Summary

In the chapter, “The Punishment for Helping a Jew,” Irena happened to see a family of Jews, as well as the Polish family who had been harboring them, killed by the German army one day while on her way home from the warehouse. Inside her own home, she thoughtlessly opened the basement door without locking the front door or checking to see if the major was home. Fanka and Clara came upstairs, exclaiming over her state as the major came in through the kitchen door. The major saw the three women, went out through the kitchen door and closed himself in the library. Irena followed him and begged him not to turn them in. She asked him to punish her, but to let her friends escape. The major told her he needed time...