich reading from the Torah, a German youth would read a passage from the Bible or give a short speech. Afterward, friends and family of the youth gather at their home to eat, give gifts, and celebrate, just like at a Bar Mitzvah. To conclude the chapter, Friedrich tells the narrator that his Hebrew name is Solomon, which becomes significant in later chapters.

Chapter 19: “The Encounter” highlights how militarized German schools were leading up to the Second World War, and it serves as an indicator that war will soon begin. The chapter takes place sometime in 1938; Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, which is the date used to mark the beginning of World War II. Performing military-type drills in school was a concept left over from Imperial Germany and was not developed by the Nazis, but it served their purposes, and they expanded its use and militarism.

German students prior to the First World War were also drilled to march in military fashion and perform athletic sports resembling military training. The Nazis added much propaganda, as is shown in the song the students sing as they march in front of the Jewish children. The song in the book is called “Siehst du im Osten (Do you see in the East)” (86). The full title is Siehst du im Osten das Morgenrot and it was written in 1931 by Arno Pardun and was dedicated to Joseph Goebbels. The song’s second verse, which is the one the narrator and his comrades sing, refers to the Dolchstoßlegende mentioned in the Background section of this guide. The song also calls Germans to go to war to defend their rights, freedoms, and to avenge themselves; in the fourth verse, it calls for the death of the Jews. Of course, the second song the youth sing at the end of the chapter does so as well. In fact, it goes a step further and wishes that, when the Red Sea parted for Moses, the people of Israel would have been swallowed up in its waters instead of Pharoah’s army, so that the world could have been at peace.

The events mentioned in Chapter 20: “Pogrom” refer to the night of the 9th and 10th of November in 1938. The night came to be called Kristallnacht (translated as the Night of Broken Glass), or the November pogrom. The rampage was instigated by the assassination of the German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, by a German-born Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan. The riots took place all over Germany. Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues, etc., were targeted by the mobs and ransacked similar to what is described in the book. The number of deaths is unknown but estimated to be in the hundreds.

The narrator’s behavior represents the ease at which an individual can be swept up in the current of events and the danger of mob mentality. Though the narrator is friends with a Jew and shows no signs of antisemitic sentiments, he nevertheless joins with the group to destroy Jewish property. He enters what one might call a trance, driven by the energy of the crowd and a visceral drive to destroy; he acts like an insect in a swarm. It isn’t until he comes back to consciousness, with the image of the hammer stuck in the blackboard, that he feels disgusted by his own actions. This scene is an attempt to understand how some Germans, who never held antisemitic feelings prior to the rise of the Nazis, joined in, or at least stood idly by because they were intoxicated by the frenzy of those around them or afraid of standing out against the crowd.