When The World Was Ours

“The only thing that mattered was that, later, as he and his friends jumped on the boat and sat together watching the city go by, the bonds of their friendship felt as deep and as wide as the Danube itself.”

Max’s entire world is based on The Eternal Bonds of Friendship that he feels when he is with Leo and Elsa. He feels a sense of belonging and acceptance that he does not get anywhere else, and for which he is always longing. The friendship of the three children becomes infinitely tattered and ultimately endures the widest and most brutal of conflicts, and it also lives beyond their deaths in the form of a photograph.

“What had we done wrong?”

Long before the Holocaust begins, ominous scenes foreshadow the horrific prejudices and injustices to follow. One day, when Mr. Fischer rebuffs Mr. Grunberg and Leo seemingly out of nowhere, Leo cannot help but wonder what has suddenly changed and why he and his father are being targeted for abuse. The incredulous tone of this one simple question embodies a much wider issue present throughout the Holocaust, as those persecuted were innocent people who were only trying to live their lives.

“Papa smiled, but it wasn’t his usual big, boisterous smile that brought a whole room to life. It was more like a flickering candle in the dark.”

In this passage, Leo notices ominous signs of change around him and in his family. He sees that his father, who used to be full of joy, is now struggling to hold onto a small remnant of that former self. His parents attempt to hide the increasing political tension from him, but they can only maintain this façade for so long. The way that Leo’s father is slowly cast out of society is an example of The Insidious Process of Dehumanization that occurred during the Holocaust.

“Max had loved feeling like he was part of a big team. That they were all in it together. He’d happily have spent every day of winter shivering in a cold hall if it had meant feeling like that again.”

Max’s major flaw is his compulsive need to fit in, for he is so focused on being accepted that he does not stop to question the standards by which society is now judging people. Because of this internal flaw, he falls prey to the Nazi ideology that declares his family and others like them to be superior to the rest of society. This dynamic is foreshadowed in the opening chapters as Max’s character is revealed and the memories that define him are described. The sense of camaraderie that he finds in the German Youth and the Hitler Youth makes Max feel like his life has an important purpose. All the while, however, he wrestles with an ongoing inner conflict because he knows that what the Nazis are doing is wrong.

“As I stood there, in front of the whole school, being told I was an inferior being and feeling all the other children’s eyes on me, I realized I had never known the real meaning of shame till this moment.”

In this passage, Leo and the other Jewish students are singled out, and their rights and dignity are stripped from them by the headmaster of their school. This traumatic scene happens without warning or explanation, and Leo suddenly feels a new sense of shame he has never experienced. This shame follows him and his friends throughout the war, as they are increasingly dehumanized by the Nazi regime.

“They weren’t just a group of friends. They weren’t just a team. They were a unit with one voice, one mind, one aim: to be perfect Nazis.”

Joining the German Youth gives Max a sense of purpose he has never felt before, and his life becomes formulaic, regimented, and obedient, full of doctrine and an ever-increasing feeling of importance. Describing the camaraderie between the German Youth as having “one voice, one mind, one aim” reflects the dogmatic and almost ritualistic nature of his new life.

“Armed with bricks, stones, and a heart that had begun to beat to the rhythm of rage, Max was determined to honor his promise.”

Max’s father begins to indoctrinate him into The Insidious Process of Dehumanization to separate him from his friends, his past, and the values he used to have. As he fuels Max with anger, The Ruinous Effects of War and Hatred become apparent in Max’s very being. The bellicose, staccato alliteration in the passage combines with the author’s personification of Max’s heart in order to convey the emotional intensity of this change in Max.

“Did we do all of this, uproot our lives, only to put the horrors off by a year and not escape them at all?”

Elsa’s family’s efforts to escape persecution and remain safe from The Ruinous Effects of War and Hatred prove ineffective when they, along with tens of thousands of other refugees, discover that their attempt to find safety has failed because Hitler has invaded Czechoslovakia. Elsa does not yet know that this is only the beginning of many moves and an increasingly dangerous set of life circumstances that will eventually claim her life.

“It can’t get any worse than it is now.”

Leo’s mama makes a darkly ironic statement, believing that life for Jewish people has gotten so terrible that it cannot possibly get any worse. However, at this moment, she is not aware that people are being systematically abused, tortured, and murdered in concentration camps that are being raised across Europe. Thus, the author invokes a form of dramatic irony to implicitly drive home the extent of the atrocities endured by the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

“Sitting on my bed, I squinted at the photo. It was hard to believe it was only three years ago. It felt like a lifetime. The carefree smiles on our faces—I couldn’t imagine smiling so freely like that ever again.”

Leo finds out that he and his mother will be able to leave Austria, and the moment is bittersweet because he is leaving behind the life that he once had. Looking at the photograph, a symbol of friendship, Leo wonders if his life will ever be happy and carefree again, as those experiences seem like they happened an eternity ago.

“Despite the dark, the cold, the damp streets, I walk home with a smile on my face and a skip in my step.”

Elsa is always an example of Hope, Resilience, and the Endurance of the Human Spirit. In this passage, the declaration of war prevents her parents from sending her away from danger, and rather than fearing the future, she finds a sense of optimism in the fact that she will be allowed to remain with her family after all. Additionally, the scene conveys a sense of hope that will eventually be betrayed, for Otto suggests that perhaps the war will mean an end to the persecution and the danger to their family.

