The German Girl

The day of the departure finally arrives. Hannah frets about Leo’s disappearance, but her father gives only vague information about his family’s whereabouts, saying that they are okay and that everything is fine. One of Hannah’s father’s former students will drive them to the ship; he will keep the family’s car as payment. He seems also to be eyeing the family’s possessions as they pack. When he suggests they exit the building out the back to avoid being seen by neighbors, Alma says that they will go out the front. Alma has made up her face and is wearing a full-length gown for her arrival on the ocean liner. They enter the car and leave the city behind. Hannah begins to tremble and then to cry.

When they arrive, they must pass through a customs hut before they can board the ship. A band plays a triumphant song as they wait in line. When they reach the customs hut, Hannah says, “We were marked with a vile red J on the only identity document that was to accompany us on our Cuban adventure. An indelible scar” (116). As she looks up at the ship, which she describes as six stories tall, she sees hundreds of passengers along the rails.