In the last chapter of Part 1, Daniel is struggling to accept the fact that he is half-Jewish. He is extremely angry, because he dreams of being an Aryan, and he wants to disown his mother. He compares his emotions to Mount Krakatoa's explosion in 1883. Part 1 ends with immense hatred towards his mother.
Daniel finds out that both of his grandparents from his mother's side of the family are Jewish, making him a half-Jew.
Daniel asks his father if he can join the Hitler Youth. Reinhard and Sophie refuse, and Rheinhard and Sophie realize the dangers of the current education system
Sophie learns about the concentration camps, and the abusing of prison inmates. She is surprised at what is happening, and scared for herself and her family.
Noticing that Rheinhard is behaving oddly, Sophie looks at the letter Rheinhard left for her to read,describing Hitler's rise to power, and the Aryan race.
In this chapter, Daniel and Armin reflect on the game of war they played, and how silly it is to play it, when the war is actually such a serious division. During the commotion of Hitler becoming chancellor, they run outside to the Hitler Youth divisions.
Daniel and Armin play soldiers with figures. They are reenacting the current world war. They show how the Nazis brainwashed young children into Hitler's ideals.
Daniel then tells Armin what happened when he got home. He describes how his parents held a family court, in which Daniel had to decide his own punishment.
When Daniel and Armin meet at school, they are the talk of the school. Armin recounts what his parents said when he got home, and of the brutality of his father.
Sophie's brother, Sebastian, and his daughter Miriam, come to visit. At the house, Rheinhard and Sebastian get into an argument about the Nazi regime, and personal matters in the World War. After Sebastian leaves in huff, Daniel returns home with the police.
|