Chapter Three
[1:3:1] Max's promotion celebration
[1:3:2] Himmler's Nuremberg rally "Purest of the Pure"
[1:3:3] Jew-pure execution
[1:3:4] Dieter on their personal & collective guilt
[1:3:5] Max sees girl among refugees
[1:3:6] At breakfast, Marta orders Max to stop w/ girl
[1:3:7] Max, girl, & boy w/ Protective Custody Letter
[1:3:8] In hotel room, Max kills boy searching for him
[1:3:9] Max asks Dieter for cyanide capsules
[1:3:10] Ilse & Jew-soap
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Chapter Four
[1:4:1] Bounty-hunter searching for Max at hotel
[1:4:2] Max & Dieter in Camp garden w/ Marta & children
[1:4:3] Max disciplines guards fraternizing w/ camp inmates
[1:4:4] Max destroys unsigned Order to execute girl
[1:4:5] Max distracted while Ilse reading (injured hand)
[1:4:6] Max packing, not going w/ Marta & children
[1:4:7] Erotic scene in Max's office
[1:4:8] Eichmann at Max's dinner party in camp
[1:4:9] Max gives girl cyanide capsules, flees camp
[1:4:10] Bounty-hunter finds Max in motel
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Chapter Five
[1:5:1] Wannsee Conference: "Final Solution"
[1:5:2] Max's six-pointed star
[1:5:3] Max meets Himmler
[1:5:4] Max writing poetry in office
[1:5:5] Ilse plays escaped-Jews w/ paper-dolls
[1:5:6] Max's papers scattered in office
[1:5:7] Max gets publisher's letter
[1:5:8] Josef & Max's missing letters
[1:5:9] Ilse's baby-doll "missing/lost"
[1:5:10] Max hires man to find girl
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Chapter Six
[1:6:1] Max sworn into Party as SS
[1:6:2] Max & Marta & "firstborn"
[1:6:3] Goebbels' speech: Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer
[1:6:4] Night of the Long Knives: BrownShirts' execution
[1:6:5] Max & Dieter discuss Ghetto-clearing
[1:6:6] Marta sends children to Max's office
[1:6:7] Girl watches Max write poetry
[1:6:8] Max tells Dieter mistress got married
[1:6:9] Max finds Marta's hairbrush & girl beaten
[1:6:10] Max dreams of Dead Bodies
[1:6:11] Telegram: GIRL FOUND
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Chapter Seven
[1:7:1] Bounty-hunter catches Max at breakfast
[1:7:2] Himmler's reaction to shootings
[1:7:3] Hitler's "Pure/Tough/Hard" speech
[1:7:4] Captured partisans from woods executed
[1:7:5] Ilse's fever
[1:7:6] Max takes girl to bedroom
[1:7:7] Marta weeps over pregnancy
[1:7:8] Max in car outside girl's house
[1:7:9] Max spits out secreted cyanide capsules
[1:7:10] Ilse's & Hans' letters from South America
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Chapter Eight
[1:8:1] Dieter's telegram: CAMPS LIBERATED
[1:8:2] Max shows Hans Hitler Youth dagger
[1:8:3] Eichmann, in camp garden, denies killing Jews
[1:8:4] Erotic scene w/ girl in Max's bedroom
[1:8:5] Max burns evidence in office
[1:8:6] In bedroom, Max & Marta fight over girl
[1:8:7] Max gives girl "gifts"
[1:8:8] Max reads "Cutthroat"
[1:8:9] Max w/ girl before fleeing camp
[1:8:10] Bounty-hunter demands money
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Chapter Nine
[1:9:1] Max & Josef argue about Safe-Conducts
[1:9:2] Max instructs men in forest how to shoot prisoners
[1:9:3] Max's headache/leg pain during Himmler speech
[1:9:4] Girl takes gun from Max during suicide attempt
[1:9:5] Marta wants divorce
[1:9:6] Max shows grocer Dead Bodies
[1:9:7] Max, Marta, children in garden: Ilse's jump-rope song
[1:9:8] Max kills Bounty-hunter
