65 pages • 2 hours read
The Last Green Valley
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Part 2, Chapters 13-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary
In Romania, the caravan is safe from the ground war, but Soviet bombers still try to destroy the bridges and exit routes that the Germans need to use. Central Romania is full of green valleys, prompting Will to ask if they have arrived at the beautiful green valley they are seeking. Adeline says they have not.
In Cluj, the refugees are divided, and the Martel and Losing families are directed west to Oradea. Although Emil thought they were free of Major Haussmann, he hears his voice on the loudspeaker in the Oradea train station informing the refugees that they will take the train to Budapest. They must leave their wagons and horses behind, taking only what they can carry. The Martels pack what they can into a small wagon that Emil built for Walt and Will years ago.
As the train travels through the Romanian countryside, Adeline wonders why Hitler hates Jewish people and why Stalin would ban all religions. She believes that people will maintain their faith no matter what. The refugees arrive in Budapest on April 27, 1944. As they exit the train station, Emil notices Major Haussmann, who instructs a Nazi soldier to send the Martels to the south camp. The Martels exit the station into a cemetery.
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary
An SS officer directs the Martels and Losings to a camp near the cemetery where refugees will stay until a train can take them north. The Martels set up camp near the crypts, and Emil notices Nikolas camped nearby. Nikolas harasses Emil while he waits in line for water, threatening to discover Emil’s secrets and tell the Nazis. Afterward, Emil and the boys gather wood for a fire. Emil overhears Nazi soldiers talking about the refugees and learns that the German refugees have been brought from Ukraine to replace the Jewish people killed by the Nazis. Later, Emil ambushes Nikolas and threatens to kill him if Nikolas continues harassing his family. Emil returns to his family’s camp, where Rese tells Adeline about her boyfriend.
After six days in the camp, the Martels and Losings are notified that a train will be taking them north to Poland. The train is crowded, and many members of the Martel family sit on the roof of a boxcar for fresh air. After a few hours, the train stops near a small lake to let a military train pass. Rese leaves the train to swim in the lake; Adeline marvels at how free she is.
As the train prepares to leave, the Martels call for Rese. She attempts to climb the boxcar ladder but falls when the train suddenly jerks, landing on the tracks as the train begins moving. Rese’s legs are cut off at midcalf by the train wheels.
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary
Emil and Major Haussmann cinch their belts around Rese’s legs to stop the bleeding before helping the medic, Sergeant Decker, move Rese to the boxcar. Rese’s accident reinforces Emil’s disbelief in God because no benevolent God would allow such a thing to happen.
Major Haussmann informs Sergeant Decker that he has 10 minutes to stabilize the unconscious Rese before the train starts moving again. Emil and Johann agree to provide blood transfusions while Sergeant Decker tends to her. A young woman arrives holding a basket with two babies, saying she came to help with the accident. Adeline realizes it is her cousin Marie.
Sergeant Decker cauterizes the major blood vessels in Rese’s legs with a hot poker while Emil and Marie hold her down. After Rese’s wounds are dressed, she starts experiencing convulsions. Marie realizes Rese is in labor. Karoline admits that Rese is roughly three and a half months pregnant. Adeline and Malia help Marie while Emil sleeps. When Emil wakes up, Will comments that the train is moving through “a nice green valley” (161), although it is not the one they are searching for. Emil almost tells Will to not believe in such nonsense but stops himself.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary
Rese gives birth to a stillborn baby. While Adeline and Malia help deliver the baby, Karoline refuses to participate. Adeline holds Rese’s stillborn baby, lamenting that it never got to live. Karoline angrily retorts that Rese lost her legs and baby as punishment for fornication. Johann grows angry at Karoline and admonishes her.
As the train continues, Malia asks Marie about her husband. Marie explains that she worked for a surgeon named Dr. Klaus Werner until he was drafted by the Wehrmacht and sent to work in a hospital in Stalingrad. In 1943, Klaus received a month’s leave and returned to Ukraine to ask Marie to marry him. Marie has not heard from Klaus since he returned to the Wehrmacht, leaving her to raise their twin sons on her own.
During a train stop, Emil, Adeline, and Johann bury Rese’s baby. Hours later, Adeline is sitting by Rese when she wakes up. Rese remembers parts of her fall and realizes that her lower legs are gone. She begins to cry, saying that her boyfriend Stephan will never marry her, leaving her alone with the baby. Marie and Karoline inform Rese that she lost the baby.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary
When the train arrives in Poland, Rese is taken to the military hospital. The rest of the Martel and Losing families are directed to the Immigration Control Center, where they must quarantine. The men and women are separated, and boys are told to go with their fathers. The refugees strip naked before having their hair and beards cut. They then go through a chemical shower that removes lice from their bodies.
