Anna is a nine-year-old girl from a non-religious Jewish family in Berlin. She has a vivid imagination, enjoys writing poems about shipwrecks, and struggles to fully comprehend the dangerous political climate surrounding her family. She is highly adaptable, though she initially resents leaving her home and finds learning new languages extremely frustrating.

Max is Anna's older brother, aged eleven at the start of the story. He enjoys playing outside and often neglects his schoolwork, though his teachers note his natural intelligence. Being older, he understands the gravity of their family's flight from Germany slightly earlier than his sister, yet he still complains about feeling foreign and different from his peers in exile.

Papa is a prominent cultural critic, author, and journalist whose anti-Nazi writings make him a target of the rising political regime. He is deeply principled, refusing to compromise his views even when his writing is rejected by neutral publishers. He maintains a strong moral code and encourages his children to see their refugee experience as an adventure, though he secretly carries significant trauma from their escape.

Mama is the matriarch of the family, accustomed to an aristocratic lifestyle with domestic help in Berlin. When forced into exile, she faces the immense stress of running a household on a tight budget without the practical skills she previously lacked. She works hard to keep the family comfortable and emotionally supported despite her frequent frustrations with cooking and sewing.

Onkel Julius is a close family friend who holds the honorary title of uncle to the children. He works as a museum curator and deeply loves visiting the zoo animals. He possesses a naive belief that he is safe from political persecution because he considers himself non-political and has only one Jewish grandparent.

Omama is Mama's mother, an older woman with a critical eye who openly disapproves of Papa. She travels with her beloved dog, Pumpel, and frequently voices her displeasure regarding the family's diminished living conditions in exile.

Madame Fernand is a friendly, practical French woman who becomes closely tied to the refugee family in Paris. She assists Mama with domestic matters, helps secure a school for Anna, and sews clothes from donated fabric for the children.

Elsbeth is a non-Jewish girl in Berlin who is Anna's good friend. She views the political tension as an annoyance rather than a threat and expresses envy over the fame of Anna's father, demonstrating her inability to understand the true danger of the changing government.

Affectionately called "Heimpi" by the children, she is the family's loyal maid in Germany. She cares deeply for Anna and Max, mending their clothes and managing the household, but cannot remain employed by the family after their financial collapse.

Gunther is Max's friend in Berlin whose family struggles with severe poverty and unemployment. He wears threadbare clothes that cannot be mended and receives hand-me-downs from Max's wardrobe.

Vreneli is the daughter of the Swiss innkeepers who host Anna's family. She attends the local village school with Anna and teaches her local games, offering the refugee children a sense of normalcy in their new country.

Franz is the son of the Swiss innkeepers. He befriends Max and plays an active role in the children's outdoor explorations around the lake.

Herr Rosenfeld is a German man who stays in a cheap boarding house. He acts as a messenger, delivering news and personal items from Germany to exiles living in Paris.

Cousin Otto is Mama's relative who lives in London. Formerly a dapper and well-dressed man in Berlin, he now wears crumpled, shabby clothes that reflect the financial toll of fleeing his home country.

Great-Aunt Sarah is Mama's elderly relative living comfortably in Paris. She uses an ear trumpet to hear and provides the refugee family with practical charity, including donated material for the children's clothing.

Madame Socrate is Anna's teacher in Paris. She recognizes the difficulty of Anna's linguistic transition and dedicates her lunch breaks to helping the young girl correct her assignments and improve her French.