Introduction: The events in Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene, take place in Jenkinsville, a small town in Arkansas in the South of the USA., during the second world war. Both blacks and whites live in Arkansas but the whites have the better houses and jobs, and they feel themselves superior to the blacks. The white people of the town are also very suspicious of foreigners, and of course they especially hate the Germans because of the war that is going on in Europe.
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Chapter 1: The story is told by Patty Bergen, a twelve-year old Jewish girl who lives in a small town in Arkansas in the south of the USA. She has a younger sister called Sharon who is much prettier than her. Patty’s mother seems to like Sharon better, and her father, who is the owner of a clothes store, doesn’t have much time for her either. In fact, Patty gets on much better with Ruth, a black woman who works for the family. We learn that a group of young German soldiers has arrived in Jenkinsville and has been taken to a prison of war camp just outside of town.
Chapter 2: Patty and her family drive to Memphis, a large city not far from where they live, to visit Patty’s rich grandparents. They are there to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Patty gets on well with her grandparents and feels more at home there than in her own house.
Chapter 3: Patty is in her father’s shop when the German prisoners come in to buy some hats to protect themselves from the hot summer sun. One of the Germans, called Anton Reiker, can speak English and he translates for the others. He buys a pencil sharpener from Patty and they get into a conversation. Patty knows that she wants to see him again.
Chapter 4: Patty goes to visit Edna Louise, the daughter of the richest man in town. She tells Edna about her meeting with the Anton, but Edna is shocked and tells her that going out with a German soldier is almost as bad as going out with a black man.
Chapter 5: Patty travels to Memphis to visit her grandmother who buys her lunch and some clothes. Patty wants to spend more time with her grandmother and is disappointed to hear that her grandmother is going away for the summer. Patty is bored by herself during the long summer days, and spends much of her time reading in her secret hiding place. One day, while she is playing a game of throwing stones at the wheels of passing cars, she accidentally breaks a car window. When he hears about this her father is enraged and he starts beating her on her face and body.
Chapter 6: It is Saturday and Patty wants to help out in her parents’ store. Her mother, however, tells Patty to go and have her hair done. Patty likes her hair the way it is and refuses to do what her mother asks. Her father threatens to beat her again if she doesn’t do as she’s told, and Patty leaves the store. She hates the way that Mrs Reeves, the hairdresser, scorches her hair and makes it all frizzy .
Chapter 7: Patty is sitting in her hide-out one afternoon when she suddenly sees someone running towards the railway track. It is Anton who has escaped from the other prison camp. She takes him to her hideout and later that evening takes him some left-over food from her dinner. No-one else knows her secret.
Chapter 8: Next morning Patty takes more food to Anton in the hide-out, secretly hoping that he has run way in the night. She knows that what she has done is very dangerous, and that people could call her a traitor . But Anton is still there. As they eat, Anton talks about his life in Germany. His father was a professor at a university, who was opposed to Hitler. He also says how he escaped from the prison camp by bribing one of the guards. He asks Patty why she is risking so much to help him. She cannot bring herself to say it’s because she loves him.
Chapter 9: Some FBI agents come into the clothes store asking questions about the escaped prisoner. When they talk to Patty, she is so nervous that she starts to cry, but she doesn’t tell her secret. After they have gone, Patty meets Charlene Madlee, a journalist who has come to the town to report on the story of the escape. Patty offers to show her where the prison camp is and they drive there in Charlene’s car. Charlene asks some questions and hears from the prison doctor that Anton seemed like a good man. Hearing this, Patty feels happier than at any time in her life.
Chapter 10: Patty goes back to the hideout with some food and fresh clothes for Anton. The shirt is one she bought for her father on father’s day. Her father, however, had not liked the present and had thrown it away. Patty is upset when Anton talks about the future but does not include her, so she leaves. She meets Freddy Dowd, a poor and not very clever boy from a shack down the street. Patty’s father thinks Freddy is inferior and he is irate when he comes home and finds Patty speaking to him. He starts to hit her with his belt. Anton sees this from the garage and runs up to protect her. Patty shouts for him to run away before her father sees him.
