The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

Like Gretel, Hansel uses an assumed name to avoid revealing his Judaism. However, his physical appearance makes his ethnicity harder to conceal. In addition to “dark eyes” and “dark curly hair,” Hansel has a telltale circumcision (32). Dyed hair and a pretend backstory allow him to evade the Nazis’ punishment, though he does arouse their suspicion. Hansel is 7 years old at the start of the novel. He fills the role of impulsive and playful younger brother to Gretel’s serious, responsible big sister. To Magda’s dismay, he “jumped and ran and talked all day” after a few weeks adjusting to her hut (58). He also has a complicated regard for the Nazi soldiers. Although those forces are ruining the lives of children like him, Hansel admires their fearlessness and isn’t above saluting the soldiers to earn extra food.

Hansel is also affectionate and kind. He adores Nelka and develops a close bond with Magda. As Hansel must accept more responsibility, his role in the narrative dramatically changes; “He didn’t have a big sister to take care of him anymore” after Gretel’s rape, “and it made his stomach turn over again. […] He’d never lived without a big sister” (147). Though Hansel does not choose or enjoy his new role, he adjusts to it well. He leads Gretel from Magda’s burning hut and is smart enough not to hide in the shelter after telling Halina that it exists. By the time the Oberführer chases Hansel and Gretel in Bialystok, Hansel has grown proud and confident in his own identity. Instead of deferring to the Nazi’s authority, he spits in the Oberführer’s face and screams “I’m a Jew! I’m a Jew!” over and over (292). 

Magda is both a primary character in the story of Hansel and Gretel and its narrator. An elderly woman with dirty clothes and “eyes so dark they only showed as holes in the wrinkled skin of her face,” Magda is a suspected witch who lives alone in the forest (16). Her gypsy ancestry and unusual beliefs make her an outsider among residents of the nearest village. But, as Magda’s fondness for Hansel and Gretel grows, the narrative reveals her generosity and warmth. Those qualities also come through in her narration. Magda “love[s] the truth,” and says that her love “made [her] wander and worry until the truth was given to [readers]” (297).

More than any other character, Magda invites comparisons to her counterpart in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. She and the witch in that tale share superficial similarities. Each woman possesses a house with food on its roof, a child-sized cage, and a massive oven. Yet, their intentions could hardly be more different. While that witch sought to trap, cook, and eat children, Magda repeatedly protects Hansel and Gretel. She takes them in when no one else would have. Eventually, she makes the ultimate sacrifice to save their lives, hiding them in her oven when Nazis come for them. As Magda dies in the gas chamber, her last thought is of Hansel. By casting Magda as a witch figure and then revealing her generous spirit, the author subverts stereotypes about unconventional women.

The Mechanik, a highly educated Jewish engineer, constructs his identity around secular intellectualism and a love of progress. For him, this means rejecting the Jewish rituals of his devout father. He is frequently frustrated that his lack of Jewish faith did not prevent his persecution by the Nazis. Though the Mechanik initially seems irresolute when compared with his pragmatic, angry wife, he is adept at finding ways to survive impossible circumstances; He “survived the Russians by being a mechanic for them,” the narrator says. “He survived the Bialystok ghetto by being a mechanic for the Nazis” (3). In the novel, he again uses his skills to survive. When the partisans nearly reject him, he promises to bring them his motorcycle and repair stolen machinery for them.

By placing the Mechanik with the partisans, the author expands her narrative beyond the village of Piaski. The Mechanik’s perspective broadens the scope of the novel and provides a window into resistance groups, sabotage, and Nazi experiments. His inclusion as a central character also allows for another callback to the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel.” Like the father in that tale, the Mechanik reluctantly leaves his children and is happy when they return to him. Unlike that father, though, he searches for Hansel and Gretel in the interim, trying to learn their whereabouts. The Mechanik functions as a source of information for readers and a source of hope for his children.

The Stepmother is a self-disciplined character who tries not to let her emotions affect her decision making. Her strength enables her to join the all-male partisans, and to gain admittance for her husband, too. The Russian who leads the group immediately recognizes her steely nature: he calls her a “She Wolf” and “saw in her eyes that she would never been charmed by anything he could say” (26). The Stepmother’s resolve is born of suffering. Born to a privileged Jewish family that lived on a large farm, she lost her husband and infant son to the Nazis. She believes that hunger and stress have dulled her wits, but she remains formidable. Streaks of white run through her dark hair like battle scars.

