Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Refugee, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma and Coming of Age
Injustice and Cruelty vs. Empathy and Social Responsibility
Hope vs. Despair
Family, Displacement, and Culture
Invisibility and the Refugee Experience
Summary
Analysis
For four weeks, Mahmoud, Waleed, Youssef, and Fatima live in a school in Munich, until a host family agrees to let them share their home. Escorted by a German relief worker, Mahmoud’s family arrives at their home and are greeted by an elderly German man and woman. The relief worker introduces the man as Saul Rosenburg. Upon entering the Rosenburgs’ home, Mahmoud is surprised to see the Star of David symbol—the couple is Jewish. Mahmoud knows that in the Middle East, Jews and Muslims had been fighting each other for decade, and thinks that they are in a “strange new world.”
By referencing the conflict between Jews and Muslims, Gratz illustrates how this empathy can surpass even longstanding hatred between groups of people. Given the age of the elderly German couple, it’s likely that they may have lived through World War II and experienced oppression themselves as Jewish people.
Themes
Frau Rosenberg gives Waleed a little stuffed rabbit, explaining through the translator that she is a toy designer. She says that she thought Mahmoud might be too old. He nods, but says that Frau Rosenburg can make one for Hana when they find her, explaining how they had to give her away. As the translator translates, Frau Rosenburg’s smile fades and she leads Mahmoud into another room.
Frau Rosenburg recognizes that Mahmoud is too mature for a stuffed animal—that the traumatic experiences he has had to face in fleeing Syria and arriving in Germany have forced him to grow up far earlier than he should have to.
Themes
Frau Rosenburg explains that she was a refugee, too, and shows Mahmoud a picture of herself and her brother as young children. She tells Mahmoud the story of the St. Louis, and how they were resettled in France. Frau Rosenburg describes how the Nazis caught her along with her brother and mother, and gave her mother the choice to save only one child. Frau Rosenburg’s brother chose for her mother, and offered to go to the concentration camp. Ruthie says that she doesn’t remember much about her brother, but that his name was Josef and that he always wanted to be a grown-up. And when he chose to go to the concentration camp, he truly became a man.
Here, it becomes clear that Frau Rosenburg is actually Ruthie. This serves as the climax of the novel, as yet another connection is drawn among the book’s three main protagonist. Frau Rosenburg again recognizes Mahmoud’s maturity and ties it to Josef’s own. She shows the reader how Josef, too, made the most mature decision of his life by sacrificing himself instead of forcing Rachel to choose between her two children. Again, this is a decision that a 13-year-old should never have to make, but the dire circumstances required it.
Themes
Frau Rosenburg tells Mahmoud that she only survived because a kind French woman took her in and raised her as family. When the war was over, she searched for Josef and Rachel, but they had both died in the camps. Then she met her husband Saul, and they started their own family. Frau Rosenburg shows Mahmoud more pictures. She explains that Josef and Rachel died so that she could live. She tells Mahmoud that they will find Hana and bring her home.
Ruthie understands that she is only alive because of the empathy of others. France took them in after Cuba refused them; Josef chose to save her life rather than his own; and the French woman recognized the value in her life and raised her as a daughter. All of these outcomes argue for the importance of kindness toward refugees.
Themes
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Mahmoud is filled with sadness for Josef, but also with gratitude. Saul calls Frau Rosenburg back into the living room, referring to her as Ruthie. Looking at the photos, Mahmoud thinks about how Josef died so that Ruthie could live, and then one day welcome Mahmoud and his family into their home. Ruthie leads Mahmoud back into the living room, which is “bright and alive and filled with books and pictures of family and the smell of good food.” Mahmoud thinks that it feels like a home.
Ruthie also recognizes her fortune in being alive, and her determination to help others in the same way that she received aid. But ultimately Gratz calls not only on those who had been refugees to show their kindness—over the course of the novel, the author has implicitly argued that all people are capable of empathy and aiding refugees who need help, in both big and small ways.
Themes
