Projekt 1065

“I tossed one book onto the fire at a time, slowly, so Horst wouldn’t see me standing around doing nothing. My skin crawled, as if I was consigning little bits of my soul to the fire with each book I threw in. But like smiling at a Nazi dinner party or memorizing facts about the Nazis for tests in school, it was all about the bigger mission. It was all part of the game. If it meant them letting me stick around to steal their secrets so the Allies could win the war, I’d burn every last book in Berlin.” 

This quote introduces the theme of making sacrifices as part of a greater “mission.” In this case, Michael must give up some of his morals, his “soul,” by pretending to be a Nazi so he can gain information. The quote also incorporates the symbol of games that develops throughout the novel: At this early point, Michael sees his spy missions as a “game,” and doesn’t yet understand how serious his role is. Michael is already giving up “little bits” of his “soul” by feigning loyalty to a cruel regime; as the novel continues, he will have to compromise his morals in larger ways.

“In Nazi Germany, every weakness was punished. It was why Fritz was picked on, and why I would be too if the other boys knew about my phobia. They’d forever be hauling me up onto rooftops and forcing me to look over the side. Because that’s what Nazi Germany was: the bully who found your most painful wound and poked at it with a stick.” 

Gratz characterizes Nazi Germany as a “bully,” a symbol he’ll continue to develop throughout the novel. The author also develops the important theme of fear: Michael has a specific fear of heights he’ll have to overcome to achieve his goals throughout the novel, and on a broader level, Nazi culture punishes people for their fears. At the same time, the Nazis maintain their power by instilling fear in others and using intimidation tactics, just as a bully would.

“No business putting my life on the line for anything. That was exactly what was wrong with Nazi Germany. Some of the Germans must have disagreed with Hitler and the Nazis, but they were afraid that if they said something, did something, they might get shot. Or worse. So instead of anybody doing anything to help anybody else, they kept their eyes on their feet and pretended the sky wasn’t falling down on their heads.” 

In this quote, Michael responds to his father’s belief that Michael is too young to risk his own life—a direct contrast to Nazi philosophy, as the Nazis place children and teens in increasingly dangerous roles throughout the war. This quote therefore touches on the theme of children’s roles in war, while at the same time, the passage explores the theme of fear. Fear of risking their own safety causes Germans to stay quiet in the face of Nazi atrocities, which keeps the Nazis in power. Michael is determined to face his own fear, to take risks in order to save others, even if his father disapproves.

“‘You’re in a country that is burning piles of books. Books just like these. You’re risking your life to stop the Nazis from doing it. You’re fighting to give people everywhere the right to do what they want, to read what they want, to think for themselves. This, all this,’ he said, gesturing at the books on the shelves, ‘this is what you’re fighting for, and you haven’t even bothered to read them? The Nazis may as well throw them on the fire if you’re not going to read them.’” 

This passage emphasizes a major symbol in the novel, books, which stand for the free thought and expression Nazis want to repress in order to keep the population under their control. Simon articulates how crucial books are to a free society, and he encourages Michael to read and discuss books with him—to think critically. This exchange sets up the role Simon will play throughout the novel, as he pushes Michael to understand the war in a deeper, more meaningful way.

“‘If we didn’t bomb those factories, if we didn’t drop these bombs here, today, the Nazis would win, and then there would be even more prisoners. Even more innocent people would die,’ Simon said. ‘Sometimes good people have to be sacrificed to win a war.’

I nodded. My mother had told me the same thing, in her way, about leaving Simon behind. But we hadn’t sacrificed Simon, and it was good that we hadn’t. How did you decide who to sacrifice and who to save?” 

Gratz raises a thematic question that Michael will wrestle with throughout the novel: How can good people choose not to save other innocent people? If innocents must be sacrificed—something Michael still doesn’t completely believe at this point—how does a person decide who is and isn’t worth saving? These questions illustrate how the destruction and violence of war force even those fighting for good to make morally ambiguous choices. As the novel continues, Michael will need to move further away from a childlike, black-and-white view of what is right and wrong, as he sacrifices his own morals to act for the greater good.

