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Zelda
Barney is a Jewish dentist living in a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland. He hides Jewish children in a cellar in the ghetto to keep the Nazis from taking them and feeds them by earning food from the Nazis in exchange for free dental services. It is implied, though never stated, that Nazis have already killed Barney’s biological family and that he has refocused all his protective familial affection on the children he's hiding. After Nazis capture Felix and Zelda, Barney intervenes and saves them. Unlike the other adults in Felix’s life, Barney reluctantly tells him the truth about Nazi atrocities, including concentration camps—but he doesn’t tell the younger children in his care. In consequence, after the Nazis capture Felix, Zelda, Barney, and the other children and put them on a train to a concentration camp, only Felix and Barney truly understand that the train is taking them to almost certain death. When Felix and the other passengers create a hole in the train wall through which they can escape, Felix can only persuade Zelda and Chaya to jump with him. Barney insists on staying with the other children, even though it likely means his death. Felix hugs Barney before jumping and feels syringes in his jacket—from which he deduces that Barney is carrying fatal doses of anesthetic and will assist the other children in suicide before letting Nazis kill them.
Barney Quotes in Once
The Once quotes below are all either spoken by Barney or refer to Barney. 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:
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Pages 81–90 Quotes
“They’re in danger,” I croak. “Really bad danger. Don’t believe the notebook. The stories in the notebook aren’t true.”
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Pages 91–98 Quotes
I want to yell at them, Don’t you know anything? Our parents are out there in a dangerous Nazi city. The Nazis are shooting at people. They could be shooting our parents. A story isn’t going to help.
But I don’t. It’s not their fault. They don’t understand what it feels like when you’ve put your mum and dad in terrible danger. When the only reason they couldn’t get a visa to go to America is because when you were six you asked the man at the visa desk if the red blotches on his face were from sticking his head in a dragon’s mouth.
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Suddenly I’m thinking about another story. The one Mum and Dad told me about why I had to stay at the orphanage. They said it was so I could go to school there while they traveled to fix up their business. They told it so well, that story, I believed it for three years and eight months.
That story saved my life.
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Pages 99–111 Quotes
A story?
Then I get it. When Mum went to the dentist, she had an injection to dull the pain. Barney hasn’t given this patient an injection. Times are tough, and there probably aren’t enough pain-dulling drugs in ghetto curfew places.
Suddenly my mouth feels dry. I’ve never told anyone else a story to take their mind off pain. And when I told myself all those stories about Mum and Dad, I wanted to believe them. Plus, I didn’t have a drill in my mouth.
This is a big responsibility.
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Pages 112–120 Quotes
“Once a princess lived in a castle. It was a small castle, but the princess loved it, and she loved her family who lived there with her. Then one day the evil goblins came looking for information about their enemies. They thought the princess knew the information, but she didn’t. To make her tell, the goblins gave the princess three wishes. Either they could hurt her, or they could hurt the old people, or they could hurt the babies.”
Chaya pauses, trembling, staring at the floor. I can see how hard it is for her to finish her story.
“The princess chose the first wish,” she says quietly. “But because she didn’t know any information, the goblins made all three wishes come true.”
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Pages 121–131 Quotes
“Sometimes […] parents can’t protect their kids even though they love them more than anything else in the world. Sometimes, even when they try their very hardest, they can’t save them.”
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Pages 132–143 Quotes
If Zelda’s dad’s a Nazi, does she deserve carrot soup and aspirin?
Yes.
She can’t help what her father did. Plus he’s dead now and so’s her mum and I don’t know if she’s got any other living relatives but after what we’ve been through together that makes me one and I say yes.
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Pages 144–152 Quotes
“Zelda,” I moan. “Why didn’t you stay?”
“I bit the Nazi,” she says. “Don’t you know anything?”
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Pages 153–161 Quotes
You can’t force people to believe a story.
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Barney Character Timeline in Once
The timeline below shows where the character Barney appears in Once. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pages 81–90
...Virgin Mary, not the Pope, not Adolf Hitler”—can save children from the Nazis, a man (Barney), “wearing a Jewish armband” but “speaking Nazi,” confronts the Nazi aiming a gun at Zelda.
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The Nazi aims at the man (Barney), who shows the Nazi a “leather bag” he’s carrying. The Nazi yanks on the man’s...
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...boys. Wondering whether he’s returned to the orphanage somehow, he sits up. A familiar-looking man (Barney) pushes him down and tells him to rest. Felix remembers that this is the man...
