Allies

“Would Sid care that Dee’s parents had disagreed with Hitler? Would Sid care that they had run away to America so Dee wouldn’t be brainwashed to hate everyone who wasn’t a ‘pure’ German? That Dee had been in America for almost his whole life, so long that he had lost any trace of his German accent?” 

This quote reveals Dee’s worries about himself as he considers Sid’s possible reaction to him if his friend knew about his heritage. Dee’s parents are here characterized as doing the best thing they could for their son, in contrast to some of Dee’s more ambivalent thoughts about his family’s escape to America. Dee’s reflection on his lack of a German accent suggest that he defines himself as an American.

“And Dee liked the idea of this one being ‘Dee-Day.’ His day. It kind of was, after all. It was Dee’s day for atonement. The day he came back to Europe to undo what his family had allowed to happen eleven years ago.” 

The language of this passage captures Dee’s feelings about the fact that he is a native-born German. The word “atonement” and Dee’s assessment of his parents “allowing” Nazism to take hold reveal that he believes, in part, that his family’s escape was dishonorable. His identification with the invasion’s nickname (D-Day) suggests that he personally identifies with the Ally mission because of his family’s history.

“Algeria was a colony of France, but they wanted to be their own country. That was why Samira’s parents had come to France in the first place—to learn all they could about medicine and law and then return to their homeland and work for independence. Samira believed in the cause too, and to show her own nationalistic and religious pride, she had worn a headscarf to her all-girls school in Paris. But some of the other girls—French girls—hadn’t liked her independent streak, and one day their taunting had turned into a full-on fight. Samira was called to the headmistress’s office, where she expected to learn the other girls were going to be punished. Instead, she found herself in trouble while the French girls got only a slap on the wrist.” 

This passage portrays the unfair treatment Samira received while she attended school and explains part of her parents’ motivation for coming to France. It also emphasizes her pride in her Algerian identity, expressed by her decision to wear a headscarf. The concrete examples of discrimination against Samira help the reader empathize with her.

“Samira’s fists clenched in her lap, and she shook with anger and frustration. Everyone in France said this, but how were Algerians supposed to be French when French landlords wouldn’t let them live in their buildings? When French shopkeepers wouldn’t hire them? When French policemen harassed them in the streets? Algerians weren’t Algerian, because there was no Algeria. But they weren’t French citizens either. They were caught in a no-man’s-land, neither one nor the other, and it was no different for Samira here at school.” 

Samira’s reflections provide examples of the ways in which Algerian immigrants were discriminated against in France. The attitudes described in the passage touch on many aspects of the immigrants’ lives, from housing to jobs to a feeling of safety. Samira also articulates that the immigrants are stripped of an identity by not having their home country recognized while also facing discrimination in France.

“More shadowy figures emerged from the trees all around her, stepping into the moonlight where she could see them. They wore a motley hodgepodge of clothes, from dirty shirts to stolen German military boots to blue overalls. One or two of them wore the torn remnants of British military jackets, probably ‘borrowed’ from pilots who hadn’t survived their desperate jumps once their planes were shot down. They all wore white silk scarves cut from parachutes, and each of them carried a weapon of one kind or another—old hunting rifles, stolen German machine guns, British Sten guns dropped into France for the Resistance.” 

Samira’s observations of the resistance fighters illustrate the differences between them and the “official” soldiers of the war. The fighters have taken clothes and weapons from various places—some items come from their enemies the Germans, some come from their allies the British. This not only echoes the book’s theme of many different people coming together but illustrates that the resistance had to be more resourceful than the “established” army.

“Samira knew that there were some French people who worked for the Germans because they had to. Others did it because they liked the Nazis and what they stood for and wanted to be a part of it. Or at least thought they could profit from it. The Maquis hated willing collaborators even more than they hated the Germans. Samira hated them too. Collaborators were French who had betrayed their own.” 

