The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

Major Frankel, a Nazi war veteran in charge of Piaski, questions Magda about the children. He dislikes working in the village and wonders how a “pure” girl like Gretel could be descended from a “twisted and subhuman” woman like Magda (67). The Major’s Polish clerk, Wiktor, examines and approves Hansel and Gretel’s documents. They will receive ration cards for an allowance of food. When the Major realizes that Gretel speaks German, he tells her about the Nazis’ vision and gives her a peppermint. He sends Magda and the children to the village store with orders for Gretel to distribute sugar rations. Although their forged documents were successful, Magda worries that the Major is too interested in Gretel.

While reading Nazi propaganda posted in the village, the children encounter Feliks. He scoffs at the posts. Magda explains that Feliks is often angry because his best friend had to flee the village when the Nazis arrived. The Nazis also killed Feliks’s mentally handicapped brother. Hansel and Gretel think of a man in the ghetto who the Nazis executed because of his mental state. They continue to the small shop to collect their rations. Magda notes that only 31 children have lined up outside to receive sugar and thinks how villagers now try to avoid pregnancy.