In Chapter 4, Uri attempts to make Stopthief more at home in their cellar. Uri brings a new bed for Stopthief and fetches the younger boy clothes from abandoned shops. Uri also bathes Stopthief in the shell of a former building. Using a mannequin’s hollowed-out leg, Uri scrubs Stopthief’s skin nearly raw. Stopthief cries at the rough scrubbing and it is revealed that the boy has never been given a bath. Stopthief has also never been given a haircut and Uri brings him to the abandoned barbershop. While they’re there, Uri cuts his hair and pours bluecolored liquid onto his scalp. After Uri gets Stopthief cleaned up, the boys notice that people are rushing outside, digging trenches to stop tanks and stacking bags of sand in front of machine guns. The boys hurry to follow the people and they cling to the outside of a streetcar, much to the distaste of its passengers. En route, they notice Kuba, the boy who blew smoke in Stopthief’s face, carrying a lamp as he is chased down the street. A passersby trips Kuba and the lamp shatters on the sidewalk. Kuba is almost caught but manages to slip away at the last moment. Uri pinches Stopthief to get his attention and tells him that he should only ever steal the things he needs. A woman wearing fox fur slams the streetcar window down on Uri’s fingers. While the woman makes to do the same on Stopthief’s hands, sirens go off as a shop in front of them bursts into flames. Everyone rushes off the streetcar, leaving it empty. Uri is overjoyed, and the boys commandeer the streetcar. Uri drives the streetcar through the streets of the deserted city, eventually crashing it into an abandoned restaurant, which sends sauerkraut splattering over the windshield. The chapter ends with Uri howling like a wolf and Stopthief laughing and pulling the streetcar’s clanger rope.

“Autumn” Chapter 5 picks up right where Chapter 4 leaves off, with Uri and Stopthief on the streets of the abandoned city. Airplanes fly overhead and drop bombs on the city. Uri and Stopthief hide in the cellar and only go out at night to scavenge and steal. The city is ablaze and deserted. The boys do not have to run or steal; they simply walk into an abandoned shop and take what they need. Some nights, Uri and Stopthief go to the stable, to meet with the rest of the boys. The stable no longer houses horses and the stableman no longer arrives to chase the boys out. There, the boys place their stolen food in a pile and roll around in it, often playing with both their stolen foodstuffs and each other.

One day, the sirens go silent and Uri goes to see what has changed. Uri returns and leaves once more with Stopthief. The boys hold hands, so they do not lose each other in the crowd. The city is a war zone, full of ruined buildings, haphazardly-placed sandbags, and machine guns. As people run past, Stopthief is unable to stop himself from racing them. He runs past them, laughing, before he stumbles into the street past the mob of people. The low, rumbling noise, like the beat of a drum, steadily approaches them, and it is then that Stopthief notices the large group of soldiers, otherwise known as “Jackboots,” marching past.

Stopthief is enchanted by the soldiers’ shiny boots and even has a conversation with one of the men. The soldier assumes Stopthief is a Jew and is amused when Stopthief corrects him and says that he is actually a Gypsy. The soldier laughs and picks Stopthief up to place him back at the front of the mob, before saluting him and continuing on. When Uri finds Stopthief, the younger boy is smiling and trying to tell Uri of his adventure. It only then that Stopthief realizes no one in the crowd is smiling or laughing. As the tanks approach, Stopthief sees a flower fly out from the crowd towards the tanks and he throws his cheese in solidarity.

In Chapter 6, Uri and Stopthief leave the cellar to see what has changed in their city. The Jackboots fill the streets like regular citizens. The boys notice a group of people running towards something and they follow behind. They eat their chunks of cheese as they watch soldiers throw bread to the people. After this, Stopthief rushes to where a group of people are gathered around a couple of men. Though Uri tries to stop him from watching, Stopthief sees two soldiers forcing a bearded man in black to scrub the sidewalk with his own beard. The soldiers and people are laughing and when Stopthief tries to tell Uri, Uri calls him stupid.

Further down the street, the boys watch as two soldiers cut off another bearded man’s facial hair. Stopthief runs up to the men and tells them to come back to their barber shop. Uri pulls him away and later warns Stopthief to stay away from Jackboots. When Stopthief attempts to argue, Uri smacks him in the face. Uri tells Stopthief that he will never be a Jackboot. Stopthief tries to argue again, claiming that people love the tanks, that they threw flowers for the soldiers. Uri calls those people cowards. Later in the night, Uri tells Stopthief that he needs a name.

Stopthief tells him that Uri can call him Stupid. Stopthief reveals that he does not remember his parents, and as he plays with the yellow stone around his neck, he recalls booming laughter, bright colors, and the smell of horses. Stopthief remembers riding on someone’s shoulders. Uri tells Stopthief about his younger brother, Jozef, whom he believes to be dead. At the end of the chapter, Stopthief realizes that the two humiliated men they watched today were Jewish. Stopthief shares his realization with Uri. Uri laughs and says that Stopthief may not be stupid after all.