Chapter 11: Ruth tells Patty that she saw a man running from the hide-out, and asks her who it is. Patty has to admit that it is Anton. Ruth is not sure what she should do, but she understands the strong feelings between Patty and Anton and promises first to make them both a good breakfast. Later Patty tries to explain to Anton why her father has hurt her so badly. She can find no reason and she admits for the first time that she doesn’t like her father. Anton tells her that she is beautiful and intelligent.
Chapter 12: Ruth comes in with their breakfast, and the three of them (Patty, Anton and Ruth) have a long conversation about religion and politics. They discuss why some people are so cruel . As they are talking, they hear a car drive up outside - it is a neighbour who wants to take Sharon on a trip. This makes Anton realize how dangerous his presence is for the Ruth and Patty, and he says that he will leave that night. Patty of course doesn’t want him to go, but Ruth knows it’s for the best.
Chapter 13: Patty sits down at the dinner table, thinking about her unloving parents, wondering whether they will miss her or she will miss them when she leaves home. She goes to Anton and tells him she wants to go with him when he escapes. He refuses to let her ; he kisses her and gives her a gold ring before disappearing.
Chapter 14: In the days after Anton has gone, Patty can only think of him. She wears the ring he gave her, at first hidden around her neck, but then openly on her finger. She shows it to Sister Parker, a woman who works in the store, and tells her that she got the ring from an old man on the street. Her father comes over and demands to know where she got the ring. When she starts to tell him the story, her father believes that to get the ring she kissed the old man, or worse, and he hits her.
Chapter 15: Patty's father calls the police and Sheriff Cauldwell comes to ask Patty some questions about what the man did to her. Patty repeats her story that she gave the man something to eat and in return he gave her the ring. The Sheriff believes her.
Chapter 16: Summer goes and winter starts. Patty is feeling stronger now and more able to stand up to her father. But one day when she is in her room two men come in with her father. They are from the FBI and again they start asking Patty questions about the old man. She tells them the same story, but then they show her a picture of Anton and ask her if he is the man she is talking about. They then show her the shirt of father that she gave to Anton.. There is a bullet hole in the shirt and blood all around it. She screams at the men and calls them murderers.
Chapter 17: Patty's father wants to know why Patty helped Anton. He doesn't believe her when she says that Anton was good to her. He thinks she let him touch her. Ruth tries to
Chapter 18: Patty is taken away from her house by the FBI agents. A crowd of people standing outside her house shout abuse at her and spit at her. Patty has to go to court in Memphis and she stays the night with her grandparents who live there. The next morning Charlene Madlee, the reporter, visits them. She tells them that it is unlikely Patty will be tried for treason , but that she will probably have to spend some time in a reform school.
Chapter 19: The chapter opens with Patty in the car of Calvin Grimes. It is Grimes’ job to drive Patty to the reform school. On the way they talk about many things. We learn that Patty’s father hired an expensive lawyer to defend Patty in court. He helped her to escape prison but he was not very sympathetic to her. Finally they arrive at the reform school, where Patty has to stay for 6 months.
Chapter 20: Patty is bored and lonely in the reform school. She is not like the other girls there; they call her Nazi . She spends much of her time day-dreaming. Charlene Madlee sends Patty a subscription to her newspaper, and Patty decides that she would like to be a reporter when she leaves school. Then Ruth comes to visit. She tells Patty that her mother is too busy to come and visit her (Patty), and then gently says that Patty’s parents are no good and will never love Patty the way she wants to be loved. She gives Patty Anton’s ring that Patty thought was lost, and Patty says that she now knows she is not a bad person after all.
Chapter 21: Patty tells Ruth that she doesn’t want to go home anymore, but Ruth replies that she has no choice. She advises Patty to finish her education so that she can get a good job. Ms Laud, the head matron, is unpleasant to Patty but Ruth stands up to her and takes extra time to say goodbye to Patty. When she leaves, Patty is alone again, but somehow she feels that she will be strong enough to survive what her future life will bring her.