There was a haunted look in Simon’s eyes now, and I knew he wasn’t joking. About any of it. It sounded silly to be afraid of birds, but a real fear, a real phobia, was a serious thing. People without one couldn’t understand.” 

While helping Michael deal with his phobia of heights, Simon shares his own lifetime fear of birds, thus establishing a connection between the two characters that will deepen throughout the novel. Both face a challenge that others in their world “couldn’t understand,” and this shared experience brings them together despite the differences in their ages, religions, and nationality. In addition, their bond develops the theme of facing fears throughout the novel: Simon affirms that a phobia like Michael’s is a “serious” problem that Michael will have to work hard to overcome, and one he can’t ignore.

“‘But confronting your fear in a controlled situation and learning to deal with your responses helps prepare you for the big ones. To that I can attest. Small steps, Michael. Small steps.’” 

Simon gives Michael a practical method to conquer his fear of heights through “small steps.” Simon’s encouraging of Michael to gradually face his fear is crucial to the plot and themes of the novel, as it both deepens Simon and Michael’s friendship, and allows Michael to confront his phobia to the point that he can handle himself in dangerous situations. Moreover, Simon’s advice applies more broadly to Michael’s development: Simon helps Michael to “prepare” for many “big” challenges he’ll have to face, such as making sacrifices and risking his own safety.

 “I was like Fritz at first, all desperate anger and flailing arms. I got myself a right proper beatdown that day, for a bully enjoys nothing more than when you try to fight back and fail miserably. But I got up, wiped off the blood, and fought back the next day. And the next. And every day I got a little better, learned a little something more, and one day I gave as good as I got, and the boys stopped dragging me behind the gym for my daily beating.

Because a bully hates nothing more than when you fight back and win.” 

This quotation uses the novel’s bullying motif to illuminate Michael’s character. Michael describes his past at an English boarding school where, as the only Irish student, he was constantly picked on until he learned to fight back. This experience allows readers to understand why Michael felt so “helpless” (8) when he witnessed a Jewish man being beaten and was unable to intervene. Michael’s instinct is to stand up for himself and others, to refuse to remain “helpless,” and to defeat bullies whenever possible. As the novel continues, Michael will fight back against the ultimate bully—the Nazis themselves.

“The boys all around me thundered their approval, their bloodlust ignited, and I stood over Fritz feeling their hunger for more violence. I panted with the deep, furious heave of a prizefighter ready for more. I wanted him to get back up, wanted to hit him again, to punish him for picking a fight with me. I wanted to punch him, kick him, bite him. I wanted to hurt Fritz, deeply and permanently.

I blinked, realizing with a start what I was thinking. I shook my head, trying to clear it. How had I slipped into being one of these monsters so easily? How had I forgotten so quickly that I was a human being?” 

In this scene, Michael’s natural instinct to fight back turns dark, as he realizes that violence can transform him into a “monster” just as it has for so many Nazis. Michael is angry with his friend Fritz for forcing Michael to truly fight him, but his “hunger” here goes beyond anger—the fight itself has left him drunk on violence, with the desire to inflict “deep” and “permanent” harm. Through this experience, Michael—and the reader—sees how a culture that values violence, and encourages young people to engage it, can transform “human being[s]” into “monsters.” Michael must maintain self-awareness and a strong sense of morals in order to avoid becoming one of the “monsters” of Nazi Germany.

“‘In completing this test, you have fulfilled but a small part of your duty to the Fatherland,’ he told us. ‘You do so with pleasure, for millions of your young comrades do the same. You have become a soldier for Adolf Hitler!’ He set the needle on a gramophone recording of a trumpet fanfare, and then we sang a couple of Nazi songs. The last one ended with the words ‘Today Germany listens to us, and tomorrow the whole world,’ but the boys changed the lyrics, as they always did, to ‘Today Germany belongs to us, and tomorrow the whole world!’ I got a cold shiver, and it wasn’t just from my dunk in the pool. If Hitler ever conquered the world, this was how he was going to do it—by turning all of Germany’s youth into his willing soldiers.” 

