The German Wife

The night before Lizzie marries Calvin, she talks to Henry on her front porch. He marvels that she’s agreed to marry Calvin or anyone at all. When Calvin proposed, it was with the clear understanding that Lizzie didn’t have romantic feelings for Calvin and that they would essentially work as partners, helping one another in their lives. She and Calvin both hope that she may grow to love him beyond friendship. Their marriage is built on a foundation of mutual respect rather than passion.

Calvin talks to Lizzie about the police visit to Jürgen and about the incident between Sofie and Henry on the porch. Lizzie accuses Sofie of lying, but Calvin insists that they talk to Henry about the cake. Henry tells Calvin that Sofie is lying. Calvin believes him but is still concerned about Henry’s state of mind.

The next day, Lizzie prepares to visit a friend to work on her garden—a hobby she found as an outlet for the boredom of her everyday life. On her way out the door, she examines her porch and her garden and discovers pieces of ceramic, one big enough to have cake smeared on it. She looks in the garbage and finds the cake and a smashed plate.

Jürgen and Karl come home for a week to spend time with their families. Sofie and Jürgen go on a walk, and Jürgen tells her how advanced the rockets have become and how devastating they will be as weapons. Sofie tries to reassure him, arguing that he has no choice, but he’s still wracked with guilt.

Sofie and Jürgen join Lydia and Karl for dinner. Karl congratulates them, telling them that Georg has been admitted to the Hitler Youth a year early. Karl then pressures Jürgen to officially join the Nazi Party, and Jürgen agrees.

Georg is excited for his Hitler Youth overnight camp, and Sofie must swallow her fear and disgust to help him prepare. Laura watches her brother and tells Sofie that she can’t wait to join the girls’ version.

After Adele’s death, Sofie has kept her apartment empty and maintained the garden. She brings some of the proceeds to Adele’s friend Martha, who tells Sofie that Martha helped Mayim escape the house the morning after Adele died. Sofie visits Martha weekly, secretly providing her with money to help people escape from Germany and the Nazis. On one visit, Martha gives her a letter in code that’s clearly from Mayim, saying that she’s safe and happy. Soon after, Germany declares war on Poland, and Sofie is heartbroken by the risk to her friend and the disturbing positive reaction from her children.

Avril visits Lizzie at her house with Calvin in El Paso. Avril seems friendly and welcoming, casually asking about how Calvin and Lizzie connected. Avril’s support of their relationship makes Lizzie think of the physical and romantic disconnect between her and Calvin. Henry is doing well in the Army; he’s made a good friend and is in an on-again-off-again relationship. He comes to visit at the beginning of December, and while Lizzie cooks dinner one night, they hear the announcement of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Sofie is cleaning her floors when Lizzie knocks on her door. Defensively, with fear and anger obvious in her voice and manner, Lizzie tells Sofie not to interact with Henry if he walks down her street. She tells her not to come near them and not to bring them anything, and she gives her a plate to replace the broken one. Sofie tries to tell Lizzie that she wanted to apologize for the picnic, but Lizzie hurls accusations about Jürgen’s involvement with the SS. Sofie defends herself, and Lizzie tells her that no one wants the Germans there, so Sofie should be suspicious of seeming friends.

Jürgen buys a house between his worksite and Berlin as a way to stay connected to the family. One night, he and Sofie sit outside by a crackling fire and speak freely, though quietly. They talk about Jürgen’s work and the potential for mass destruction. Jürgen tells her that they’re likely to come to a point where they can’t continue; he bought the house as a space to make a plan.

Hans comes with the family to spend time with Georg at the country house. When Lydia comes to pick Hans up, she tells Sofie that the last rocket made it to space. Jürgen arrives later that day, and they sit together while watching the children swim. He says that the rocket only possibly made it to space and that the program is under threat because they haven’t developed a reliable or mass-producible rocket. He says that he dreams of sabotaging the program but knows he probably can’t manage it.

That Christmas, Jürgen and Sofie attend a party thrown by Nazi leader Otto Werner and his wife. Otto’s wife criticizes Sofie for having so few children and failing to accompany Jürgen on work trips, even to the concentration camps. That night, under the covers, Sofie asks Jürgen about the camps, and he tells her that he never wants her to see them. He tells her that they take prisoners from the camps to work on the rocket program. Sofie realizes that Mayim could be in a camp, and Jürgen says that most of the Jews are in ghettos rather than camps. Sofie tries to take comfort in that.

The evening following Lizzie’s visit to Sofie’s house, she sits out on her porch, and Henry comes to join her. Henry suggests that Jürgen has been to the house more than once, and Lizzie asks Henry if he’s considered therapy. He tells her about a horrific experience with Veterans Affairs (VA) while trying to recover from his experiences seeing the concentration camps in Germany. The VA treated him experimentally with insulin as an alternative to electro-convulsive therapy. The insulin therapy caused confusion, memory loss, and weight gain.

Lizzie worries about Henry and is unsure about the right path to take. She goes to Calvin’s room and wakes him. At first, he thinks she’s there to get in bed with him, but she quickly hands him his glasses and tells him that she’s worried about Henry. She asks Calvin to talk to Henry with her, and when he agrees, she hurries out of the room, realizing that she’s been leading Calvin on for years.

Jürgen’s rocket research is now being used solely for weaponry for the war. The construction of the rockets has been moved to the work camp Mittelwerk. Jürgen and Sofie attend a dinner with important ranking Nazi Party members, and he is pulled aside and asked to join the SS. Sofie can feel his fear when he holds her hand. Jürgen receives a medal for his work on the rocket program, and then they watch a rocket launch. Sofie suspects that Jürgen may refuse to join the SS, which would mean certain death.

Later that night, they talk over options. Sofie tells Jürgen that he has to join, but he tells her that this is the last bridge and one he can’t morally cross. The war has clearly turned in favor of the Allies, and Jürgen tells Sofie that he’ll be executed when the war ends regardless. They agree to talk more when they’re well rested and sober.

On the way back to the country house, Jürgen stops unexpectedly at a hotel to give them a chance to talk in private. He tells Sofie that he’s seen the camps and that he knows he’s complicit in the horrific actions of the Nazis. When Sofie tries to reassure him that he had no choice, he tells her about the millions of innocent people who have been murdered by the Nazis. She begs him to protect the family by remaining in good standing with the regime until the end of the war, and he breaks down in tears.

They return to the country house, and when Jürgen leaves for work, he forgets important blueprints. Sofie decides to bring them to Mittelwerk. When she arrives, a friend whom Jürgen works with offers to bring Jürgen the blueprints, but she insists that he take her through the camp. The conditions are horrific, and she’s sickened by the abuses she sees there. She returns to the country house, and that night, she and Jürgen have a written conversation to avoid being overheard. At the end of it, they agree that Jürgen will follow his conscience, no matter what that means for Sofie. When Sofie arrives back in Berlin to collect her children, she sees the Gestapo car waiting for her.