These pages contain fourteen short sections that begin with Joana’s. Joana is furious with Florian for implicating her in his scheme. Emilia begs her not to expose him. She continues to process painful memories of the cruel Frau Klein and the hideous events leading up to her pregnancy. Alfred seeks out Joana for Florian, and then spies on the hundreds of young female cadets staying in the empty swimming pool. They laugh at him when he is discovered. Joana confronts Florian for putting her life in danger. He admits to forging her signature from the note she left in the mansion. Joana is relieved the incriminating document is no longer in the house, but Florian is unsure he can trust her.
Back in the infirmary, Emilia names her baby Halinka, after her dead mother, and longs for Poland. The ship finally leaves the harbor, carrying ten times its capacity of passengers. Florian considers exit strategies for the arrival in Kiel, while Alfred deals with terrible seasickness. He tries to gain entry to the infirmary, where he is laughed at by the injured soldiers. Joana and Florian go to the chimney, so Joana can cut his hair to disguise him. Florian asks Joana what she told him the night in the mansion as he couldn’t hear her in his deaf ear. Joana says, “I told you that I am a murderer” (308).
Then she tells the sad story of how her actions unintentionally caused the deportation, and likely death, of her cousin’s family (308). Florian tries to comfort her, and they look forward to arriving in Kiel. Joana tells Florian the message given to her by the young Nazi searching for him: “Have Beck contact me directly. Tell DRL is dead. Keys needed. Urgent” (311). Florian assumes he will be the next to die. Emilia remembers an incident that symbolized her death: her wreath that was supposed to float down the river caught fire and burned. She wonders if Florian rescuing her change her fate since “Saint Florian was a fighter of fire” in Poland (301).
These pages are comprised of twenty-one sections, some less than a page in length. Alfred’s nausea worsens with the extreme weather; he retreats to the music room. There a little girl mimics his vomiting with her stuffed bear, and Alfred rips the bear’s eye off. Florian ventures to the deck to check on the little boy and shoe poet, who introduces himself, “I’m Heinz” (314). Heinz shares that he is a widower and encourages Florian to pursue Joana. At 9:15, a massive jolt rocks the ship: “BANG!” (316). Alarms signal danger. Three more explosions follow. Emilia takes action in the maternity ward, directing Joana and the others. Emilia flashes back to the burning wreath she thinks predicted her death. Joana wants to wait for instructions. Emilia insists they move.
Alfred discovers they have been hit by torpedoes. The little girl with the bear is crushed by a moving piano; Alfred takes a life vest from near her feet and makes his way out. Florian, Heinz, and the little boy push through the crowded halls. The little boy makes sure “Opi” (Heinz) has the coins they earned repairing shoes. Joana helps women out of the maternity ward as the hallway fills with water and hysteria. Trampled bodies are caught in the stampede. Alfred steals a coat and watches an officer about to commit suicide after killing his family. Alfred mentally documents the event: “Torpedo strike: Approximately 9:15. Ship’s capacity 1463. Passengers on board: 10,573” (328).
Ten of the twenty-two lifeboats are missing. Desperate passengers scramble toward the lifeboats. Emilia calmly protects her child while mayhem erupts. Joana watches a full lifeboat get crushed. Terrified Alfred thinks hateful thoughts and tries to find a raft. Florian screams for Joana. Emilia crawls to the edge of the deck, where Joana meets her and the others. Joana makes it into a raft. Emilia insists Florian goes first and takes her baby. Florian leaves his precious pack with Alfred, and the poet gives him his life vest. Emilia sends the little boy when there is room for just one more. The raft leaves with her baby and the others. Emilia kicks loose a frozen raft and grabs paralyzed Alfred. Heinz jumps from the ship with the bag of coins and drowns. The survivors watch as the sea begins to swallow the Wilhelm Gustloff “in one large gulp” (341).
These pages contain eighteen short sections and end with a long letter from a new character, Chris Christensen. Joana wonders what she will do with the baby and the boy. Florian wonders where Emilia and his pack are. Emilia has faith her “knight” Florian will save her baby. Alfred observes: “Bodies were strewn like human confetti. Would I still get my medal?” (345). Joana and Florian watch as thousands perish. Passengers trapped onboard pound the glass and choke on sea water. Infants are thrown at rafts and fall into the sea. Dead bodies knock against steel lifeboats packed with screaming passengers. Joana clings to Florian and the baby, as the snow and sleet batter their frozen faces.
Emilia longs for her baby and watches the sinking ship ignite in flames and disappear “into the black” (351). Florian and Joana huddle together with the kids and prepare to die. Florian tells Joana about his life. Joana thinks of Lithuania and her mother and remembers Emilia’s courage when she sent the little boy to the raft in her place. Florian sees a light. Alfred’s final letter to Hannelore reveals the truth about their relationship and why he could never truly love her. Alfred reported Hannelore’s Jewish father.
When they came to arrest the family, Alfred told the authorities Hannelore was “part of the master race” (359). Hannelore repeatedly screamed, “I am Jewish,” which Alfred found rude (359). Alfred slips into a psychotic state and accuses Emilia of stealing his medal. Without thinking, she defends herself in Polish. He attacks her, screaming “Einer weniger. One less” (361). Alfred then sings the disturbing song he made up to remember all the groups of people Hitler hates. Emilia begs him to stop. He lunges at her and slips, hitting his head. Emilia reaches to steady him. When Alfred jerks away from her hand, he falls into the water and drowns.
Emilia finally begins to relax and dreams of Poland and her mother. She feels she finally “made it home” (363). A ship arrives to rescue Florian and Joana. Joana slips on the rope ladder, kicking Florian into the water. He is rescued. Florian, Klaus, Joana, and the baby huddle together. Florian wonders who he will be when they arrive in Kiel. Emilia dreams she’s making fairy bread with her mother and daughter and passes away feeling safe at last.
Time moves ahead twenty-three years. Florian and Joana are married and raising the kids. Florian reads a letter from Chris Christensen, a Danish woman whose husband found Emilia’s raft on their beach a month after the ship sank. She contacts Florian after reading a story about Halinka, a renowned swimmer, in which Halinka Said she lost her mother, Emilia, on the Gustloff. Chris put the story together with the details in Florian’s notebook. No one else claimed Emilia. Finally, she found the connection to Florian through Halinka’s story. Chris assures Florian that his “savior” Emilia is buried under a bed of roses.
