What does this part of the book make very clear?
The changing attitude in Germany towards the Jews.
Examples:
- "Look at all the big department stores: Wertheim, K.D.W., Landauers'. Who owns them? Filthy thieving Jews!" (As said by Frl. Mayr).
- "...purchasers were forcibly disgraced with a rubber ink stamp on the forehead and cheek." (purchasers = people who bought at Jewish department stores; Nazis had set up a 'guard' in front of them.)
- Natalia says: "I know how things are in Germany today. And suddenly it can be that my father lose all."
- "Anyone's heart is liable to fail if it gets a bullet inside it. Concentration camps," said the fat man, lighting a cigar, "they get them in there, make them sign things and then their heart fails."
- "You can't believe all you hear and that's a fact."
Christopher is still a 'camera', but cannot really ignore the changes in society anymore.
Examples:
- the first paragraph of the 'chapter' shows the situation from a 'camera'-point of view.
- "You observe," said Bernard.
Bernard Landauer
- It is suggested that Bernard is gay, too: "I never got on well with other boys."
- He confides in Christopher in a way he doesn''t confide in anyone else.
- He invites Christopher to come to China with him, but Christopher first thinks it's a joke.
- At the end of the story, Bernard is dead. "There's a lot of heart failure in Germany these days." This might suggest he committed suicide - or he has been killed by the Nazis. (See above.)
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