Gratz develops the theme of children’s roles in war, and demonstrates how Hitler and the Nazis devised a particularly unsavory way of using children. Hitler isn’t just putting young people into dangerous situations, moving them into active combat at a younger age; his propaganda tells young, impressionable Germans that if they give their whole selves to the war effort, then the “‘whole world’” will belong to them. Michael understands that gaining power over young people’s minds, rather than just their physical selves, is the real key to Hitler’s domination.

“The police were scared. You could see it in the looks they gave each other. Nervous glances that said, If we do or say anything, they’ll come for us next. Idiots! Didn’t anybody realize this was how Nazi Germany had gotten to be this way in the first place?” 

The theme of fear appears in multiple ways throughout the novel, and here it shows how adults who are meant to preserve justice—the police—are more concerned about saving themselves than rescuing a man being beaten by the Hitler Youth. As Michael reflects, Nazi Germany has exploited a human weakness—fear and the instinct to save oneself rather than helping others—by encouraging those with power to act ruthlessly against their fellow men. Michael believes choosing self-preservation over compassion has led to the rise of Nazi Germany, and he wishes people like the police would take responsibility and speak out for justice.

 “Again I saw myself four years ago, on the Night of Broken Glass. But now I saw it through new eyes—the eyes of my parents. Saw the awful trade: one man’s life against the fate of the entire world. My heart ached, as if it were slowly eating me up from inside.

Sometimes we have to sacrifice good people to win a war, Simon had told me. Sometimes you do what you have to do, even if doing it means doing something wrong.” 

When Michael’s classmates turn his teacher in to the Gestapo, Michael confronts a question he’s dealt with since the opening of the novel: When is it acceptable to sacrifice the innocent for a larger cause? For the first time, Michael himself has to make this choice, and he realizes that standing up for his professor would keep him from completing a larger mission, one that could save many people. However, Michael can’t make this decision without compromising his own sense of right and wrong, and as a result, his heart “eat[s] [him] up from inside.” Melcher’s life is sacrificed, and a bit of Michael’s soul is as well.

“My heart banged against the door of the little box where I’d locked it away, but I didn’t let it out. Nobody deserved what was about to happen to Melcher, but I couldn’t stop it. Not if I wanted to get the jet plans. But I died inside a little too.” 

This quotation illustrates Michael’s growing maturity, and also the personal price he must pay, as he chooses to let his teacher be hurt and likely killed in order to save many other innocent people. As Michael must lock away his “heart,” his compassion, he loses a bit of himself even as his logical, adult thought process assures him he’s doing the right thing. Adding another dimension to the theme of sacrifice for the greater good, the author shows how such a choice hurts everyone involved, not just the person who is sacrificed. Ultimately, Gratz suggests that even when individuals do their best to fight injustice, war will cause all of its victims to lose parts of themselves.

“‘But I won’t be on patrol tonight,’ I told them. ‘The SRD will be manning the antiaircraft guns.’

It was as if I’d dropped a bomb all my own in my father’s study. Ma’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. Da’s face went ashy white.

‘Good lord, Michael,’ Simon whispered. ‘You can’t be serious. That’s a death sentence, and you’re—you’re thirteen-year-old boys.’

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have any choice in the matter. None of us did.” 

This passage emphasizes the theme of children’s roles in war, as the Nazis have ordered 13-year-old boys to oversee the antiaircraft guns during bombings, an act so dangerous Simon considers it a “‘death sentence.’” Simon and Michael’s parents are clearly horrified by the Germans’ actions, even though they allow 13-year-old Michael to risk his safety for the Allied cause. Michael chooses to fight for the Allies rather than being forced or brainwashed into doing so; in fact, Michael is fighting for a world in which children are respected as individuals and allowed to think for themselves, rather than being treated as expendable tools to be used in warfare.

