Girl in the Blue Coat

Content warning: The guide contains discussions of antisemitism, the Holocaust, starvation, and violence that appear in the source text.

“If I’d known what would happen and what I would find out about love and war, I would have made sure to say [I love you] then. That’s my fault.”

Hanneke narrates her love story with Bas. After he tells her it’s “her fault” that he’s fallen in love with her, she feels guilty for failing to return the sentiment. The statement “[t]hat’s my fault” takes on greater significance as the text progresses.

“I stop because the soldier’s uniform is green. That’s the only reason I stop. Because his uniform is green, and that means I have no choice at all.”

After providing several possible reasons for stopping when the German soldier asks her to, Hanneke tells the truth. This introduces her as an unreliable narrator, but one who will eventually arrive at honesty. Here, we see that for all her desire to convince herself that she has a choice, she knows her reality is that she must obey any soldier’s order.

“Most people would say I trade in the black market, the illicit underground exchange of goods. I prefer to think of myself as a finder. I find things. I find extra potatoes, meat, and lard. In the beginning, I could find chocolate and sugar, but those things have been harder recently, and I can only get them sometimes.”

Hanneke continues to explain the ways in which she reframes events to herself to make them more tolerable. Here, she chooses to think of her illicit trade as simple, straightforward, and even innocent. She also boasts of her own skill.