“I did what you told me, Papa. I said to him in my mind. I got Mama to safety.”

Leo is forced to grow up quickly when his father is taken away. He undertakes the task of maintaining hope, for he uses creative thinking to devise a way to meet the stringent paperwork requirements needed to flee the country. Leo also remains hopeful that his father is alive and will reunite with them one day, and he feels ever obligated to his father’s wishes.

“But the smile. Even with half his teeth missing and the other half rotting it was definitely familiar. His eyes, Among the grayness of everything about him--and everything about Dachau, come to think of it—they still twinkled in a way that danced like light on a speck of dust.”

In this metaphor, Max’s observations of Mr. Grunberg in Dachau lead him to experience cognitive dissonance because he cannot connect the broken man in front of him with the kind and joyful person he once knew. It is not until Mr. Grunberg smiles that Max is able to see the sparkle that always defined Mr. Grunberg as a man filled with joy and light. Mr. Grunberg maintains this trait even amidst the most horrible of circumstances, acting as an example of Hope, Resilience, and the Endurance of the Human Spirit.

“These moments with Greta are everything. Her friendship makes me feel alive. And that’s about as good a feeling as any of us have around here nowadays, so I know it’s something to treasure.”

Elsa’s friendship with Greta becomes crucial not only to her emotional well-being, but also to her very survival. Living in a tenement block with little food and a low quality of life, her family has been cast out from the rest of the world, and Elsa is only able to evade loneliness because The Eternal Bonds of Friendship that she has with Greta.

“We are like animals bleating in the wild, bleating and crying to find our families. Bleating and crying to those we love, calling out names as we stand here waiting, waiting, waiting.”

As Elsa and her family are forced into the carriages, crammed together in the dark, and separated from their loved ones, Elsa uses a simile to compare them all to animals because that is how they are being treated. At this point in the narrative, The Insidious Process of Dehumanization is fully implemented, and Jewish people are fully stripped of all their rights.

“How rapidly something unthinkable can become commonplace. How easily we let the inconceivable become a new normal. How quickly we learn to stop questioning these things.”

Elsa reflects on The Insidious Process of Dehumanization and how quickly it can occur. She points to the fact that society is capable of rapid change, of which there is a possibility that this change may be negative. Not only has the world around her seemed to have forgotten that she and the other Jewish people exist, but even the prisoners themselves also begin to lose their strength to fight.

“In an instant, nothing of his current life was real. He saw it for what it was: a vain, superficial attempt to fit in. To be loved. To be praised by his father, by his leaders, by Hitler. None of it was a fraction as real as his friendships with Leo and Elsa had been. The only two people who had ever really loved him for himself, with no expectations or demands.”

When Max looks at the photograph of him and his friends, his memories and old feelings come back, and the evidence of his old friendships reminds him of the fact that a more unconditional love exists—something that far exceeds his father’s abusive treatment. Unfortunately, his father catches him with the photograph, and upon being forced to burn it, Max seals away that part of himself for years to come.

“We still talk. We still dream. We still pretend to plan a life after this.”

Elsa starts to become aware of the fact that she is going to die, but she continues to grasp what little shreds of joy and comfort she can, particularly through her friendship with Greta. While she does not explicitly convey her lack of hope for the future, the author’s strategic use of the world “pretend” implies that she is under no illusions as to how her life will end.

“Afterward, when I no longer have my family, my name, my hair, or my clothes, I realize the final thing has been taken from me: my identity. I am no one.”

In this passage, Elsa is transported to Auschwitz, where she is stripped of the last vestiges of her humanity and given a number. Her name is no longer used, her possessions are gone, and her appearance is forever changed. She can no longer remember who she was or what her life was like before, except when she is dreaming. At this point in the narrative, The Insidious Process of Dehumanization is complete.

“Bowled over by the beautiful thing they had done for me, I couldn’t stop watching the two women in my life.

Mama and Annie.

My heart, my world, my everything.”

Overcome with gratitude for the good fortune in his life, Leo realizes how lucky he is to have escaped the Holocaust and to still have his mama, along with the love of his life, Annie. In a rare moment of joy and levity in the later years of the war, Leo is able to appreciate an evening with the people he loves the most: his family.

“I am the walking dead.”

This bleak statement reflects Elsa’s utter lack of hope when Greta is killed, for Elsa knows that she is going to die too—punished as Greta was for daring to dream of escape. In this moment, she finally bends to the world around her and accepts her fate. Her resilience, which has allowed her to survive for years, has finally run out, and she feels as though she has already died.

“He knew what she was holding. He thought he had killed his memories when he’d destroyed his own copy. He thought his heart had hardened into a stone, like his father had always wanted. But here it was again, risen from the flames like a phoenix that was telling him he could fly.”

In the story’s climax, Elsa shows Max the photograph, and seeing it brings back the part of Max that he buried long ago. The iconic image opens the floodgates of his forgotten loyalty to his long-lost friends, and he regains a small measure of who he used to be. However, because he has become so immersed in the Nazi regime, he is never again allowed to return to that self, and his so-called comrades murder him for his hesitation and his moment of compassion.

“It wasn’t work that set you free. It was love.”

Max realizes that he still loves Elsa, and that their bond outlasts all the hatred and dehumanization that has since taken place. He comes to see the flaws in Nazism and in the emptiness of it all, but it is too late for him to regain what he has lost. Upon his death, Max replaces the infamous Nazi slogan with one that rings true.