The German Girl

Leo and Hannah stand “at the starboard rail of the ship, watching as passengers waved to their relatives below” (126). The captain watches them from the bridge and then motions for them to come join them. From high above, the port looks very small. Hannah introduces the captain to Leo, who is very excited and asks many questions of the captain. Next, they go to the dining room, which is first class. Leo worries he’ll be thrown out. The dining room is finished with polished wood and large chandeliers. Hannah sees her parents. Her mother has changed outfits again. To Hannah, her mother is a “Goddess” (128). Hannah observes “at one end of the room a big table was overflowing with all kinds of bread, salmon, black caviar, thinly cut slices of meat, and vegetables of various colors” (128). They drink champagne. Leo is surprised to be treated well by an Ogre, even though Leo is not considered part of the “pure race” (129). Together, Leo, Hannah, Hannah’s parents, and four men at another table raise their glasses in cheers.

When Hannah wakes up, she feels lost. She hears “the notes of a violin playing the intermezzo from one of the operas Papa used to listen to in the evening at home” (131). Her father has brought the gramophone with him onboard, which could get him in trouble and sent back to Berlin, but since her mother seems to be in good spirits, Hannah remains calm as well. Alma continues to wear elegant clothing, even in the privacy of her own cabin. She encourages Hannah to go off and have fun on the ship, which has come into the port of Cherbourg, France. Hannah’s mother watches as 38 more passengers come onboard. The previous evening, Hannah says, her mother had seen a red, white, and black flag on the wall of the ballroom. She talked to the captain about it, and the flag was taken down. Leo and Hannah’s friendship continues to develop. She tells him that he looks like a count in his fancy clothes, and he tells her, “And you are the only countess on board” (134).

Leo and Hannah meet on the ship’s terrace. Leo suggests they go to the engine room—the one place Hannah’s mother has told her not to visit. They go down to the bottom floor and open an iron door to a deafening noise and a burned grease smell. Leo evaluates the machinery for a while, then they go up to the fourth deck, where they meet a group of friends they’ve made. One is Edmond, a “tall boy with a silly-looking face” (138). The others are brothers, Walter and Kurt, both of whom are wearing “hats and jackets that looked enormous on them, as did their shoes and their stockings hanging loose around their ankles” (138). Walter calls Hannah the famous “German girl” (138). As they race around the ship, exploring its various cabins, ballrooms, and gyms, they bump into some “snooty girls” (139). One of them, Ines Simons, invites Hannah to a tearoom, which appears to have never been used. Ines tells Hannah that their families will travel together from Cuba to New York once they arrive. Hannah notes a sad girl named Else sitting in the corner; the other girls joke about her not being very pretty.