[1:9:9] Max swears SS-oath of loyalty to Hitler
[1:9:10] Max signs transcription-verification document
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Chapter Ten
[1:10:1] Max complains "words can't be trusted"
[1:10:2] Max's Wound medals
[1:10:3] Hans' birthday
[1:10:4] Max destroys evidence as girl watches
[1:10:5] "Negotiations" to destroy Jews
[1:10:6] Max impotent w/ Marta
[1:10:7] Girl hits Max w/ his pistol
[1:10:8] Max walks up path to girl's house
[1:10:9] Heydrich (Head of Gestapo) visits Max in camp
[1:10:10] Max at girl's house w/ Dead Bodies
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Part Two
Chapter One
[2:1:1] Rachel arrives at camp: Wedding Game
[2:1:2] Rachel denies being in camps to survivor
[2:1:3] Jews excluded from citizenship: law passed
[2:1:4] Rachel's post-war suicide attempt
[2:1:5] Hyman talks to Kommandant
[2:1:6] Rachel attempts to get camp tattoo removed
[2:1:7] Sonderkommando tells Rachel to get Kommandant's attention
[2:1:8] Camp's Underground requests Rachel's help
[2:1:9] Rachel's nightmare about trains & camp
[2:1:10] Arbeit Macht Frei: Max rapes Rachel
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Chapter Two
[2:2:1] Camp's Underground & Zyklon B gas
[2:2:2] Problems w/ gas not working "in damp"
[2:2:3] Marta finds Rachel in Kommandant's office
[2:2:4] Rachel tells David story about doctor after war
[2:2:5] Yellow roses in lapels "as opposition"
[2:2:6] David finds gun
[2:2:7] Kapo beats Rachel: clothes & shoes taken, head shaved
[2:2:8] Rachel tells David she wasn't in camps
[2:2:9] Rachel's parents' Relocation Order
[2:2:10] Camp's Underground & Rachel threaten each other
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Chapter Three
[2:3:1] Night of Broken Glass
[2:3:2] Boy at camp w/ Protective Custody Letter
[2:3:3] Letters to Rachel
[2:3:4] Rachel finds "Special Instructions for Shootings"
[2:3:5] Guests arrive for dinner-party (tattoo-lamp-shade gift)
[2:3:6] Ghetto letters found/executions
[2:3:7] Ilse & Hans play in Kommandant's office
[2:3:8] In kitchen, above office, Max & Marta argue about girl
[2:3:9] Rachel leaving: David accompanies her
[2:3:10] Ghetto Shabbas
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Chapter Four
[2:4:1] Rachel hides Kommandant's letter-opener
[2:4:2] Jews fined for Night of Broken Glass damage
[2:4:3] Kommandant inspecting road-building: Rachel drops rock
[2:4:4] Rachel's Aunt & Uncle arrested for "mixed marriage"
[2:4:5] Kommandant rapes Rachel during gassing of new arrivals
[2:4:6] Rachel sees Dead Bodies in bookstore window
[2:4:7] Rachel's father complains about dead bodies in Ghetto
[2:4:8] Arriving Jews riot at camp-guard's remark about "worm-food"
[2:4:9] David annoyed at Rachel's waking him
[2:4:10] Waldsee postcard
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Chapter Five
[2:5:1] Rachel opens desk drawer w/ Max's private papers
[2:5:2] Star of David armbands
[2:5:3] Gestapo coming for Rachel in Ghetto
[2:5:4] Rachel w/ gun in bedroom as David sleeps
[2:5:5] Rachel w
riting/hiding poems in Kommandant's office
[2:5:6] Ghetto Seder (Passover)
[2:5:7] Baby Hans in Kommandant's office
[2:5:8] Rachel shows Underground her bruises
[2:5:9] Rachel watches Kommandant writing at night
[2:5:10] Rachel types Kazett
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Chapter Six
[2:6:1] David & Rachel fight over adoption
