The Nazi Officer Character Analysis

The Nazi officer first appears when Barney takes Felix with him to perform dental surgeries under cover of night. Barney wants Felix to tell his patients stories to distract them from the pain of dental surgery, because Barney doesn’t have any anesthetic. Barney’s second patient is the scowling, liquor-swilling Nazi officer, whose underling gives Barney food in payment for the surgery. Though Felix is terrified, the Nazi officer likes the story Felix tells so much that he asks Felix to write it down and give it to him later so he can send it to his children. After Nazis capture Barney, Felix, Zelda, and the other Jewish children and take them to a train station where they’ll be sent to a concentration camp, Felix and Barney spot the Nazi officer, give him Felix’s written story, and try to convince him to save Zelda by showing him her silver locket that contains a photograph of her father in Nazi uniform. The Nazi officer is willing to let Zelda and Barney go, but when Barney tries to negotiate for the other children’s freedom, the officer refuses. The Nazi officer exemplifies how readers need to judge characters’ individual actions in the larger context of their behavior and personality. While the Nazi officer performs a few things that, out of context, might seem kind, he’s complicit in a genocide against Jewish people even if Felix never sees him commit violent acts personally.