When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

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

“Someday you’ll wish you listened to me and had more fun.”

Protagonist Anne cannot know the significance of her words when Margot refuses her request for ice cream the day before the German invasion, but readers already familiar with Anne Frank’s historical fate will recognize the line’s dramatic irony. The line also helps to reveal the sisters’ differences; Anne’s excitability and tendency to flit between topics are juxtaposed with Margot’s focus and caution. The lovely spring afternoon at Part 1’s beginning contrasts with the ominous tone of the invasion at its end.

“Countries closed their borders, refusing to let Jewish refugees enter; boatloads of people were turned away from the shores of free countries and many had no chance to survive.”

Before and during World War II, Jewish people fled not only Germany but also countries where Nazi occupation began or seemed likely. However, as the conflict across Europe intensified, Jewish people found themselves with increasingly limited places to go. “Boatloads” alludes to the Jewish people aboard the St. Louis, a steamship in the Hamburg-Amerika line, which left Hamburg, Germany in May 1939 with over 900 refugees, most of them Jewish Germans. They planned to wait in Cuba until the US approved their visas, but by the time they arrived, Cuba had canceled the agreement and turned them away. The US refused to let them land due to immigration limitations and a lengthy waiting list.