Old and Young

The relationship between generations is a cause for concern in the novel, with Seghers highlighting Nazi corruption of young minds, and the damaging consequences for the nation as a whole. The Hitler Youths are “impudent brats” who terrorize their neighborhoods, growing up to be thugs and spies with the SA or SS (38). This is a time when “sons betrayed their fathers to their teachers,” and when young officials intimidate their elders (168). The concentration camp does not trouble local teenagers like Fritz, because “as long as he could remember, the camp had always been there and along with it all the reasons for its being there. He didn’t know it any other way” (73). Moreover, he is accustomed to “his usual companions, the noise, the war games and marches … trumpets, fanfares, shouts of ‘Heil!’” – all of which encourages loyalty to what for him is the...