Ursula and Jürgen’s daughter in Ursula’s German life. Five years old when the war starts, Frieda is the light of Ursula’s life. Ursula would do anything to protect her. When she grows sick, Eva Braun invites Ursula and Frieda to recover at Hitler’s mansion, and they quickly fall in love with Frieda as well. As the war takes a turn for the worse, Frieda gets sicker and sicker, until Ursula feels that the only way to protect her is by committing suicide together. Frieda is the only child that Ursula has in any timeline, and when Ursula kills Hitler in a later life, she says before she kills him that she is doing it for “her”—presumably, for Frieda.
Frieda Quotes in Life After Life
The Life After Life quotes below are all either spoken by Frieda or refer to Frieda. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Land of Begin Again, Apr 1945
Quotes
She held tightly on to Frieda and soon they were both wrapped in the velvet wings of the black bat and this life was already unreal and gone.
She had never chosen death over life before and as she was leaving she knew something had cracked and broken and the order of things had changed.
Related Characters:
Ursula Todd, Frieda
Related Symbols:
Darkness and the Black Bat
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Life After Life LitChart as a printable PDF.
Frieda Character Timeline in Life After Life
The timeline below shows where the character Frieda appears in Life After Life. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Land of Begin Again, August 1939
...at the grand Berghof, and Eva Braun (Hitler’s mistress) is playing with Ursula’s five-year-old daughter, Frieda. Frieda has blond hair, blue eyes, and is very pale, and both Hitler and Eva...
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Ursula describes Frieda as the center of her heart, and Ursula knows that she would be willing to...
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Eva takes lots of pictures of Ursula and Frieda, and Ursula imagines a future time in which someone leafs through Eva’s albums and wonders...
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Frieda had grown very ill several weeks prior, quickly become feverish and delirious, and Ursula and...
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...she were to shoot him, she doesn’t know what might happen to her, or to Frieda.
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When Ursula and Frieda had arrived at the Berghof, Hitler himself had greeted them and invited them to stay...
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Ursula thinks of Klara, whom she had not seen for many years. When Frieda was born five years prior, Klara’s Jewish husband had already been barred from teaching. He...
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Ursula tells Eva one day at lunch that she thinks Frieda is well enough to go home. Ursula wants desperately to return to England. She had...
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...Ursula had been terrified, thinking he must have figured out about her plan. But then Frieda had become ill, and the plan became irrelevant anyway. Ursula thinks of this episode as...
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The Land of Begin Again, April 1945
Ursula lives in a cellar in Berlin with Frieda, sheltered from the British and American bombs. They had almost been killed earlier that day...
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...after Germany declared war on Poland, she had hastily packed a suitcase and hurried with Frieda to the train station, but all the borders were closed.
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...raid in 1944. Ursula had been relived, but was ashamed of this reaction given how Frieda was so upset. Frieda is now ill, with terrible bouts of coughing. Sometimes they venture...
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Ursula gives all she can to her daughter, but knows that Frieda would not survive without her. Ursula tries to scavenge for useful things in their own...
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...the fact that it is completely open. She worries about the Russians headed for Germany. Frieda is only eleven, but Ursula thinks that if even a tenth of the rumors are...
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Frieda has a fever and chills. Ursula sees that there is no way she could survive...
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When Ursula returns from the chemist, she finds Frieda slipping in and out of consciousness. Ursula soothes her with details from the scenery and...
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When Ursula is sure that Frieda is asleep, she places a little glass capsule in Frieda’s mouth and presses her jaws...
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