Readers familiar with the Brothers Grimm fairy tale may notice that the Stepmother character pressures the reluctant father to send the children away in both texts. In the fairy tale, the Stepmother does not care for the children and hopes to ensure the survival of herself and the father. In Murphy’s novel, though, the Stepmother genuinely believes that separating from Hansel and Gretel is the choice most likely to result in the family’s survival. She hopes that Hansel and Gretel will live and gives the children helpful advice. Later, she intervenes to save Gretel’s life: “Her lovely girl would live. It made the Stepmother happy, and she smiled” (135). Forced by circumstances to make awful choices, the Stepmother remains a caring, brave character.

Nelka is Magda’s great-niece and the unacknowledged granddaughter of Father Piotr. When she enters a scene, her sunny disposition often brightens the mood of the text. The first time Hansel meets her, he immediately is awed by her golden hair and playful smile: “She isn’t scared,” the boy thinks, “and she wasn’t angry either. Everyone was afraid except the Germans, and they were angry” (37). Nelka has reason to be angry or scared. Her husband has been taken to Russian and is likely dead, and she is pregnant with a son. But, through her positivity, Nelka shows Hansel an alternative way of living in dangerous times.

Nelka’s exceptionalism works against her with the Oberführer arrives in Piaski. The SS Officer’s obsession with her endangers her child and exposes her to dehumanizing treatment. Still, Nelka believes that it is her responsibility to support her family through positivity: “I can do it […] I can make love to [Telek], and I can give blood to the German, and I can wait and steal the baby away…I can do all of it” (168). Nelka’s inner strength and determination recall the Stepmother, though the women’s demeanors could hardly be more different. By including Nelka in the novel, the author shows the different packages in which great resolve can come.

Telek functions as a channel between Piaski and the partisan resistance movement. He is of the village and yet not, a naturalist and animal lover most at home in the woods. The narrator explains how Telek came to be this way: “After his mother killed herself, he had wandered until he felt like a wild creature himself” (101). Telek’s identification with the natural world is physical as well as spiritual, as seen in his description: “His clothes were the color of bark and dead leaves. His hair was blond but dirty-colored like leaves too. He was strong looking, but he moved so softly that he seemed smaller than he was” (38). Telek’s physicality enables him greater freedom of movement in the restricted setting where he lives. He often goes undetected in the forest.

Telek’s characterization as a gentle outdoorsman is juxtaposed against the awful tasks he must complete during wartime. He maims village children with burns, cuts, and scars to prevent the Nazis from taking them. The circumstances of war force Telek to do something completely outside of his nature, and it has agonizing consequences for him. When he and Nelka escape into the woods together with her baby, it comes as a relief. “It was over,” he thinks. “He had no one in the village. Nelka and the baby had no one either. It was just the three of them” (262). The outsider is freed from any responsibility to be a member of his community, and glad to dedicate himself to his small family. Together, they leave Piaski in search of a “warm” place “where there isn’t any war” (263). 

The Major is a career soldier assigned to serve as administrator of a village. He is frustrated by his post overseeing Piaski and manages that frustration by drinking too much alcohol and wandering the streets by night. The decision by German leaders to station him in a job to which he is so clearly unsuited is more evidence of flaws in the Nazi system. The Major initially seems like the novel’s primary antagonist. His power to withhold ration cards and order executions along with his ominous interest in Gretel suggest that he will imperil Magda and her loved ones. However, the Major is soon overshadowed by the more dangerous Oberführer.

Major Frankel’s position only upsets him more once the Oberführer arrives in Piaski.  The two men are night and day: a soldier and a bureaucrat, a grumpy rule follower and an ideological zealot: “A hundred thousand Germans had been sent to Siberia, and millions had died,” he thinks. Yet, “the Oberführer was spending his time measuring babies’ noses and having transfusions of blood. The Major groaned and spit on the floor” (225). The contrast between the two Nazis proves helpful to the villagers. The Major undermines and blackmails the Oberführer whenever possible out of spite. His men, who share the soldier’s mentality, also feign obedience to the SS officer on the Major’s behalf. These subversive acts are not done on behalf of the villagers, but they save the lives of Zanna and dozens of her neighbors.