When The World Was Ours

Max is informed that the family is moving again, this time to Auschwitz: the largest concentration camp of the Nazi regime. Initially, Max is angry and hates the idea of uprooting his life and losing the social power that he has earned in Munich. He goes to his room and punches his pillow over and over until he no longer feels anything. When he goes back to meet his father again, Mr. Fischer tells Max that he will have the opportunity to work directly for the regime at Auschwitz. Suddenly, Max’s mood lifts and he cannot wait to move. He believes that everything he has worked for is finally coming to fruition.

Elsa is awakened by a guard and told that she is leaving the camp. She wakes up her mother, who sounds weak and lifeless. They manage to pack the few clothes they have, and Elsa brings her photograph. Greta was taken the same way weeks before, and Elsa no longer feels like herself. The photograph reminds her of the person she used to be. Marching toward the train tracks, Elsa and her mother finally see Otto and Vati for the first time since coming to the camp. They are not allowed to hug or even touch, but they are grateful to be together and walk together to the tracks. Once there, Elsa suddenly realizes that everyone is being shoved into cattle cars rather than trains made for humans. Hundreds of people are pushed into each car, and Elsa and her family are separated in all the shoving when they are forced onboard. For hours, the cars roll down the tracks, stopping occasionally so that those who have died can be removed. Their bodies are tossed along the tracks, and the ride continues. People begin reciting Jewish prayers to mourn those who have been lost along the way. When the train is empty enough, Elsa and her family are finally able to stand together again, and they are grateful for this small comfort.

Max’s father shows him around Auschwitz, pointing to the people coming in on cattle cars and to the two lines that divide the prisoners when they arrive. One line leads to the barracks, and another leads to a building with smoke coming from the chimney (the crematorium). Max does not dare to ask what is inside this building, but he can smell rotting corpses all around him, which makes him ill. Max sees men working; they are frail and weak. Some are labeled with a yellow star and others with a red triangle (which designates communists and other political prisoners). Max’s father explains that the workers are used to perform labor and are then discarded when they are no longer of use. When Max sees Leo’s father amongst the group, he is filled with rage, hating the fact that Leo’s father keeps appearing to remind him of his old life. He does not allow himself to show any emotion and wonders if his father has set up this scenario as a test for him. As a result, Max does not let himself internally question what he is witnessing.

When the train finally stops, Elsa and her family find themselves at Auschwitz. After they are ordered out of the cattle car, their belongings are taken, and they are divided into two groups: males and females. The men who are sent to collect the luggage are prisoners themselves, and Elsa recognizes one of them, but she does not know from where. When the prisoner notices her, he whispers to her that he is Leo’s father and warns her to tell the guards that she is 17. Elsa wonders if Leo and his family are at the camp, but she has no opportunity to ask. Elsa’s mother is crying out for her husband and son. Elsa helps her mother walk down the line and has a sudden instinct to tell her how much she loves her. When they reach the front, Elsa’s mother is sent one way and Elsa another. She watches as her mother, brother, and father march toward a building with smoke coming from the chimney. She begs to go with her family, and the guard laughs at her, telling her that she is lucky to be left behind. Elsa forces herself forward, thinking that she has just lost everything that ever mattered to her. She and the other surviving prisoners are stripped and tattooed with numbers, and their last ounce of humanity is removed. Elsa feels that her identity has been stolen, as though she is no longer human, and she feels certain that she is going to die soon.

Leo is surprised by Annie and his mama, who have worked hard to gather the ingredients to make his favorite dessert, Sachertorte. Annie reminds Leo that it is their one-year anniversary, and Leo is overwhelmed with love and gratitude for these two women in his life.

Elsa’s mind is the only part of her that still has any freedom, and she lets it wander to the memories of her life before Auschwitz. She treasures those days, even though life had already gotten worse. Now, she is reunited with Greta, and the two sleep together on the same bunk. Everyone is emaciated, so all the prisoners crowd together to stay warm and to avoid falling off the side. At night, Elsa touches the photograph that she and Greta sewed into her dress. Leo’s father recovered it for her and took the risk of handing it to her one day, and Greta managed to get a needle and thread to sew it into her clothes and keep it hidden. One morning, Greta whispers to Elsa that she wants to escape, and she asks Elsa to come with her. She knows they will die if they stay, so they may as well risk leaving. Elsa regains hope, but only for a moment. Minutes later, Greta is singled out at roll-call and beaten to death in front of Elsa and several others. With Greta’s death, Elsa loses her final shred of strength, and she feels like “the walking dead” (291).

