After the family has been reunited in Switzerland, identify one important thing that has happened to each character – Joseph, Margrit, Ruth, Edek, Bronia, Jan that shows how each has been affected by the years of war.

Bronia, the youngest, adapted to the postwar life most quickly. She was happy and a gifted artist. Edek took time to heal, and was even sent to a sanatorium. After six months in the open air, he was finally healthy enough to start studying to become an engineer. Jan took time to adapt to this secure and peaceful life, and behaved poorly even though Margrit treated him as her own. He fought and was rude often. Only Ruth could manage him, and she encouraged him to start working with neighboring farmers’ sick animals. Finally, even Jan grew up.

As for Ruth, who had taken on more responsibilities than a woman her age should have, she clung to her parents for a time and did not want to go out into the wider world. Finally, she went to study in Zurich for her degree, married, and had children of her own. She and her French husband became the house-parents at the French house in the children’s village.

In the Polish house Margrit keeps her proudest possession, the silver sword, in a velvet-lined drawer of her jewelry box.