The refugees are handed new clothes and assigned a tent for their stay in the camp. They are directed to a mess hall where they are fed a large meal. Emil begins to feel that the worst of their troubles are behind them. After eating, the refugees gather on the parade ground, one end of which boasts a low stage with Nazi flags and a microphone. Major Haussmann claims that the refugees are “loyal pure German bloodstock returning to the greater Fatherland” (178).
Major Haussmann explains that the refugees will be quarantined for several weeks and then join the general population, at which time they will receive housing and work assignments. Major Haussmann leads the crowd in several Nazi salutes and the singing of the Nazi Party anthem.
The refugees line up for a brief medical examination before bed. As he waits in line, Emil locks eyes with Major Haussmann. After putting their sons to bed, Emil and Adeline find the latrines. While Emil waits for Adeline, Nikolas approaches him. Nikolas informs Emil that, now that he is shaven, Major Haussmann recognizes him and remembers who he is.
Part 2, Chapters 13-17 Analysis
The second portion of Part 2 continues to reinforce The Cruelty of War. When the refugees arrive at the train station in Oradea, they are informed that they must leave their wagons and most of their belongings behind, taking only what they can carry. Adeline is unable to contain her grief, proclaiming, “They want us down to nothing, Emil, people with no pasts” (133). Even small moments of joy are quickly undercut. As the train rolls through the countryside, Adeline and Malia are entranced by the view, including “the shafts of golden last light pouring down on the pool beside the gorgeous pale ruins of a large building” (136); they soon learn that the building is a Jewish synagogue that was blown up by the Germans.
Rese in particular represents the potential for joy to quickly turn to tragedy. Adeline admires Rese’s spirit and her rebellious streak. As Rese returns to the train after sneaking away to swim in the lake, Adeline reflects, “Rese was pretty and smart and very funny. She did not care what other people thought of her when she did crazy things like this” (150). However, Rese’s joy is quickly overshadowed by her losing the bottom half of both her legs when they are run over by the train.
Rese’s accident, which also leads to the stillbirth of her baby, reinforces the drastically different ways that people respond to tragedy. For Emil, Rese’s accident confirms his “disbelief in God or in any higher force” (155), as he believes no benevolent God would allow such a thing to happen. On the other hand, Karoline reveals the full extent of her bitterness in the face of Rese’s accident. As Adeline holds Rese’s stillborn baby, Karoline claims that “[the] Lord took [Rese’s] legs and that…sin in your hands because of her fornication” (163).
Given Rese’s rebellious spirit, her accident also raises questions about a person’s ability to maintain a positive outlook in the face of catastrophic circumstances. When the medic insists that Rese is lucky to be alive, she argues that “when [the morphine] wears off, [she’ll] rather be dead” (170).
The second half of Part 2 continues exploring the theme of Moral Ambiguity and Compromise as the refugees are directed to a camp at the Immigration Control Center in Poland. Emil overhears conversations among Nazi soldiers and pieces together that the ethnic Germans from Ukraine are being relocated to replace the Jewish population murdered by the Nazis. Life at the camp demonstrates how people can be swayed to align with a violent political party like the Nazis when their safety is at stake.
The Immigration Control Center immediately raises the spirits of the refugees, including the Martels. Emil feels that the camp represents a new beginning for his family after their arduous journey to Poland. Although Emil had dreamt of traveling west across the ocean, their successful journey to the camp convinces him that the worst is over.
Though their living quarters in the camp are simple, they are a radical improvement over the conditions that they endured on their journey: “After so many weeks outrunning the war, sleeping on the ground beneath the wagon, and huddling in culverts during bombardments, these simple quarters felt almost too good to be true” (176). The Nazis attempt to win over the refugees with a feast on their first night in the camp. After suffering starvation under Soviet rule in Ukraine and rationing food during their trek, the Martels are nearly in disbelief at the food available to them.
Though Emil and Adeline are morally opposed to the violence perpetrated by the Nazis, they revel in the ability to relax for the first time in weeks. After their feast, the refugees are welcomed by Major Haussmann, who explains that they will spend a few weeks in quarantine before joining the general population. Major Haussmann leads the refugees in the Nazi salute; after several rounds, Emil realizes that “every refugee, every member of his family, including himself, Adeline, and his two young boys, [are] calling back to Haussmann and throwing their arms forward and up in unison” (179). This moment demonstrates both the difficulty of maintaining a moral code in the face of extreme hardship and the circumstances in which ordinary people can be convinced to align with a violent political movement.
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