Max is promoted to perimeter guard and begins his shift for the day. It is also his birthday, and Max is proud to be working on his birthday and showing full devotion to Hitler. Two other guardsmen who are much older than Max gift him his first pistol. As Max holds it in his hands, he wonders if this is the life he was aiming toward. He also wonders if the other guards ever question what is happening. One of the guards invites Max to Block 11 for a special birthday surprise, and Max knows that he is about to be told to kill someone. His legs shake, but he forces a smile onto his face as he follows the other guard.

Elsa is unsurprised when guards come for her later in the day. She knows that she is on her way to die, and she feels relieved to know that she will never again have to starve, or drink water from a puddle, or have to call out her number. She is taken to a wall and told to stand against it. She feels no fear because she knows that she is finally going to escape. When she turns to face the guard who is about to shoot her, she notices him hesitating and recognizes him as Max.

Max knows that this moment is going to define his future and his place within the Nazi regime. He wonders why he is hesitating, and the other guards start urging him to shoot. When Elsa speaks, Max recognizes her voice but continues preparing to shoot. However, when she smiles, everything melts inside Max, and he shakes and sweats, not knowing what to do. He thinks of the life that he might have had if none of this had taken place, and how he never wanted any of this to happen. He remembers his kiss with Elsa and their friendship, and he cannot bring himself to shoot her.

Hope is renewed in Elsa for the final time as she starts to believe that she can stop Max from killing her. She searches her mind for a way to remind him of who he is underneath, and then she realizes that she can show him the photograph.

When Max sees the photograph, he begins to cry, and all of his memories come back, along with his heart. Elsa tells him that he doesn’t have to kill her, and Max realizes that love, not work, is what sets him free. He smiles at her, but then suddenly, he remembers that he is being tested and lifts his gun once more.

Elsa is sure that Max knows her. She sees him smiling at her and feels that she has gotten through to him. The guard whispers in Max’s ear, and his face turns cold. As Max raises his gun, a shot rings out.

Max falls to the ground, shot by one of the guards. He dies in front of Elsa, who falls with him and screams. The guard puts his pistol in Max’s hand, making the boy’s death look like a suicide. Suddenly, Elsa stands, full of anger and out of tears. She tells them to shoot her because she has nothing left for which to live. She dies next to Max and the crumpled photograph.

Leo thinks about his friends and hopes that they will get to meet Annie one day. Suddenly, he feels a sharp pain and severe grief, but he does not know why.

Papa finds Elsa and Max lying lifeless on the ground. He picks up the photograph and puts it in his pocket, knowing that doing so is a risk, but he also knows that the risk is worth it. He wonders if the man who took the photograph, his former self, still exists within him somewhere. He and another man pick up the bodies of Elsa and Max and carry them away.

The war ends, and weeks of celebrations follow. On a seemingly ordinary day, someone knocks on the door of Leo’s home. He hears his mother gasp and runs to the door. He can hardly believe that he is seeing his own papa standing before him. Thinner, without hair, and wearing ragged clothes, Leo’s papa looks almost unrecognizable, but his smile and his voice are still the same. The family embraces in a moment of sheer joy and relief. Leo fetches Annie and introduces her to his father, and she is honored to be a part of the moment. Afterward, a slow silence creeps in, as questions are raised in everyone’s minds. Leo’s papa gives him the photograph that he recovered from Elsa, but he only tells Leo that his friends were together when they died. Hearing this brings a deep sadness into Leo’s heart, and the family says a prayer for them and for all the others who were lost. Looking at the photograph again that night, Leo feels transported back to that day and remembers the two friends who made him feel that life was worth living.

In 2021, Leo is 93 years old. He sits in his home, surrounded by photographs of his life, including the day at the Ferris wheel. A teacher comes to visit him and speaks of her concern about the rise of fascism in Europe. She hopes that Leo will come to her school and educate her students about the Holocaust. Leo insists that he was not there to experience it, but the teacher believes that he still has much to share. Leo agrees to tell his story, but only if she promises to use his tale to prevent anything like that from ever happening again.