The German Girl

Hannah wakes up with a fever and has a premonition that something bad is going to happen. Her mother puts a record on the gramophone, an RCA Victor that is her father’s prized possession. It is the music of “the French composer Camille Saint-Saens, one of the records Papa used to look after carefully” (73). Suddenly there are two knocks on the door. It is four Ogres, or German policeman, who enter the apartment and begin evaluating the Rosenthals’ home and possessions. They are looking for Hannah’s father, who isn’t home yet. The chief Ogre takes a seat in Hannah’s father’s armchair while the others search the rooms of the apartment. Hannah realizes that the police are also interested in nullifying her family’s ownership of the entire apartment building. When Hannah’s father comes home, the police tell him that he must accompany them to the police station. After they take him away, Hannah’s mother rushes to her bedroom, retrieves some documents, and rushes out of the apartment again, leaving Hannah all alone.

This chapter explains what really happened to Anna’s father. As a young child, she always expected him to return home “until one cloudy September day: the fifth anniversary of the fateful day on which Dad chose to disappear” (82).