They Went Left

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 2, Chapter 8

Part 2, Chapters 9-16

Part 2, Chapter 17-Part 3, Chapter 24

Part 3, Chapters 25-32

Part 3, Chapter 33-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Zofia Lederman

Zofia, 18, is the story’s protagonist and narrator; her experiences are relayed through first-person narration. She is a resilient character who has suffered immensely through her years imprisoned in concentration camps; when she is released, she is close to starving, needs to have two toes amputated from frostbite, has scarring from injuries received working at the camps, and has massive gaps in her memories of moments that are too traumatic to recall. One of these gaps is Zofia’s memory loss around the death of her brother, Abek. Zofia’s search for Abek, whom she falsely believes she told to meet her at the family apartment, drives the plot; Zofia travels to their home in Sosnowiec and then to Germany to a refugee camp and then to an orphanage looking for Abek.

Through the course of the story, Zofia gains in physical strength, forms new friendships (such as with Breine and Esther at Foehrenwald), and begins to slowly recall the facts of her family’s deaths. She is reunited with the boy she believes to be Abek, but she eventually remembers the moment when she smothered Abek on the train, and realizes that this boy cannot be Abek.

Zofia has a romantic relationship with Josef, a man she meets at Foehrenwald, whom she believes to be a Jew who was liberated from a concentration camp, but she works out that Josef was a Nazi soldier during the war.

The keys Zofia needs to navigate her post-war relationships are already within her; as she recalls them, she is able to decide on a way forward. She ends her romance with Josef but chooses to forgive Lukasz, the boy masquerading as Abek. Together, Zofia and Abek (Lukasz chooses to retain this name) travel through Europe to Ontario, Canada. The story ends on a hopeful note, with the pseudo-family embarking on a new stage of their life.

Abek Lederman

Abek Lederman is Zofia’s younger brother. He is nine years old when the Ledermans are forcibly taken to Birkenau, although the Ledermans urge him to pretend that he is 12 (Zofia is 15 years old at this time). Abek is characterized by Zofia’s memories of him; he is a fun-loving and silly child who loves to play and joke with his older sister. He sometimes gets lost, such as the time he is lost trying to return to their apartment in Sosnowiec. This leads Zofia to sew Abek’s address into his coat. Later, she sews their family’s life story into it: an A-Z of things relevant to them both.

Abek becomes sick and weak after catching a bad cough and traveling on the freezing train with no food or water for days. When Zofia finally is passed some water in a bucket, Abek is too weak to swallow it. Through a crack in the car’s slats, Zofia sees a guard shooting three people through the head; she decides to kill Abek to avoid him being ruthlessly killed by an indifferent guard. She smothers him with a coat.

Later, Zofia imagines different parting moments between them, unwilling to remember this tragic and traumatic moment.

Lukasz

Lukasz is a Polish boy. He is about 12 years old (the age Abek Lederman would have been at the conclusion of the war had he lived). Lukasz, who was initially imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau, finds the alphabet story that Zofia sewed into the lining of Abek’s jacket. He was obviously on clothing duty, going through the possessions and clothing of recently arrived prisoners to search for any valuables. Lukasz’s entire family, including his beloved older sister, dies during their imprisonment. The embroidered piece of muslin, which conveys Zofia’s adoration of Abek, reminds Lukasz of the love of his sister. He tears it out of the jacket and keeps it.

Having no family of his own left, Lukasz decides to find the Ledermans after the conclusion of the war, hoping to join their family—in particular Zofia—if they are also lonely and damaged. The thought of finding this pseudo-family sustains and motivates Lukasz through the horrific and traumatic years until 1945. He sees the notice that Zofia leaves at the orphanage near Dachau and goes to find Zofia. He pretends that he is Abek as he yearns to be accepted as her brother and to belong to a family again. However, Lukasz soon regrets this choice; he feels dishonest and deceitful but doesn’t know how to admit the truth without causing more pain. Eventually, Zofia works out that he is not really Abek. Lukasz asks if they can remain as a family anyway, and Zofia agrees. Lukasz opts to retain the name Abek, which he identifies with more than his birth name, as he associates the name Lukasz with the tragic deaths of his family, whereas he associates the name Abek with a feeling of hope—hope for a new family. Zofia and Abek travel to Ontario together to start a new life.

Josef Mueller

Josef lives at the Foehrenwald refugee camp. Zofia meets him there when she travels there in search of her brother, Abek. A relationship develops between Zofia and Josef, which becomes romantic. Zofia dreams of a life with Josef and Abek until she starts to make connections between the throat strike of Rudolf by Josef and Zofia’s father being struck similarly in the soccer stadium at Sosnowiec. Zofia realizes that Josef is using a Nazi army strategy of hand-to-hand combat.

Josef is reticent to talk about his wartime experiences; he is evasive whenever Zofia speaks about the wartime years. Later, Zofia discovers that this is because Josef was a Nazi soldier, although he deserted the force due to his ideological objections. He then lived in hiding in barns and cellars until the conclusion of the war.

Josef and Zofia’s relationship abruptly ends when Zofia realizes that Josef was a Nazi soldier. Furiously, she tells him, “You are never allowed to touch me again” (336). Zofia is saved from the decision of whether to forgive Josef when he abruptly leaves the camp, leaving Zofia his shirt that she mended for him. Josef’s future beyond Foehrenwald camp is not explored in the story.