The German Girl

Hannah says that the night before, her mother was very sick. Hannah could hear her vomiting on the other side of the bathroom door throughout the night. The next morning, however, she seems to be fine, washing her hair and putting on “perhaps more elaborate makeup than usual” (152). She then announces to Hannah that she is pregnant. Hannah is relieved that this is why her mother was sick and is excited by the news. Hannah goes up to the ship deck and watches with her family and Leo as the ship passes the Azores islands in the Atlantic. Leo takes her hand. Hannah’s father announces that they are “halfway there” (156).

It is Hannah’s birthday. She is woken up early because the captain has sent a crew member to find her father, who speaks regularly with the captain, along with Leo’s father. Alma lies down beside Hannah in bed and fastens a Teardrop pearl necklace around her neck, “the flawed pearl that her father had made for her mother to wear at the opening of the Hotel Adlon” (160). Her mother received the jewel when she was the same age as Hannah is now. When they leave the cabin to celebrate her birthday, they notice several people outside the Adlers’ cabin. Hannah’s father tells them that “Last night, Mr. Adler began to have trouble breathing. He’s gone” (161). They will have to hold the funeral service at sea and throw him overboard afterward.

When Hannah tells Leo about the death (which he’s already heard about), Leo shares a rumor that another person onboard, a crew member, committed suicide in the night by jumping into the sea. Leo makes Hannah promise that they’ll live together until they’re 87. He tells her then that the visas that they have are worthless: “The Cuban government is now demanding a bond for each of us, a fortune that not even the wealthiest will be able to pay” (162). Finally, Leo tells Hannah that she has to find the cyanide capsules that her parents brought with them. “If you’re refused entry to Cuba, the Rosenthals already have a plan,” Leo says (163). When she gets back to her cabin, Hannah can hear her mother crying and confirming what Leo has just said, that if not all three of them can land, then none of them will.

Hannah reflects on the prospect of death. She says that she is not afraid of death but does not want her fate to be decided for her. She feels it is not her time to die yet. Therefore, she must find the cyanide capsules. She has searched all over her parents’ cabin but has not yet found them. That night there is to be a “fancy dress ball” in the ballroom (166). Hannah, Leo, Kurt, and Walter watch from a spot on the balcony. Hannah notes the ballroom’s cheap décor and sees Ines, who looks sad, “waiting for a suitor who would never appear” (167). Hannah’s parents make a grand entrance to the tune of “Moonlight Serenade,” slowly descending a staircase as all look on in admiration. They bring hope to the ball’s atmosphere. Hannah decides that this is her moment to search her parents’ cabin for the cyanide pills.