The range of motivations for cooperating with the Nazis is examined here. Samira and the resistance both look down on those who they view as betraying their country, which adds another layer to Samira’s motivation in helping the resistance. 

“‘How is taking just one piece of track out going to do anything?’ Samira asked… ‘All it takes for a thing that big and heavy and fast to come crashing down is to get it to slip its track,’ Jason explained.” 

While Samira and Jason are ostensibly talking about the physical train on the tracks, there is a symbolic meaning to their conversation. Although it may seem as though their action of sabotaging one train is “small” on the scale of the larger war, the Nazi effort does indeed fail, just as the train crashes. The Nazis’ momentum can be compared to that of the train, and the Allies and resistance sabotage it to triumph at the end of the war.

“The Canadian government wanted people to buy Victory Bonds to fund the war effort, and to volunteer to fight. But even though the war in Europe had been raging for almost three years now with no end in sight, Europe was a long way from Canada, and it was hard for many people to imagine why they should care. So Winnipeg decided to stage ‘If Day,’ an elaborate spectacle designed to show the people what happen if, one day, Nazi Germany invaded and conquered Canada.”

This paragraph describes the Canadian government’s motivation for staging “If Day.” It also touches on the fact that global communications during the 1940s would have made it easy for Canadians to feel as though the war was far away. Without television, social media, or the Internet to make physically far-off events feel more immediate, the in-person, live demonstration is what the government uses to motivate its citizens to support the war.

“Out from behind bushes and trash cans and snow piles came almost thirty other students from their school. Boys and girls from every clique, every club, every class. Over the last half hours, James had collected them all…and brought Marvin and his gang right to them…Helen advanced on Marvin’s gang, and the other students, emboldened by their numbers, stepped forward with her, closing in. Marvin and his friends backed away, until James was surrounded by his allies.”

This passage from Winnipeg’s “If Day.” The school group’s standdown against the bullies foreshadows James’s experience during the war. The phrase “every clique, every club, every class” emphasizes the diverse nature of the group and is suggestive of the national diversity of the Ally forces. The word “allies” is even used to strengthen the sense of similarity between the confrontation and the war James now finds himself in.

“James pulled on his chute, steering away from the water as best he could. He fell faster. Faster. James’s heart was in his throat. Where was he going to land? Everything was black. Was he coming down in a tree? A lake? A field full of land mines? Right on top of a German garrison?” 

The various hazards James imagines as he prepares to land illustrate the precariousness of his situation. Any of the objects listed had the capability to kill a paratrooper who landed on them. The chaos and unexpected beginning of the invasion are highlighted by the fact that James saw a trooper land in water below him—even though there weren’t any lakes mapped in the area—which turn out to be fields that the Germans have flooded to try and drown or deter any landing paratroopers.

“‘James, I’m Cree,’ said Sam. ‘I can’t even vote in Canada. Not if I want to keep my tribal status. In the army I get to still be Cree and have respect.’” 

This statement from Sam describes some of the restrictions that were placed on First Nation peoples by the Canadian government. Caught between his ancestral people and the institution of the government, Sam views his army service as a chance to bridge the two worlds. The fact that Sam cannot vote but is allowed to fight in the military points out the double standard that the First Nation peoples were placed under.

“[The other soldiers] were all privates from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. Two of them were white, and one of them was black. That was something new—the Canadian army had been segregated in the last war, but it wasn’t now. James had seen a number of black soldiers at basic training in England.” 

James and Sam encountering other Canadian troops allows Gratz to show that, despite the barriers to First Nations peoples, their country’s military is more “advanced” than the United States in terms of racial integration in the army. Unlike the Americans who will be shocked at Henry’s race, James is already familiar with working and serving alongside soldiers who are Black, having seen “a number” of them as he prepared for the Normandy invasion. Gratz’s portrayal of minorities gains nuance as he examines the way that Canada treats non-whites at the time of the war.