“I shook with both horror and guilt. I had wanted to keep Max from telling on me for sabotaging the AA gun, for pumping him for information about the science team, and now he was dead. It was hard not to think I’d caused it somehow, that my wishing him quiet had killed him.” 

Gratz demonstrates that even for those fighting on the side of justice, war forces people to compromise their morals and inflict harm on others. While Michael does not actually kill Max, he considers doing so, because he’s afraid Max will keep him from completing his mission. Michael must now live with the horror of seeing Max violently killed by shrapnel during a bombing, and even worse, the sense he’s contributed to another young boy’s death. The death of one 13-year-old, and the remorse of another, provides another example of how children are forced to participate in war and, as a result, to grow up far more quickly than they otherwise would.

“Fritz reached down and helped me up. He didn’t look as wild or bloodthirsty as he had when he’d led the pool hall raid or the attack on Herr Professor Doktor Major Melcher. He looked cold. Hard. The exploding bombs, the AA gun, the evisceration of Max, the ambush by the Edelweiss Pirates—this was war. We weren’t playing games anymore, and we both knew it.” 

This passage illustrates how the horrors of war have transformed Michael and Fritz from boys who treat war as a game, to teenagers who have witnessed and participated in acts of terrible violence, and matured quickly as a result. Fritz’s journey in particular provides an example of the way war affects many Nazi boys, as the Nazi regime encourages “wild,” “bloodthirsty” actions—and over time, such violence leaves young people “cold” and “hard,” forcing them to push down their emotions and compassion. At this point in the novel, Fritz is still “help[ing]” Michael, but the two have clearly drifted apart, and the comment that neither is “playing games” foreshadows the inevitable confrontation to come between the two.

“Up until now, it had all been a game. Kim’s Game. The game of spies. But if I turned Simon in, if I turned my parents in, this wouldn’t be a game anymore. This would be real. We were talking about real sacrifice here—and not my sacrifice. The sacrifice of people I loved and cared about.” 

This quote uses the motif of games to illustrate Michael’s journey toward adulthood, as he understands that war is not a “game,” but a terrible reality that requires “real sacrifice.” Earlier in the novel, Michael was unable to understand how his parents could allow innocent people to die, in order to save a greater number of people; now Michael must make the same choice himself. His dilemma reveals that in war, there are no simple solutions, and loss and sacrifice are inevitable; war forces him to transform from a boy playing games, to an adult making a difficult decision that could both save and end lives.

“‘The Nazis are like cornered animals. Savage. Wild. Putting thirteen-year-olds in charge of antiaircraft guns, sending seventeen-year-olds to the front lines. I don’t know how much longer the war will last—another year? Two? Three? But the longer it lasts, the more abominable the Nazis will become.’” 

Michael’s father voices an important theme in the novel: the horror of using children to fight—and die in—a war. This tactic emphasizes the worst part of Nazi philosophy, as the Nazis are “savage” in their drive to win at all costs, showing no value for the lives of either their own people or their enemies. This “abominable” cruelty reveals why Michael’s family will compromise their own safety to ensure the Nazis do not win. At the same time, Michael’s parents don’t want to sacrifice everything, and as the Nazis’ behavior grows more despicable, they make plans to move their family to a safer place.

“Fritz was changing. Becoming something…different. Something I didn’t like. But that boy who’d asked me to help him be stronger, the boy who’d dragged me upstairs to share his detective novels with me, that boy—that friend—had to still be in there somewhere. And that friend would see the light. That friend would help me save the scientist.” 

Michael sees that Nazi culture is “changing” Fritz into a ruthless, emotionless boy, just as it has so many other young Germans. Michael, with his faith in human kindness and compassion, hopes the good side of Fritz is still inside of him. The quote therefore illustrates the power of their friendship and how it has changed both boys, allowing them to help each other grow and mature. However, despite Michael’s hopes, their bond may not be enough to overpower Nazi Germany’s dark influence.

