Refugee

Content warning: This novel discusses the Holocaust, war, and violent war crimes.

The three children are all forced to leave their native land because of political upheaval. That upheaval is directly attributable to the dictators running their countries. Images of the men in power hover over the migrants like an evil omen in each of the three stories, and they symbolize the danger from which each character flees. As the characters move further from their places of origin, they still see images of these dictators, reminding them that they are not yet safe.

In Josef’s story, portraits of Adolf Hitler hang in many of the common areas of the MS St. Louis. Before Josef’s bar mitzvah in the ship’s social hall, the officiating rabbi asks that Hitler’s giant portrait be taken down. His presence overshadowing a Jewish ceremony is unseemly. Similarly, when a Jewish passenger is later buried at sea, the mourners object to a Nazi flag draping the corpse, representing their desire to distance themselves from danger.

In Isabel’s story, images of Fidel Castro crop up everywhere. When Señor Castillo needs a big, thick piece of cardboard to line the bottom of the emigrants’ boat, he steals a giant poster of Castro. During the journey, the shipmates poke frequent fun at the dictator lying beneath their feet. This is portrayed as a coping mechanism for the fear of the danger from which they are not yet free.

Another dictator has created the misery Mahmoud experiences in Syria. Bashar al-Assad rules with an iron fist and likes to see images of himself everywhere, just as Castro does:

A mural painted on the side of the gas station showed President Assad, his dark hair cut short and a thin mustache underneath his pointy nose. He wore a suit and tie in front of a Syrian flag, doves of peace and yellow shining light surrounding him. A jagged line of real bullet holes bisected Assad’s face (67).

Gratz constructs irony in this image, as the “doves of peace” are next to bullet holes. This both highlights the falseness of the propaganda and also suggests that even this dictator is not immune from danger, reinforcing the text’s sense of the reality and imminence of danger for all the characters.