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In Section One, Doerr includes a wide array of details and context clues intended to foreshadow the impending war, hinting at an increasingly hostile social climate in Germany and an increasingly tense political climate in France. In one passage, Doerr highlights Frau Elena's increasing reticence to speak French around the Zollverein orphans, using this reality to foreshadow future events in Nazi Germany:
Frau Elena speaks French less and less frequently whenever Hans and Herribert are present. She finds herself conscious of her accent. The smallest glance from a neighbor can make her wonder.
Elena's reticence to speak French around the two German orphans—both of whom are in the Hitler Youth—foreshadows Germany's upcoming invasion of France and increasing lack of tolerance for foreigners. Elena's fear signals the increasingly fascist turn of German culture. She is not Jewish, but neither is she German "enough" for the Nazis; and, given the later invasion of France, Frau Elena's wariness is not entirely unfounded. Fascist ideologues, especially young and impressionable ones, are quick to create, identify, and ostracize anyone deemed foreign or different from themselves. Frau Elena has evidently picked up on this sociopolitical shift and moves to obscure her foreignness before she is found out.












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