Salt to the Sea

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My heart ached for the girl. What had she seen? And deep down I knew the truth. Hitler was pushing out Polish girls like Emilia to make room for “Baltic Germans,” people with German heritage. Like me. My father was Lithuanian but my mother’s family had German roots. That’s why we were able to flee from Stalin into the barbed arms of Hitler. As an undergrad history major, I had never once heard or read about the Wilhelm Gustloff. Leo didn’t star in a movie even though this story is by far more disastrous. For some reason, the Baltic stories get left out of mostly eurocentric histories. And why is that? Before reading Salt To The Sea, I had never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff, questioned why this was the case since its sinking surpassed Titanic tragedy numbers, and wanted to know more. Emilia died, just like more than nine thousand real people who were on board the Gustloff. But Sepetys ends Salt to the Sea insisting that while war breaks families into irretrievable pieces, "those who are gone are not necessarily lost." Emilia is physically gone, but her memory lives on. Florian, Joana, Klaus, and Halinka continue to be inspired by Emilia’s bravery. And Clara and Niels, the couple who find Emilia’s body on the Danish shore, bury Emilia by a small creek near a beautiful bed of roses. Emilia loves nature and surely would have been happy in this setting. Clara insists that she thinks of Emilia often, and that Emilia is safe and loved.

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I told myself that the handsome young man was a sleeping knight. He moved forward, his pistol at the ready. He was leaving. As they make a long and difficult trek, the refugees suffer many physical ailments. However, while Joana can cure the blisters, wounds, and frostbite of her fellow travelers, she has no treatment for their fear. Despite the physical troubles the refugees experience, fear is what ails them most. Throughout Salt to the Sea, Sepetys indicates that while war's physical impacts are terrible, it is often the psychological consequences of war that are the most permanent and difficult to deal with. While the characters may recover from their wounds, they will likely live with their trauma forever. She also told the Tribune [3] that she wanted to write the story from the refugees' point of view. She says, "The concept of "refugee" is something frightening, it's something foreign. So I wanted to write from that point of view, which is why I have four alternating main characters, all young people from different nations, seeing life from four different cultural lenses on this refugee trek."

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Four young narrators from different nations experience the terrors of war. Emilia, a fifteen-year-old Polish orphan, follows Florian, an East Prussian restoration artist. She views him as her "knight" after he saves her from a Russian soldier. Both run into Joana, a Lithuanian nurse who is traveling with a group of refugees. All are trying to make their way to West Germany, to the ports of Gotenhafen and Pillau, in the hopes of boarding evacuation ships to safety. Meanwhile, Alfred, a bumbling and hateful Nazi sailor, is stationed at the port of Gotenhafen. There he prepares a ship called the MV Wilhelm Gustloff for the evacuation.

Florian Beck Character Analysis in Salt to the Sea | LitCharts Florian Beck Character Analysis in Salt to the Sea | LitCharts

Joana still had her mother. Reuniting with her mother was her motivation. She would slay dragons to get to her. Mother was anchor. Mother was comfort. Mother was home. A girl who lost her mother was suddenly a tiny boat on an angry ocean. Some boats eventually floated ashore. And some boats, like me, seemed to float farther and farther form land. CW: Rape, child death, teen pregnancy, and violence Hesitant To Read Salt To The Sea By Ruta Sepetys?This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. a b Nance, Kevin (4 February 2016). "Ruta Sepetys on 'Salt to the Sea,' sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff". Chicago Tribune. The Gustloff should represent life, since it is supposed to save the refugees by helping them to escape the war. However, Emilia feels that the ship was born of death, since it was named after Wilhelm Gustloff, a Nazi leader in Switzerland who was murdered. Emilia sees the ship as sterile and lifeless, a boat that is not made to appreciate the sea. Her sense that the ship is born of death foreshadows the tragic fate of the Gustloff. He opened his eyes and whispered to me. “Kind of incredible. She is you, she is your mother, your father, your country.” He kissed her head and leaned down to whisper in my ear. Mcnary, Dave (25 May 2016). "Universal Boards World War II Disaster Drama 'Salt to the Sea' ". Variety.