“James watched his friend for a moment, suddenly aware that the shells in Sam’s hands were likely to do to some Germans what their big gun had done to Major McLeod and the others. James hated the thought of anyone dying that way, but this was a war, and he had a job to do.” 

James begins to view the opposing side, Germans, as human beings that are as fragile and destructible as the Allies. His feelings of regret over taking human life make him a more relatable and likable character. James justifies the deaths his weapon will cause by focusing on his “job” and blaming the larger situation of the war for the predicament he is in.

“France was a country where If Day had come true. All those things they had pretended had happened in Winnipeg—the Nazis invading, the people’s rights and property taken from them, people imprisoned and enslaved—those things had actually happened here. […] [I]n the space of a few short hours, James had seen what happened when If Day became When Day.” 

James’s firsthand experiences in the war replace the theoretical understanding he gained during If Day as he battles the Germans. His comparison of the relatively far-off nature of the Nazi threat to Canada and the horrors lived by the French people reveal that he is becoming more mature in his understanding of sacrifice and service. It is fitting that this passage takes place at the end of the section of the book from his point of view, since it expresses an increased understanding of the world.

Dee was just moving to go get the injured radio man when a soldier with a medic’s armband…ran over and went to his knees beside him…Dee’s elation was fleeting. A new hail of bullets cut down the medic where he knelt and finished off the radio operator, leaving them both dead in the sand. Dee gasped and recoiled at the horror of it, the awful cruelty of a Nazi gunner who would shoot a wounded man and an unarmed medic.” 

Dee is horrified at the breach of wartime conduct he witnesses in this passage. Medics were expected to be immune from being fired upon, as well as the wounded. By breaching this code of conduct, the Nazi gunman has separated himself from Dee morally.

“A mortar explosion struck right in front of the tank. It didn’t rattle Bill—he felt insulated inside the four armored walls of the tank, like he was untouchable. Invulnerable.” 

Bill regards the tank as a structure or shelter that will keep him safe. It provides a barrier between himself and the outside world. The use of the words “untouchable” and “invulnerable” foreshadow Bill’s eventual death as even the Achilles can’t protect him and his unit from the dangers of war.

“Who lived through this hell and who died, and why? Was it veteran experience? Divine providence? Dumb luck? Dee didn’t know, and he didn’t have time to figure it out.” 

Dee struggles to gain a sense of meaning amid the chaos he has witnessed on the battlefield. The urgency with which he considers this question, and the necessity of him abandoning it to save his own life, underscore the terror and confusion of the ongoing fighting. The questions Dee poses are meant to be contemplated and considered by the reader as well.

“Maybe, just maybe, Henry thought, this was a beginning. Maybe serving together, fighting together, living and suffering together, would make white people see black people as equals. Maybe, one day, white Americans and black Americans would eat together in the same restaurants. Maybe one day Henry would sit anywhere he wanted to sit in a movie theater, next to a white person, maybe, on the first floor. And maybe someday, the film they watched together would be a screwball comedy or an action adventure or a creepy monster movie with a black man as the main character, not the main character’s servant or piano player. Maybe one day, the white people of America would judge Henry by something other than the color of his skin.” 

Henry contemplates the future of racial equality in America using one of his most characteristic traits—his love of movies. His dream of being able to sit on the first floor references that most movie theaters in the 1940s had a segregated balcony section that was the only place Black patrons could sit. Henry’s role as a visionary is apparent not only because he contemplates sitting wherever he likes but that people who are Black will be accepted as the leads in main film roles.

“But they had left Germany. And even before that, his parents had been against Hitler. They hadn’t joined the Nazi Party, even when their neighbors and coworkers and other family members pressured them to sign up. For whatever reason, this boy had taken a different path. He had agreed to serve in the Nazi army. He had accepted Adolph Hitler as his leader. D. Kaufmann wasn’t Dee’s countryman. Not then, when Dee himself had lived in Germany, and certainly not now that Dee lived in America. These were not his people. The American soldiers in the trench with Dee, those were his people. And when he got back home, he was going to make it official. Dee was going to become a United States citizen.” 