[2:6:2] Hans drops bottle on stairs to Kommandant's office
[2:6:3] Rachel & parents on train to camp
[2:6:4] Ghetto mother commits suicide by hanging
[2:6:5] Kommandant's phone call: breaks windows afterward
[2:6:6] Ilse brushes Rachel's hair
[2:6:7] Rachel separated from parents in camp: Left/Right
[2:6:8] Rachel wants abortion from Underground
[2:6:9] Kommandant reading "Hansel & Gretel" to children
[2:6:10] Rachel leaving: David refuses to go
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Chapter Seven
[2:7:1] Underground beats Rachel
[2:7:2] U-Boat (rich Jews in hiding) wants bread
[2:7:3] Partisans executed in camp
[2:7:4] David tells Rachel "write the camp"
[2:7:5] Jewish inmate w/ gold tooth
[2:7:6] David ignores Rachel's claim about car outside
[2:7:7] Dieter brags about sexual conquests
[2:7:8] Max drops gun from head, weeps in Rachel's lap
[2:7:9] Rachel hides dagger behind chest upstairs
[2:7:10] David leaves Rachel for summer
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Chapter Eight
[2:8:1] Rachel cuts six-pointed star into Max's forearm
[2:8:2] Rachel tortured by Gestapo (Kaltenbrunner)
[2:8:3] Hans gives Rachel part of gingerbread cookie
[2:8:4] Ghetto-boy w/ food executed by Gestapo (Kaltenbrunner)
[2:8:5] Max forces Rachel to perform sex-act (opera)
[2:8:6] Josef & cousin rape Rachel
[2:8:7] Max & Dieter discuss getting rid of Rachel
[2:8:8] Coffee not on "Forbidden Foods List"
[2:8:9] Max gives Dieter Rachel as birthday gift
[2:8:10] David in Paris, car outside house
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Chapter Nine
[2:9:1] Rachel attaches then removes Safe-Conducts
[2:9:2] Rachel tries to write about camp (opera)
[2:9:3] Rachel & Anna get camp-tattoos
[2:9:4] Office door opens when Rachel reading papers
[2:9:5] Kommandant orders Rachel to shoot him
[2:9:6] Rachel being raped: 2 men present
[2:9:7] Rachel's parents' receive Transport Orders
[2:9:8] Rachel gives Underground food/ammunition
[2:9:9] Inmates tell Rachel Kommandant's gone
[2:9:10] Goebbels' book-burning
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Chapter Ten
[2:10:1] Rachel showers, to go to Kommandant (in office)
[2:10:2] Jews blow up crematoria
[2:10:3] Candles in window to protest Nazi executions
[2:10:4] David returns w/ Althea
[2:10:5] Kapo takes Rachel to Kommandant's office
[2:10:6] Rachel writes "camp"
[2:10:7] Bodies burst from ground in camp
[2:10:8] David & Rachel re-unite: book finished
[2:10:9] Rachel eats Kommandant's papers
[2:10:10] Kommandant comes to Rachel's house w/ Dead Bodies
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Part Three
[Max] Maximilian Ernst von Walther
[Rachel] Leah Sarah Abramson
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Discussion Questions for
The Kommandant's Mistress
Author's Note: Parts One & Two, Max's & Rachel's, respectively, were to contain 10 chapters with 10 scenes each. I was attempting to imitate the arbitrary, rigid, "rules" of the Nazi Con- centration Camps in the construction of the novel. Two chapters have eleven scenes each, however (Chapters 1 and 6 in Part One, Max's Part); either I miscounted, or the artist in me was being "arbitrary".
Quotes from novel in Discussion Questions include Part, Chapter, & Scene references (for the e-book or non-American English versions), noted in the following manner [Part: Chapter: Scene], i.e., [1:3:10 = Part 1: Chapter 3: Scene 10].
