Echo

Elisabeth returns home and cooks a dinner for her family. She announces that she will not, however, be staying in Trossingen as planned; instead, she will begin her internship at a Berlin hospital. She reveals that she in fact requested to be reassigned so that she could continue her involvement with the League of German Girls, a Nazi organization.

The family debates Nazism. Elisabeth shares that the harmonica is not “traditional and [is] thought to be offensive,” but that is the least concerning of her views (85). Her father asks how she can believe that all non-Germans are enemies, and she replies that his rhetoric simply encourages pride. She also encourages Friedrich to join the Hitler Youth. She requests that her father give Elisabeth her baptism papers. Their father goes to bed. Uncle Gunter arrives, and when he learns of Elisabeth’s new views, Friedrich watches Gunter “grow more and more quiet” before excusing himself” (91). 

Friedrich looks over the birth and baptismal records that his father has compiled and finds a birth certificate listing him as dead—the cause of death is stated as epilepsy. He shows it to Elisabeth, and together, they ask their father, who confirms that Friedrich had seizures as a newborn.