Then

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-13

Chapters 14-21

Chapters 22-28

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 7-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary

Felix and Zelda live happily with Genia for a week. One day, Felix and Zelda make an automatic chicken-feeding machine, just like the one in Felix’s stories, but the chickens are not interested, so instead the children play hide-and-seek with the chickens and the pig, Trotski. As they lie hidden in the hay, a somewhat familiar boy enters the barn. He throws meat to Leopold and greets him familiarly, but when he smacks Trotski, Zelda leaps out in anger. The boy holds a knife to Zelda’s neck but soon runs off. Genia later identifies the meat as rabbit meat. The boy must have been a Jewish orphan who escaped the massacre. Before their deaths, the orphans were often forced to work on the farm, and many of them were friendly with Leopold.

Genia tests Felix and Zelda, forcing them to memorize details about their new, fake identities, Wilhelm and Violetta. Genia takes them into town to test their disguises and to calm any growing suspicions about the children. Though Felix is nervous, their disguises work on a woman. However, when they pass the turnip farmer who nearly kidnapped them, he stares at Felix and Zelda for a suspiciously long time.

Chapter 8 Summary

In town, the children are disturbed to see people who have been hanged. A Polish family was caught harboring Jewish people and all of them were hanged. Seeing this, Felix worries that they are endangering Genia.

They go to a shop, where Genia haggles for coats for Felix and Zelda. Felix meets a boy named Cyryl, whose parents own the shop. He proudly shows Felix the goods they gained by exploiting desperate Jewish people from the local ghetto. Felix gets angry after Cyryl shares a string of antisemitic jokes, but Cyryl does not notice. He offers to let Felix join his gang, but he is called to the back of the shop before Felix can reply. Felix finds and steals a Richmal Crompton book. Suddenly, a Nazi soldier appears, screaming in German and pointing a gun at Felix.

Chapter 9 Summary

Instead of being arrested, Felix is forced to watch a Hitler Youth parade with Genia, Zelda, and the other townspeople. They learn that the orphanage was emptied of children in order to make room for the Hitler Youth instead. Zelda sticks out her tongue at the marching Nazi children. Cyryl sees her and starts laughing, and four of the Hitler Youth boys break formation and attack Cyryl. Felix forgets himself and nearly tries to stop them. The Richmal Crompton book falls from his shirt. One of the Hitler Youth boys in formation sees the book and gives Felix an approving thumbs-up. Cyryl sees the book as well, and Felix worries that he has made an enemy of the shop owner’s boy.

Chapter 10 Summary

Back home, Genia is angry at Zelda for her behavior. Felix knows that Zelda hates Nazis so much that telling her about the bad things they do will only get her to act out even more. He shows Genia Zelda’s locket so she can understand the reason for Zelda’s behavior. Genia tells Zelda that nobody bears responsibility for who their parents are or what they have done.

Chapter 11 Summary

Felix believes that if Zelda does not reconcile her feelings about her own parents, she will react badly in front of Nazis again and endanger everyone. Over the next few days, he tries to get her to think of and draw happy memories of her parents, but Zelda is stubborn. Instead, she draws Violetta’s mom, who loves to kill Nazis. Felix tries to use storytelling and even uses Zelda’s affection for Leopold to get her to remember happy memories about her parents, but to no avail. Still, Felix knows that Zelda has a kind heart, and he wants to do all he can to protect her innocence. Suddenly, the sound of an approaching truck alerts them that the Nazis are returning.

Chapter 12 Summary

Felix thinks that the two soldiers from the other day have come because of the stolen Richmal Crompton book, but they have actually returned to take Trotski and the chickens. Genia protests, holding back Leopold.

Cyryl and his gang show up. Cyryl wants Felix to join them. Zelda comes outside and says she wants to join, too, but Cyryl refuses. Scared, Felix agrees to join. Cyryl says that he has to pass a test; they want him to pull his pants down so they can check whether he is circumcised. When Felix refuses, the gang of boys tries to pull his pants off. Felix does the only thing he can think of and soils himself, causing the boys to recoil in disgust. One of the Nazi soldiers exits the barn with a bag of chickens. Cyryl tries to get his attention, but the soldier is in no mood to deal with children. Cyryl is determined to take Felix’s pants off. Suddenly, a gun is fired in the barn.

Chapter 13 Summary

Cyryl and his gang leave, with Cyryl vowing that he is not done with Felix. Felix has to restrain Zelda as they watch the Nazis load Trotski and the chickens into the truck and leave. Apprehensively, they go to the barn and discover that one of the soldiers shot and killed Leopold when the collar Genia used to restrain him broke. Heartbroken, they bury Leopold in his favorite field. Genia tells Felix that she is proud of him for being brave today. The Nazis have taken nearly all their food; it will be a hard winter. Felix resolves to find food for his new family.

Chapters 7-13 Analysis

In this section of the novel, Felix and Zelda have to quickly adapt to their new identities, Wilhelm and Violetta. This is a good chance for Felix to exercise his imaginative capabilities and demonstrate The Power of Storytelling; however, it is also a test of his honest nature. He does not like lying, especially to honest people. Zelda has a much harder time recognizing why they need to adopt new identities. For example, she has a hard time remembering that Violetta’s pet chicken is called Kranki, not Goebbels, like Zelda’s chicken. The fact that she is unaware that her chicken was named after Hitler’s chief propagandist shows her innocence, and her inexperience with the larger world around her. Ironically, in their masquerade as Wilhelm and Violetta, Felix and Zelda are able to fool a grown woman, Mrs. Placzek, but it is harder for them to convince children.

In this section of the novel, Gleitzman also introduces Cyryl Szynsky as a minor antagonist. However, Cyryl’s bullying may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, his suspicion poses a real threat to Felix’s safety. Like Genia, Cyryl was raised in an antisemitic culture, but unlike Genia, he does not rise above his upbringing. Instead, he unthinkingly spouts antisemitic slurs and stereotypes, likely parroting the adults in his life. In the previous section, Genia noticed that Felix is circumcised and acknowledged that this would be a fatal flaw in Felix’s disguise if anyone were to find out. The practice of male circumcision is a common Jewish religious practice but was very uncommon in non-Jewish Europeans at the time. This explains Cyryl’s determination to take off Felix’s pants, for the boy suspects that Felix is Jewish and relishes the opportunity to report him to the Nazi authorities. He only backs off when Felix soils himself in self-defense, and this scene therefore demonstrates the depths of Cyryl’s cruelty.

In addition to these intensifying dangers, losing Leopold, Trotski, and the chickens is a huge blow to Genia and the children. Zelda in particular valued the animals as family members. Without her husband around, and with all of the produce of her farm going to feed the German army, the eggs produced by the chickens were Genia’s only reliable source of income, for with eggs to spare, she could at least barter with people in town to obtain whatever she needed. The Jewish orphan who comes to visit Leopold revels yet another layer of the tragic story of the orphanage, for Genia tells the children that the Nazis used to force the orphans to work on farms to grow food for the German army. Thus, even before their horrific end, they were essentially used as slave labor. Combined with the realization that they only lost their lives to make room in the orphanage for the soon-to-arrive Hitler Youth, their story serves as a tragic backdrop that graphically illustrates the larger atrocities perpetuated by the Nazis.