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...yelling for it. Zelda lights a candle; a “silver heart” necklace glints on her neck. Barney tells Felix that his notebook is safe; Zelda adds that they’ve saved his letters but...
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Later, crying wakes Felix. A little boy is sobbing. Barney calls the boy Henryk and promises to care for him until he’s reunited with his...
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Later, Barney wakes Felix and asks whether he can read the children a story from Felix’s notebook....
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Barney says that they’re all glad Zelda and Felix have come to live with them. Various...
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Pages 91–98
...Zelda jumps on his bed and demands a story. Felix looks around and asks where Barney and the other children went. Zelda, stifling laughter and pointedly ignoring coats heaped on the...
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...to it but can’t open it. The girl with the bandaged arm (Chaya) explains that Barney locks it. When Felix hits the door, Zelda tells him to be quiet because they’re...
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Pages 99–111
That night, while the other children sleep, Felix tells Barney that he needs to leave the cellar with Barney. Barney takes Felix through the ceiling...
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Felix assumes that Barney will take him back to the cellar. Instead, Barney gives him a candle and admits...
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...streets are empty except for corpses, which Felix checks to make sure aren’t his parents. Barney explains that they’re under curfew. People who violate curfew are shot, but he and Felix...
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A woman takes Barney and Felix into an apartment. Inside, a crowd is gathered around a man moaning on...
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At the next door, Barney praises Felix for how he helped the first patient, which makes Felix proud. Then he...
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When Barney and Felix enter the upper room, Felix discovers that the patient is a scowling Nazi...
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Pages 112–120
In the cellar the next morning, Felix brushes his teeth furiously; he’s enraged at Barney, who wouldn’t let him ask the Nazi officer about his parents. Felix’s story involved the...
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...into the bathroom and asks whether Felix found their parents when he went out with Barney. Felix feels guilty about his impatience to find his parents when Zelda’s are dead: “I...
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Barney asks Felix whether he’s certain that Zelda’s parents were dead. When Felix says he is,...
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Pages 121–131
...a written version of his story for the Nazi officer until he falls asleep too. Barney shakes him awake, says they’ve run out of water, and asks Felix to help get...
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In the print shop, Felix and Barney hear voices outside. Spying through a window, they see Jewish people wearing armbands escorted by...
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Barney enters an apartment without knocking. Felix, following, sees “a Jewish candlestick, the type that holds...
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In the next room, Felix sees special equipment and realizes they’re in “a dentist’s surgery.” Barney is rifling the cupboards for syringes and “small bottles filled with liquid.” When Felix asks,...
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Barney and Felix enter a bathroom and find water in the tub and toilet tank. Barney...
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Barney says that Felix’s parents “loved” him and “did everything they could” to save him. Confused...
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When Felix demands to know how Barney knows this, Barney explains that an escapee from the “death camps” came to the ghetto...
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Pages 132–143
...hair, he realizes that she’s running an extreme temperature. She faints, and Felix yells for Barney.
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Though reluctant to send Felix out alone, Barney doesn’t want to leave Zelda and needs aspirin to lower her temperature. He tells Felix...
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...and sees Nazis surrounding the print shop. Trying to think of a way to warn Barney and the children, he hears screaming and realizes he’s run out of time. Deciding “it...
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Pages 144–152
Nazi soldiers march Barney, Felix carrying Zelda on his back, and the other children through the ghetto. When Felix...
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...gift but insists she take it. At last, she does. When they reach the station, Barney asks the children whether they’re excited to ride a train. Most of the kids say...
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...woman standing in line for the train faints, a Nazi shoots her. Ruth screams. Quickly, Barney tells the children to make a tent. He and the children huddle under their coats,...
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Barney tells the children to stay in the tent. He and Felix (carrying Zelda) crawl from...
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The Nazi officer gestures for Zelda and Barney to leave the station. Barney speaks German and gestures to the other children; Felix infers...
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Pages 153–161
...Felix apologizes for bumping into people until a man shouts at him to stop. When Barney says that Felix is a child and suggests that the man “give him a break,”...
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...is rotten. He kicks the plank, and his foot breaks through it. He yells for Barney. Soon several men are kicking a hole in the wall. Once they’ve made the hole...
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Felix asks Barney whether Nazis will stop the train to catch escapees. Barney replies that they don’t need...
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...the carrot he found for Zelda as an example, but most of them look doubtful. Barney says he won’t stop Felix from jumping but that he will stay with the children...
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Zelda says she wants to jump. After a moment, Chaya says that she does too. Barney asks whether any of the other children want to; none do. Felix hugs all the...
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