Refugee

In Hungary, Mahmoud and the rest of the refugees are loaded onto trucks and taken to a detention center. When Mahmoud’s father is clubbed by the guards for refusing to cooperate, Mahmoud tries to become invisible: “Head down, hoodie up, eyes on the ground. Be unimportant. Blend in. Disappear. That was how you avoided the bullies” (269).

In Antwerp, Josef and his family are celebrating because “Belgium, Holland, France, and England had agreed to divide the refugees among them. None of the passengers were going back to Germany” (270). Josef’s passenger group is being transported to Boulogne, France. From there, the family moves to Le Mans and slowly gets back on their feet, but their happiness is short-lived. Ten months later, Germany invades France, and Josef’s family is on the run again.

Off the coast of Florida, Isabel and her companions are still trying to outrun the Coast Guard vessel. Her grandfather confides that he was once a police officer who denied asylum to the passengers on the MS St. Louis: “They needed a place to hide from Hitler. From the Nazis. Mañana, we told them. We’ll let you in mañana. But we never did” (276). Filled with remorse, Isabel’s grandfather dives into the ocean to create a diversion so that the others can reach land. The Coast Guard vessel will have to stop its pursuit and rescue him first.

In Hungary, Mahmoud and his family are moved to a crowded refugee camp before being deported back to Syria. They’ve all finally given up, except for Mahmoud. He’s determined to find a way out of the situation by drawing attention to himself: “If you were invisible, the bad people couldn’t hurt you, that was true. But the good people couldn’t help you, either” (281). When he notices a UN Inspector entering the camp, he leaves the detention area. An armed guard doesn’t dare shoot him with the inspector nearby. Mahmoud leads everyone out of the camp through an unguarded door, saying, “I’m not staying in that place and waiting for them to send me back to Serbia. Come on, […] [w]e’re walking to Austria” (284).

In 1940 Vornay, France, Josef, his mother, and his little sister are hiding in a schoolhouse to escape a Nazi patrol. When they exit through a back window, the stormtroopers catch them. Josef’s mother offers to bribe the Nazis with her remaining money and jewelry to keep her children out of a concentration camp. One of the soldiers says that she only has enough to free one of her children. He demands that she choose either Josef or Ruthie.

Near Miami, Isabel’s shipmates paddle desperately while her mother gives birth to Isabel’s baby brother. With the Coast Guard boat almost on top of them, they jump out of the boat in waist-deep water. Once their feet touch ground, they are legally allowed to enter the country, and the Coast Guard can no longer pursue them. Isabel holds her baby brother up high so that her grandfather can see him from the other ship. She hears cheering onboard from the captured refugees: “They had made it to the States. To freedom” (298).

In Hungary, Mahmoud and the rest of the refugees trudge down a highway headed for the Austrian border. It’s a 12-hour walk. Along the way, the little band attracts the attention of news agencies. Local people come out to cheer them on. The Hungarian police follow in squad cars but don’t interfere. When the exhausted travelers finally cross into Austria, nobody stops them: “Suddenly, they were surrounded by Austrians—men, women, and children all smiling and trying to shake their hands and give them things” (303). Mahmoud realizes that people were finally seeing them, and good people were helping them. After the family travels by train across the German border, their nightmarish journey is finally over.

In 1994 Miami, Isabel and her family settle into their new life. Isabel is now in school, and her uncle has bought her a new trumpet. In band class, she auditions for the orchestra by playing the “Star-Spangled Banner” in a salsa style in honor of her friends, family, and her own identity.

In 2015 Berlin, Mahmoud, his parents, and his brother are taken in by a host family until they can establish a new life for themselves. The hosts are an elderly German couple named Rosenberg. Through a translator, Mrs. Rosenberg explains that she was once a refugee as a child. She traveled with her mother and brother on the MS St. Louis. When they returned to Germany, they were captured by the Germans. Her brother Josef sacrificed himself so that she might go free. Mrs. Rosenberg shows Mahmoud a picture of Josef, the boy who “had died so Ruthie could live, and one day welcome Mahmoud and his family into her house (316). Ruth Rosenberg promises to help Mahmoud find his missing sister. For the first time in a long time, Mahmoud feels like he’s come home.