Salt to the Sea Summary | GradeSaver Salt to the Sea Summary | GradeSaver

I forced my mind toward happy thoughts—August, warmth, storks, home—anything to distract myself from the swelling pressure inside me. I walked with the others in search of the movie house. With each step, the truth drew closer. Salt to the Sea is a young-adult historical fiction novel published on February 2, 2016. It is Ruta Sepetys’s third novel. Like Sepetys’s other three novels, Salt to the Sea explores the lost and forgotten stories of history. In particular, it focuses on the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff during Operational Hannibal, which took place during WWII and was the largest sea evacuation in modern history. During Operation Hannibal, over two million Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, ethnic Germans, and residents of the East Prussian and Polish corridors were evacuated. The majority of the Gustloff’s passengers were civilians, with an estimated five thousand being children.The Kleist’s daughter. When Russian soldiers come to the Kleist’s farm, they ask for Else. However, Erna Kleist offers them Emilia instead. Dr. Richter If you like survival stories, historical fiction, or WWII narratives, Salt to the Seawill intrigue and capture your heart. Although YA, this title will flood your soul. I had received the sign six years ago. It was Saint John’s Night, the longest day of the year. Mama loved Saint John’s celebration—a night of bonfires, singing, and dancing. The tradition called for girls to make wreaths of flowers and candles. At dark, they would light the candles and send their wreaths floating down the river. Legend said that the boy who retrieved your wreath downstream was the boy you would marry. The year Mama died, the older girls let me make a wreath of flowers and candles with them. I chose all of Mama’s favorites—hibiscus, roses, poppies, and dried herbs. Plus, salt is essential to the sea just like how love, friendship, and family is essential to humanity–which is now lost at sea. The Nazis claimed I didn’t need an education. Polish schools were closed. Our desks and equipment were taken to Germany. Would a German girl open my desk and find my treasures inside?

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The doctor aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff. When he learns Joana is a nurse, he asks for her help and secures her a boarding pass. Halinka Why are you so nervous?” said Eva. “You know you’re getting on a boat. You told me you’ve got a letter.” The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne– Just like Alfred buys into Hitler’s propaganda, watch as Bruno makes a deadly acquaintance as he plays with a young boy wearing these funny blue striped pajamas. You wrote that Emilia was your savior and that she is ever on your mind. Please do know, Florian, that she is ever in my heart as well. War is catastrophe. It breaks families in irretrievable pieces. But those who are gone are not necessarily lost. Near our cottage, where the small creek winds under the old wooden bridge, is the most beautiful bed of roses. The book concludes with a glimpse into the future, 1969. Joana and Florian live in the United States. They have Emilia's baby, the boy Klaus, and a child of their own. In a letter sent by Clara Christensen, a Danish woman, it is told that Emilia's body was found washed up on shore, and she was buried.

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I’m Christine, The Uncorked Librarian. I have a Master’s of Library and Information Science, travel the world, and am an avid reader. The Poet is an older German man who is fleeing East Prussia along with Joana, Ingrid, Eva, and Klaus. A former shoemaker, he pays close attention to everyone’s footwear, and believes… By the time the group of refugees finally arrives to the port of Gotenhafen, their lives are increasingly intertwined. Joana and Florian fall in love. Emilia views Florian as proof that there are good men in the world. At Gotenhafen, they all depend on Alfred’s help to get boarding passes. Father constantly worried about me. He cried when he told me that he was sending me away to the Kleists’ farm in East Prussia for safety. I wanted to cry too. I wanted to scream and refuse. But it hurt so much to see him sad, losing all that he loved. So I assured him that he was right, it was for the best, and that I was not upset. I told him that we would see each other in a couple of year, when the war of winter turned to spring.