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Jacob
Father Ludwik is a Polish Catholic priest who helps run Mother Minka’s orphanage. He has told Felix that Adolf Hitler is protecting them, confusing Felix about who Hitler is and leading Felix to pray to Hitler at various points. Father Ludwik may know that Felix is Jewish and be actively deceiving him about Nazi atrocities to keep him ignorant and safe in case any Nazis visit the orphanage. On the other hand, Father Ludwik may be a Nazi sympathizer who doesn’t know Felix is Jewish, in which case he represents gentile Polish antisemitism.
Father Ludwik Quotes in Once
The Once quotes below are all either spoken by Father Ludwik or refer to Father Ludwik . 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:
).
Pages 18–28
Quotes
“We can only pray,” says Mother Minka. “We can only trust that God and Jesus and the Blessed Mary and our holy father in Rome will keep everyone safe.”
I can hardly breathe.
Suddenly I realize this is even worse than I thought.
“And Adolf Hitler?” I whisper. “Father Ludwik says Adolf Hitler keeps us safe too.”
Mother Minka doesn’t answer, just presses her lips together and closes her eyes.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 41–52
Quotes
I turn and run down the steps. Halfway down I crash into a kid coming up. As I scramble over him, I see his face. He’s older than he was, but I still recognize him. Wiktor Radzyn, one of the Catholic kids from my class when I went to school here.
I don’t stop.
I keep running.
“Clear off, Jew!” yells Wiktor behind me. “This is our house now.”
Why are some people kind to us Jewish book owners and some people hate us? I wish I’d asked Mr. Kopek to explain. And also to tell me why the Nazis hate Jewish books so much that they’ve dragged Mum and Dad and all their Jewish customers off to the city.
I tell myself a story about a bunch of kids in another country whose parents work in a book warehouse and one day a big pile of Jewish books topples onto the kids’ parents and crushes them and the kids vow that when they grow up they’ll get revenge on all the Jewish books and their owners.
It doesn’t feel like a very believable story.
Pages 91–98
Quotes
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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Father Ludwik Quotes in Once
The Once quotes below are all either spoken by Father Ludwik or refer to Father Ludwik . 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:
).
Pages 18–28
Quotes
“We can only pray,” says Mother Minka. “We can only trust that God and Jesus and the Blessed Mary and our holy father in Rome will keep everyone safe.”
I can hardly breathe.
Suddenly I realize this is even worse than I thought.
“And Adolf Hitler?” I whisper. “Father Ludwik says Adolf Hitler keeps us safe too.”
Mother Minka doesn’t answer, just presses her lips together and closes her eyes.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 41–52
Quotes
I turn and run down the steps. Halfway down I crash into a kid coming up. As I scramble over him, I see his face. He’s older than he was, but I still recognize him. Wiktor Radzyn, one of the Catholic kids from my class when I went to school here.
I don’t stop.
I keep running.
“Clear off, Jew!” yells Wiktor behind me. “This is our house now.”
Why are some people kind to us Jewish book owners and some people hate us? I wish I’d asked Mr. Kopek to explain. And also to tell me why the Nazis hate Jewish books so much that they’ve dragged Mum and Dad and all their Jewish customers off to the city.
I tell myself a story about a bunch of kids in another country whose parents work in a book warehouse and one day a big pile of Jewish books topples onto the kids’ parents and crushes them and the kids vow that when they grow up they’ll get revenge on all the Jewish books and their owners.
It doesn’t feel like a very believable story.
Pages 91–98
Quotes
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.
