The German Wife

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child death, mental illness, and religious discrimination.

The photographs of Georg, Laura, and Mayim that Sofie keeps close to her symbolize what she’s lost in the war, and they simultaneously serve as a motif that highlights The Impact of War on Family. The photos are introduced when Sofie arrives in Huntsville, and she looks at them to remember her children and dear friend, all of whom are lost to her at that point. The photo of Mayim, in particular, represents the life that Sofie had before the war, when she and Mayim shared a positive view of the future. Henry steals the photos, which emphasizes the personal nature of his targeting of Sofie:

[T]he objects taken were so personal, and those images had no value to anyone other than me. I wondered if whoever took them […] had any idea what they’d really stolen in taking the simple stack of paper that represented my last mementos of Adele and Georg and even Laura, and of course, Mayim (361).

When Lizzie finds the photos, she sees Sofie in a new light and has to recognize Henry’s criminal behavior: “[A]s I stared down at the final [photo], I felt a pinch in my chest.