Book Groups, Teachers, Discussion Leaders are free to download these questions for discussion, for essay questions, for exams, etc. as long as credit is given to Alexandria Constantinova Szeman. Distributed questions must contain copyright information.
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Discussion Question Topics:
The Characters & Their Relationships
Epigraphs
Max's Six-Pointed Star
The Three Different Endings
Max's Ending
Rachel's Ending
Additional Questions on Max's and Rachel's Endings
The Biographies of Part Three
The Biographer of Part Three
Additional Questions Concerning the Three Endings
Rachel as the Kommandant's "Mistress"
The Theme of Parents & Their Children
Rachel & The Underground
Spoiler Alert:
The Index & Discussion Questions are
intended for readers after
they have completed the book
for reference/discussion purposes.
If you read these before reading the novel,
please be aware that they reveal plot elements
by describing scene events as well as in
the questions themselves.
Please do not feel morally obligated
to read this section
of the Revised Edition
if you only want to read the novel itself.
Thanks, Alexandria
The Characters & their Relationships
Rachel frequently denies having been in any of the concentration camps, even to her husband David — Part Two, Chapter 1, Scene Two [2:1:2]; Part Two, Chapter 2, Scene Eight [2:2:8]; Part Two, Chapter 7, Scene Four [2:7:4]), who tells her, "You dream the camp. You talk the camp. You eat, sleep, breathe the camp" [2:7:4]. Why does Rachel deny being in one of the camps? Does she feel guilty? Ashamed? What does her husband mean when he says that she eats, sleeps, breathes the camp?
Max also denies having been in the camps — Part One, Chapter 1, Scene Ten [1:1:10]; Part One, Chapter Three, Scene Eight [1:3:8]; Part One, Chapter Eight, Scene Ten [1:8:10]; Part One, Chapter Nine, Scene Eight [1:9:8]. Is there any significance to the fact that both Max and Rachel deny having been there?
Though Max and Rachel share the same experience in the concentration camp, their stories of what happened differ significantly. Are Max and Rachel reliable narrators, that is, can you trust that what they tell you is the truth? If they're reliable narrators, are they equally reliable? If so, what evidence can you provide from the novel to support that? If not, why not? Which of the two is more reliable, Max or Rachel? Why? Which of the stories is more plausible, Max's or Rachel's? Why? Why is it that we get different versions of the same story when these two are telling it?
What are Max's feelings for Rachel? Does Max love Rachel? If so, why? If not, why not? What would Max think/do/say if someone said Max loved Rachel? Why? What is Max's definition of "love"?
Does Max love Marta? If so, why? If not, why not? Why does Marta think Max loves Rachel? Does Max love his childr
en? If so, why? If not, why not?
What are Rachel's feelings for Max in the camp? What are her feelings for him after the War? What do the members of the Underground think Rachel feels for Max? Do Rachel's feelings for Max change after she is no longer in the concentration camp? If so, how? If not, why not? Does Rachel love Max? If so, why? If not, why not? What would Rachel think/do/say if someone said that Rachel loved Max? Why? Why does David think Rachel loves Max?
Epigraphs
Epigraphs are designed to guide readers in an interpretation of the work. This novel has three epigraphs, one for each section.
The epigraph for Max's section [Part One] is from the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament: "For who can make straight that which He hath made crooked?" (Ecclesiastes 7:13) How is this epigraph related to Max's part of the story? Does it change your interpretation of Max? The "He" in the epigraph is capitalized, which conventionally means that it is referring to God. What does that mean in relation to the novel? Does it change your view of Max? What does it say about free will? About Max's behavior and the events that led to the Holocaust? Is there anyone else in the story to whom this epigraph could apply? How? Why?
The epigraph for Rachel's section of the novel [Part Two] is from American writer Gertrude Stein: "There is no left or right without remembering." What does this epigraph mean? What does this epigraph have to do with Rachel and her story? Is there anyone else in the story to whom this epigraph could apply? How? Why?
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