Only the Beautiful

The narrative shifts back in time to Helen’s experiences in Austria. Helen returns to the Maiers’ house to report her lack of success. When Brigitta was taken away, Johannes had been away on work-related business, but he has now been informed of the situation and is on his way home. Helen talks with a family friend named Therese, who assures Helen that she is not at fault, because there is no chance that the current regime would have spared Brigitta. Three days later, Johannes arrives and insists that he had no idea what would happen. He also absolves Helen of responsibility, stressing that there was nothing she could have done.

In the days to come, neither the Maier family nor the families of the other six children are successful in contacting their children at the Am Steinhof hospital. Meanwhile, Johannes is ordered to forsake his family and return to work, and his supervisor callously screams at him, “We are at war! […] Stop obsessing over your monkey child, Captain Maier, and get back to your duties” (298). Weeks later, Martine is notified that she may visit Brigitta, but on the day of the visit, she is told that Brigitta has developed pneumonia and cannot receive any visitors.