Summary

Part 3, Section 1 tells Ania’s story starting before her marriage, up until her decision to leave Rainer and join the masses of people escaping on the road. It begins with Chapter Twenty-Six in Dortmund Germany when Ania is twelve years old on January 11, 1926. The French have invaded, and her family watches them take over local shops and even commandeer their coal factories. She escapes outside one day and watches the French march through the streets, and sees a soldier beat up a German teenager. She thinks to herself, “This is a personal manifestation of defeat. This is what it means to be a member of a defeated nation” (235).

One day when Ania is supposed to go on a trip with her family, she instead decides to hide with her best friend and neighbor Otto Smeltz. Otto has no other friends besides Ania. He...