Summary

This section starts with Josef’s perspective, somewhere on the Atlantic in 1939, “8 days from home” (74). It is shabbos and time for Josef’s Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish religious ceremony when a Jewish boy turns 13 years old. Josef’s father is convinced there is a trap, so Josef and his mother go without him. Though Josef is devastated, he wonders if this is what becoming a man means - not relying on your father. Before the ceremony begins, the Rabbi asks the captain to take down the portrait of Hitler, which the captain does. Josef recites the blessing and after the ceremony everyone congratulates him. While walking on the boat afterwards, a newly minted man, he overhears the stewards discussing how the ship’s engines are maxed out - in order to beat the other ships to Cuba. Josef wonders what this means for...