#AlQaReading Book Club - Chapter 8: “The Brown Paper Package"

 Chapter 8: “The Brown Paper Package”

Check your summary and then answer the questions below

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Nearly a year after moving to Berghof, Pierrot is getting along relatively well. He has settled into a routine centered on school in Berchtesgaden, where he doesn’t exactly fit in, but experiences only mild bullying for having a French accent. One girl, Katarina Holzmann, even befriends him. At Berghof, he spends much of his time roaming the beautiful wilderness. He has stopped replying to Anshel’s letters, feeling distant from the dire circumstances in Paris that his friend describes.

While Eva Braun talks to Pierrot as though he were just a cute little boy, Hitler takes a liking to him and begins to share his ideology with Pierrot. At the same time, Pierrot learns more about Hitler’s past and why the Berghof servants are so frightened of him. For instance, Emma tells him that Hitler had dismissed a previous chauffeur for becoming romantically interested in his beloved niece, Geli, and that Hitler “refused to allow her out of his sight,” ultimately driving her to shoot herself “through the heart” (130). Beatrix notices that Pierrot is becoming close to Hitler, and she suggests her nephew not spend so much time with him—advice he ignores.

Hitler asks to see Pierrot one day.

1. Quote examples (including page numbers) from the text in which you can clearly infer that Pierrot is in the process of being indoctrinated by Hitler's ideology.

2. How has this process started? What events led to this indoctrination?

3. How has his life experience as a orphan little boy contributed to this indoctrination?

4. Nazi beliefs and ideas about race shaped all aspects of everyday life and politics in Nazi Germany. In particular, the Nazis embraced the false idea that all races but the Arian one were separate and inferior races. Quote an example (include page number) in which you can clearly see those racist beliefs.

5. What can you predict from Aunt Beatrix and the chauffeur Ernst's overheard conversation? 

6. “Pierrot cleared his throat and stood tall. ‘In the presence of this blood banner,’ he began, ‘which represents our Führer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.’” How would Pierrot’s father have reacted to this declaration by Pierrot?

 

STUDENTS' SAMPLE QUESTIONS