Chapter 13 Summary

Stingo asks for the reader's patience as he tells us a seemingly unrelated story from Sophie's life, and promises to shortly explain how it impacts her time at Auschwitz. The story is of a luncheon, back in 1937, when Sophie was still living a normal life in her parents' home in Cracow. Her father, Professor Biegański, had managed to arrange a lunch with a powerful German businessman, Dr. Walter Dürrfeld. Dürrfeld, director of a conglomerate called IG Farbenindustrie, is considered one of the captains of German industry. The Professor is a fan of all things German, and brings Sophie along to impress Dr. Dürrfeld with her upbringing. Sophie has been raised with German language, music, books, and cultural ideals of Aryan racial purity. She also happens to be beautiful, and despite the fact that she is Polish...