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

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Propaganda of the Third Reich

The Third Reich instigated an insidious program of propaganda to convince the populous of the righteousness of their cruel and violent actions. This propaganda aimed to alter people’s understanding of history, of the science of race, and of Germany’s place in the world. Much propaganda specifically targeted children, as evident in Behind the Bedroom Wall in Korinna’s schooling and jungmädel lessons. Early in the story, Korinna is thrilled to listen to the Fuhrer deliver a speech on the radio. She tells her parents, “‘Today we got bundles of new pamphlets to pass out. They’re very nice. They even have the Fuhrer’s picture on the front’” (11). This illustrates how children were encouraged to hero-worship the Fuhrer—and the role that children played in disseminating Nazi ideology. Rita enthusiastically tells her friends, as she watches her brother Hans beating Herr Haase on the street, “‘Jews are the enemy! They are the root of all our problems. Without them Germany will be strong!’” (5). Propaganda represents Jewish people as genetically inferior and insidiously evil, and seeks to convince people to believe that pity for those holding back the Fatherland is inherently un-German.

The propaganda presents Adolf Hitler as the antithesis to the insidious influence of the Jewish race. Korinna tells her mother, with absolute conviction, “‘Hitler is the most wonderful man […] he’s making new jobs for people. He has such exciting plans for us all’” (8). The propaganda machine emphasizes positive changes that the Fuhrer is bringing about, rather than accurately reporting the state of the country. This misleads many citizens to continue supporting his cruel and repressive regime.

Children received propaganda in jungmädel (Hitler youth group) meetings and in pamphlets, and the regime forced changes in education as well. The effect of the propaganda disseminated in schools is evident in the changes to Korinna’s school books. New history books were required because in the old books, “‘We had to paste together too many pages because our teacher told us those pages were no longer accurate. Things are changing so quickly that we needed an updated book’” (8). Korinna’s mother gently reminds her that history doesn’t change, “‘just people’s perception of it,’” illustrating the resistance of many Germans to the cruel ideology of the regime’s propaganda.

Compassion for Jews and Disillusionment with the Nazi Regime

In the opening anecdote of Behind the Bedroom Wall, the local butcher, Herr Haase, is beaten on the street and arrested for being a Jewish sympathizer—presumably, he was involved in the same network as the Korinna’s parents. Eva, who feels clear disillusionment with the regime’s violence, wonders, “Why are they beating poor Herr Haase?” (4). Similarly, Korinna feels “pity for him [well] up in her” (6) and makes a concerted effort to remind herself that it’s “un-German of her to pity a traitor” (6). This anecdote illustrates the girls grappling with their compunction and discomfort in watching the violent and cruel act; a careful program of propaganda aims to dehumanize Jewish people and Jewish sympathizers and to frame pity as weak and un-German.

Nevertheless, many intelligent and empathetic individuals manage to retain an awareness of the shared humanity of Jewish people, and find ways to dissent and rebel. The Rehmes shelter, feed, and support Sophie and Ruth Krugmann, coordinating their movement to their next hiding places with others involved in the underground network. Frau Rehme admonishes her daughter when Korinna says, disgusted with her mother’s efforts to feed Sophie and Rachel, “But they’re only Jews” (54); Frau Rehme reminds Korinna that “they’re people” (54). While this may seem self-evident, the system of propaganda to which Korinna has been exposed represents Jewish people as insidious enemies and as racially inferior.

Korinna’s growing compassion for Sophie and Rachel illustrates her growing maturity; she can think independently from the regime’s teachings and can question the morality of Sophie and Rachel’s being separated from their family, ejected from their home, and systematically hunted for arrest. Her contact with Rachel humanizes the Jewish race for Korinna; she’s no longer able to view them as faceless enemies. At the story’s end, Korinna’s disillusionment with the regime is evident when she looks at the Fuhrer’s portrait on the jungmädel pamphlets, which had once “so impressed her,” and is disgusted, thinking that it “now […] just made her palms sweat” (148). Her sweating palms show her discomfort with the leader of the regime that she now understands has brought only cruelty, violence, and suppression of freedom. Her previous devotion to its cause has decisively changed to loathing.

Trust and Deception

Throughout Behind the Bedroom Wall, trust and deception are pertinent themes because of the atmosphere of suspicion, mistrust, and reporting that typified Nazi Germany. The regime expected patriotic Germans to deceive friends and family who held sympathetic views toward Jewish people or had any other beliefs that didn’t align with the Nazi regime. Korinna is furious at her parents’ behavior when they fail to tell her about Sophie and Rachel hiding behind her bedroom wall. Their silence aims to keep Sophie and Rachel safe; Herr and Frau Rehme must encourage their daughter to attend jungmädel to avoid the family’s coming under suspicion, even though the views that she adopts at the youth group offend them. Consequently, when Korinna discovers that the sounds she hears in the walls isn’t mice but is the Krugmanns, she becomes angry because she considers hiding Jews a traitorous and un-German act; she even considers reporting her parents, as evident in her writing, “My parents are the enemy” (75) in her jungmädel-issued black book. Korinna struggles with where her loyalty lies. She loves her parents but has been taught to be vigilant and report all enemies and traitors to the regime. Korinna ultimately decides not to report her parents, out of love for them as well as growing sympathy for Sophie and Rachel.

This decision means that Korinna must deceive those around her. Many of her friends watch vigilantly for any suspicious behavior that might indicate treachery, as epitomized in Rita. Rita’s growing suspicion of Korinna is evident: “You are lying to me, Korinna. You can’t fool me. I’ve known you for too long” (78). Rita intentionally comes home with Korinna; she clearly is interested in looking around the home for signs of Jewish people being harbored. Ultimately, Korinna comes to understand too late that Rita wasn’t trustworthy; she traps Korinna into admitting that she doesn’t hate Jewish people and even feels sorry for their plight. This admission brings about the Gestapo raid of her family’s home.

Korinna cleverly converts the space where the Krugmanns were hiding into a fake National Socialist shrine, which she alleges she uses by herself. This deception buys the family time; the Gestapo officers have no clear reason to arrest the family, so they leave, allowing the Rehmes to escape. Korinna learns that she should trust her parents and the Krugmanns, as well as her own innate sense of right and wrong, and to mistrust those under the thrall of the insidious, cruel, and unjust patriotism of the Nazi regime. In this ideological transformation, Korinna becomes a real patriot—one who honors all the people of her homeland.