“Fritz stood over me, a look of fierce cruelty in his knitted eyebrows, and suddenly I understood. Why Fritz had wanted me to teach him how to fight. Why he’d been so desperate to join the SRD. All his life, Fritz had been the boy with the bloody nose sitting here on the ground, looking up at the bully who’d beaten him.

He’d joined the SRD so he could become the bully himself. Just like little Hitler.” 

Michael finally accepts the fact that his friend has changed irrevocably and irredeemably. Adding a new dimension to the motif of bullying in the novel, Michael sees that while fighting against bullies can be noble, it can also go too far, and lead the bullied to become bullies themselves. On a larger level, both Germany, a country weakened after World War I, and Germany’s leader, “little,” physically weak Hitler, have become bullies as well. Ultimately, bullying creates a pattern of violence, as the Nazi bullies encourage “fierce cruelty” in a new generation.

“We were just thirteen, me and Fritz, but we didn’t look like boys anymore. Nazi Germany, the war, the Hitler Youth—all of it had made us into men. Not ‘man-gods’ as Hitler had said, but boy-men. Boys whose insides, whose hearts and minds and souls, had been forced to grow up faster than our bodies. The war had made us men, and it was time to act like it.” 

This quote provides one of the strongest expressions of the theme of children’s roles in war, and in particular, the fact that war “force[s]” young people to grow up too quickly. Unlike loyal Nazis such as Fritz, Michael understands that he’s not completely prepared for this new responsibility; he is not a “man-god” but a boy-man, not fully grown into his new role. Still, Michael has no choice but to act like a man, and he does so in a way opposite from Fritz. While Fritz exerts power over others, Michael makes sacrifices in order to save lives.

“[Horst] had this coming ever since he’d been our Jungvolk leader, ever since he’d let the bigger boys pound the smaller boys for fun, ever since he’d put me and Fritz in the ring together and told him to keep getting up, ever since he’d beaten that Edelweiss Pirate to within an inch of his life. I gave Horst the beatdown he’d delivered to so many other boys, the beatdown I wanted the Allies to give to that bully Adolf Hitler.” 

Michael beats up his former squad leader Horst so that he can take Horst’s place on the special SRD team. While Michael is gratified to put this particular bully in his place, the act isn’t really about Horst at all—rather, Michael is acting out his anger toward the Nazis, and delivering the beating he’d like to give to “that bully Adolf Hitler.” Hitler, of course, is a much bigger bully who can’t be defeated so easily. Yet for Michael, who knows firsthand what it’s like to be bullied and who finds it difficult to stand by and witness injustice, fighting the Nazis is a natural part of his character. In a way, as Michael works to join the special SRD team and foil an assassination plot, he really is giving a “beatdown” to the Nazi bullies.

“When the war was over, the world would be ruled one way, or the other—by freedom or fascism, by hope or by fear. I had seen the depths, the lengths, the Nazis would go to win that war, sacrificing their own children to the cause, and I also knew firsthand the sacrifices the Allies had made to stop them. […]

Whether they wanted them to or not, Simon and the Allies were fighting to save the world for Switzerland too. And Ireland. What right did the Swiss, the Irish, the Spanish—anyone—have to sit out the fight for the fate of the world when they too would live or die by the result?” 

This quote addresses several of the novel’s important themes: the use of children in warfare, the power of fear, and the necessity of sacrificing for the greater good. The Nazis disregard children’s safety, even their lives, and instill fear in the German people to keep them from rebelling. The evil the Nazis represent is so great that good people will go to extreme lengths to stop them, including sacrificing innocent lives. At this point near the end of the novel, Michael has witnessed enough horrors to understand that an evil force like the Nazis will affect the entire world, and that standing by and allowing the evil to occur is as harmful as participating in it. As Michael puts it, no one has the right “to sit out” this war. The cost of fighting and sacrificing may be high, but the cost of losing—of surrendering to “fear” and “fascism”—will be even higher.