54 pages • 1 hour read
Louise MurphyThe True Story of Hansel and Gretel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 21-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary: “Blood”
The Oberführer has returned to Piaski. He reveals that Sister Rosa tested Nelka’s blood, and that it matches his blood type. Sister Rosa brings Nelka to the Oberführer’s quarters. Nelka suspects that he wants information about her son. To prevent the Oberführer from selecting him, she says that he is weak and likely to die soon. Sister Rosa slowly undresses the Oberführer, becoming aroused as she removes all of his clothing except his pants and boots. They order Nelka to undress. Sister Rosa inspects her body for signs of disease and squeezes a stream of milk from her breast. Nelka fears that the Oberführer and Sister Rosa intend to kill her.
Sister Rosa uses a tube to transfuse Nelka’s blood into the Oberführer. He explains that her blood will refresh him. He sends Sister Rosa out and tells Nelka that she is a “chosen one,” meant to be “drained of all [she has] to serve [her] masters.” He also refers to himself as “the Chalice” (163). Sister Rosa returns, and the Oberführer tells Nelka that she has taken Nelka’s baby. Nelka nearly faints. The Oberführer explains that he took the baby to keep her from fleeing the village, and she may visit the baby to nurse him. Nelka immediately leaves to see her baby. Outside, Wiktor observes her and goes to tell the Major what the Oberführer has done.
Nelka tells Telek about the baby and the transfusion. He wants to kill the Oberführer, but she warns him that if he does, all of Piaski will be killed in retaliation. Nelka calms Telek and wills herself to stay strong for her loved ones.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Christmas Eve, 1943”
The Oberführer has forced the Major and a group of villagers, including Hansel, to help him hunt boar in the woods. The Major silently mocks the Oberführer and his orders that no one else may shoot at their prey. When a boar emerges from the trees, Hansel screams and runs toward it. The boar escapes, and the angry Oberführer considers killing Hansel. He decides to shoot near Hansel without hitting him and urges the men to follow the boar.
While Hansel is hunting, Gretel celebrates Christmas Eve with Magda, Nelka, and Telek. She learns about local holiday customs: eating a symbolic wafer, lighting a candle in the window, placing hay beneath the tablecloth, and exchanging kisses and declarations of love. Nelka lists the traditional foods she hopes to eat for Christmas Eve when the war is over. Suddenly, Hansel barges in unhurt but with the boar’s blood on him. He briefly explains what happened in the forest and then listens as the adults reminisce about past Christmases when they were allowed to attend church.
Nelka retrieves a pastry from the oven and tells the children a variation of the Christian Christmas story. She thinks of her son as she speaks of death, hope, and light. Gretel attempts to gift Nelka one of her pretend oranges but says that she cannot find it. Nelka soothes her and comforts the others by singing. Magda, in particular, is moved to focus on love and push “the darkness of the future time, which she saw coming, out of her mind” (176). The narrator reveals that the boar survived the Oberführer’s hunt and is safe in the forest.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Father Piotr”
In snowy January, Father Piotr visits Magda’s hut. She accuses him of becoming a drunk, but quickly realizes that the Oberführer has commanded him to drink to undermine his influence with the villagers. Father Piotr says that the Oberführer forced him and other men to unload a boxcar full of frozen, dead, Jews and hide them in a ditch. He is scarred by the experience and regrets rejecting Nelka when she sought to establish a relationship with him. Magda comforts her brother. Hansel, eavesdropping, remembers when people in the ghetto used frozen bodies as shields for snowball fights.
Magda leads Hansel into the woods and makes sure he remembers their path. She tells him that villagers once wanted to kill her because they believed she was a real witch. Magda shows Hansel a hidden shelter she built into the ground in case she needed to flee. She tells him to keep it a secret and that he may need to lead Gretel there one day soon. Though Hansel is sad to think that Magda won’t be with them, he assures her that he can find the shelter on his own if he needs to.
Father Piotr returns to Magda’s hut and encounters only Gretel. Impulsively, he tells her of his sadness. Gretel gathers candles and a bucket of hot coals and leads Father Piotr outside. She arranges eight of the candles in a row, mimicking the design of a Jewish menorah. She tells Father Piotr that God is now with them and begins to sing some of Nelka’s Christmas carols. Father Piotr cries as the two of them watch the flames. Just before Magda and Hansel come upon them in the snow, Father Piotr realizes that he finally feels some happiness.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Bones”
The Mechanik searches for the Stepmother on the farm that the partisans burned. When he does not find her, he and the other partisans assume that she is dead. The Mechanik is devastated. He and the partisans leave their current camp to avoid detection. As he travels, the Mechanik often thinks of the Stepmother and talks to her in his mind. He stops when he realizes that talking to her is like praying because he so dislikes religious acts.
