Chapter 60 - The Promise Keeper’s Wife

Morning in the basement, Hans tells Liesel he played someone else’s accordion at the Knoller, bringing the house down with “Gloomy Sunday.” The night before, he and Alex Steiner drank despite their wives’ warnings. Hans drunkenly knocked at Frau Holtzapfel’s door by mistake, then watched Liesel sleep before collapsing in the basement, unable to take Max’s bed.

At 9 a.m., Rosa orders Liesel to bring a bucket and douses Hans to wake him, furious yet afraid of losing him. In the kitchen at 1 p.m., Liesel pleads with Hans not to go; he steadies himself, calls her “half a woman,” and asks her to look after Rosa.

On the way to the station, neighbors offer rough goodbyes. At the platform, Hans asks Liesel to keep his accordion safe and to keep reading in shelters. He promises to play when he returns, then boards as Liesel and Rosa watch him shrink into the distance.

In the following weeks, Himmel Street feels muted; Rudy barely speaks, Rosa doesn’t berate, and Liesel has no urge to steal. After twelve days of Alex Steiner’s absence, Rudy drags Liesel out of Molching, declaring he wants to find and kill the Führer. As evening falls, Liesel turns back; Rudy follows, and they trudge home with “tired hearts.”

Back on Himmel Street, their mothers’ anger yields to relief. Late that night, Liesel wakes to find Rosa seated with Hans’s accordion strapped to her, motionless and silent in the moonlight. Liesel lets the scene be, later returning to find Rosa asleep, still bearing the weight of the instrument and her grief.