Summary

It is spring of 1940, and the war efforts escalate, as Nazi troops march across France. Hamburg transforms its landscape to prepare for enemy attack and just in time as the British bomb the coast. Two bombs hit a neighborhood, and Helmuth is angered by the civilian damage he attributes to Hitler's greed. Paris soon falls to the Germans, and Gerhard begins his labor service there, and Helmuth takes his empty room at Oma and Opa's. Finally free of Hugo's house, he volunteers as a secretary at church and stays up nights to write letters to church members at the front.

One night, Helmuth, Rudi and Karl walk home from choir practice singing, "You Are My Sunshine", a forbidden American song. They encounter junior Gestapo who demand identification and a reason they're singing the song. Although released, Helmuth is furious.

By the...