The partisans happen upon a civilian and two German soldiers trying to fix a truck. They shoot the soldiers and chase the civilian, who claims to be a medical student. When they search the truck, they find Jewish skulls and bones that are meant for a Nazi research experiment. The partisans bury the bones and kill the civilian. They strip and behead the German’s bodies before leaving the site. That night, as the partisans drink vodka, the Russian says that he and his countrymen must drink to manage their feelings about atrocities. He passes out, and the other partisans discuss how Poland is caught between the Nazis and the Russians.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Eindeutschung”
Telek tells Nelka that they must take her baby back from Sister Rosa. He says that the selection of the children considered perfect is part of the Nazi’s Eindeutschung, or “making things German” (192). Nelka protests that the Oberführer will kill the entire village if she and Telek escape with the baby. Telek reassures her that they can warn Hansel, Gretel, and Magda to hide in Magda’s hidden shelter. Soon, the Major commands the villagers to bring their children for inspection. Although Magda usually does not pray, she begs the Christian God to spare the children and take her life, instead.
Magda brings Hansel and Gretel for inspection. Though Sister Rosa and the Oberführer are alarmed by Hansel’s circumcision, they believe his story about being a Karaite and ultimately decide that he is not Jewish. The Oberführer does not want to send Hansel to Germany because of his brown eyes. When it is Gretel’s turn, the Oberführer touches her breast, and Sister Rosa praises her appearance. Gretel screams and then begins to sing, revealing her confusion. After Magda explains that Gretel was raped, Sister Rosa checks her between her legs and asserts that it is possible. The Oberführer is inclined to have Gretel killed because of her issues, but the Major dissuades him by linking Gretel to Nelka. Spurred by concern that the Major may know about his transfusion of Nelka’s blood, the Oberführer allows both Gretel and Hansel to go home with Magda.
Wiktor speaks up for the villagers after the German officials wonder why so many of the children have recently become injured. Sister Rosa examines Nelka’s baby. She praises his form, but the Oberführer questions Nelka about her heritage. Jedrik, the villager who turned in the former mayor and his family, told the Oberführer about Nelka’s Gypsy ancestors. Nelka knows that if she confirms his suspicions, the Oberführer will send she and her child to a concentration camp to die. She also recognizes that Father Piotr, Magda, Hansel, and Gretel will suffer if she is honest. Nelka says that she does not have Gypsy blood, even though it means her son may go to Germany.
After Nelka departs, the Major hints to the Oberführer that he knows about the blood he transfused from Nelka. The Major considers the damage that allegations of impure blood could cause the Oberführer, whom he still disdains.
Chapters 21-25 Analysis
This section characterizes the Oberführer as an increasingly erratic and unpredictable actor. By fixating on purity, transfusing Nelka’s blood, and forcing men to accompany him on an ill-fated hunt, the Oberführer reveals the obsessive tendencies that eventually lead to his unraveling. His pristine appearance and love of discipline are both illusory. These flaws, along with his Nazism, render his power over the villagers alarming. The Oberführer is in possession of Nelka’s baby and is the sole authority to decide whether village children will go to Germany or face execution for their flaws. His unpredictability heightens tension in the novel when Gretel goes before him for inspection. That he decides to spare her life despite her mental confusion is not a foregone conclusion. Tension spikes again when the Oberführer questions Nelka about rumors of her gypsy ancestry. Nelka carefully considers her response but cannot be certain of the Oberführer’s reaction.
As in other chapters that focus on the Mechanik and the partisans, Chapter 24 expands the novel’s plot to include large-scale developments in World War II. The Russian obtains news about troop movements and plans the partisans’ route through the forest accordingly. But the partisans also learn about the Nazis firsthand when they encounter German soldiers in the woods. After killing two soldiers, the partisans discover a truck full of severed Jewish heads meant for Nazi experiments. Including the partisans in the novel gives the author an opportunity to widen the scope of her story.
These chapters also foreshadow important developments that lie ahead in the novel. In Chapter 23, for instance, Magda shows Hansel how to reach the hidden shelter that she has created in the forest. Its mere introduction suggests that its eventual necessity. Magda bolsters that suggestion when she tells Hansel that she senses he will need the shelter soon. In Chapter 22, a wild boar survives the Oberführer’s attempt to hunt it and nestles down into the snow. Its survival provides a glimmer of hope for characters pursued by the Nazis. Their persecutors are not invincible, and the boar lives to see Christmas morning.
After many devastating chapters, the novel’s mood briefly lightens in Chapter 22. As Nelka celebrates Christmas Eve with her family and Hansel and Gretel, she is defiantly hopeful. She dares to imagine that the following Christmas will include a grand feast. When she tells the Christian Christmas story to the children, she emphasizes the power of light against darkness. Her words have a strong effect on both Hansel and Gretel. That night, Hansel “looked at Nelka and he began to feel warm” (175). Later, in Chapter 23, Gretel tries to create her own light in the world. She builds a makeshift menorah in the woods and remembers that the lit candles signify “that they would live.” Gretel thinks that “it was lovely, and she began to sing one of the Christmas carols that Nelka had taught her” (185). Though the hopeful mood will not last, it offers readers a brief respite.
