The Night War

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and religious discrimination.

Miri epitomizes bravery under exceptionally challenging circumstances. Part of the coming of age that Miri experiences throughout the novel is recognizing and identifying with her own bravery. In the exposition, Miri harbors private guilt that she didn’t intervene when Monsieur Rosenbaum was taken: “It had been my fault the Nazis took Monsieur Rosenbaum away” (6). However, Miri’s description of these events demonstrates her attempts to intervene, even though she was only 10 years old: “I ran forward and threw myself between him and the soldier. The soldier pushed me sideways, hard” (6). The reader recognizes Miri’s incredible courage in this terrifying scene, but she does not.

Through her friendship with Catherine’s ghost, Miri comes to see that Monsieur Rosenbaum’s arrest was not her fault; Catherine draws on historical examples (involving herself) of power struggles and murder: “She looked grim. ‘I was ten when my uncle’s enemies sought me. Tell me, if they had found me and killed me, would I have been to blame?’” (135). Finding parallels between Catherine’s life and her own helps Miri to accept that it was the Nazis’ fault that Monsieur Rosenbaum was taken, not her own, and she realizes, “I was not responsible for anything the German army did.