This passage contains a pivotal moment for Dee as he realizes his true loyalties, and those of his family, are aligned with America and the Allies. He decides that his parents were right to bring him to America rather than trying to stay and fight the Nazis from within Germany. Although the moment marks a greater sense of belonging and identity for Dee, it also separates him from the Nazi soldier he has just killed, a separation that implicitly reinforces the opposition of the two sides.

“In [Dee’s] mind’s eye he was suddenly a little boy again, holding his mother’s hand as they boarded a boat in the middle of the night, frightened by his parents’ fear but excited for the adventure as they snuck out of Germany. All to save him, they explained, from having to put on brown shorts and a brown shirt and a red-and-black armband and join the Hitler Youth, which had looked like fun to a naïve five-year-old. Then he saw thirteen-year-old Dee in Philadelphia, listening to the news about Germany’s victories in Europe on the radio and understanding just how close he had come to being swept up into the Nazi army. To being D. Kaufmann, dead in a ditch on the wrong side of history at Normandy. Understanding then how his parents had forsaken their homeland, surrendered it to the Nazis without a fight, to save their only child. And how the United States had saved them all. It was time to repay those debts.” 

Dee’s epiphany about his identity continues as he remembers various parts of his journey to being an American. He begins to view his presence in the military not just as a desperate attempt to right the “wrong” he believes his parents committed but as an act of gratitude. The concrete details such as the appearance of the Hitler Youth uniforms and Dee remembering getting on the boat from Germany add vividness to the passage and hints at the alternative perspective of those who stayed in Germany.

“[Monique] caught herself now singing Rina Ketty’s ‘J’attrendai.’ She smiled at that. J’attrendai meant ‘I Will Wait.’ That could have been her theme song. Hiding curled up at the bottom of a beach hut while things happened outside was the story of her life in a nutshell. She was always afraid to jump in, to make a splash. Take risks. Even now, she wanted to wait. Wanted to hide out in this hut forever—or at least until the sound of engines and shouting soldiers was gone. But life was happening out there. Happening without her. If she didn’t leave now, she never would.” 

This passage characterizes Monique at the beginning of her story. Her timidity and caution are apparent as she evaluates herself, but she is also caught up in an internal conflict similar to that of Dee’s over his identity. Part of her does want to “[t]ake risks” and “make a splash”—to begin living with confidence instead of fear—which will motivate her to help the wounded on the battlefield.

“Monique’s first instinct was to look away, to beg forgiveness. But she was tired of lying low, tired of not speaking up or speaking out. She had picked up a little of Dorothy’s stubbornness too. Besides, it was time to call a cat a cat: She had helped, really helped, and she knew it. What right did this man have to tell her she couldn’t be on this beach? It was her beach, after all, not his.” 

Monique’s status as a local resident is highlighted at the end of the passage, when she feels a sense of ownership about the beach. Her internal battle between courage and meekness continues, with her courageous side beginning to emerge. Monique’s fear of what other people think is becoming eclipsed by her desire to speak her beliefs plainly (to “call a cat a cat”).

“Dee lay back and stared up at the night sky above the plaza. It was hard to imagine that back home in Philadelphia it was just around six o’clock. His parents would be coming home from work right now, his classmates hanging out at the drugstore soda counter. All of them safe and sound, while Dee was lying here, shot through the shoulder, in a makeshift hospital in a city in France.” 

Dee contrasts the strange and tumultuous circumstances he finds himself in with the normality he imagines back home. He also contrasts his injury with the well-being of the people at home, which adds to the sense of disparity between the two worlds. In other passages, Dee will recognize the sacrifices the American people were making domestically, rather than focus on the normal day-to-day experiences he thinks they are having.