Girl in the Blue Coat

Hanneke arrives home late for lunch, and her parents are concerned. She explains the reason why she feels so much pressure to support her family with black market trade: years before her birth, her father paralyzed the right side of his body vaulting an electric fence to court her mother. Formerly a translator, he is now unable to find work, as is her mother, who is a piano teacher. They believe she works as a receptionist for an undertaker, Mr. Kreuk, which is partially true—she works for him as a receptionist and in assisting his black-market trade. As they sit down to lunch, Nazis arrive to arrest their neighbor, Mr. Bierman. Hanneke goes to her room to escape, and looks through a scrapbook of love notes from Bas. She wonders whether he would encourage her to find Mirjam, noting, “Bas wouldn’t know anything about the kind of girl I am now” (37). Nonetheless, she finds herself determined to return to Mrs. Janssen’s.

Hanneke returns to Mr. Kreuk’s office. She is distracted, but her boss lets it go in exchange for her visiting Mrs. de Vries, a particularly unpleasant client. On her way out, she sees graffiti in support of Hitler, and notes that some citizens of Amsterdam—like Elsbeth—“think it’s smarter to support the invaders” (40).