JOSEF

Hiding with his mother and sister in a school in Vornay, France, Josef can hear gunfire and artillery shells. When he sees a map of Europe on the wall of the classroom, he thinks about how many countries on the map have been occupied by Germany. He hears Nazi storm troopers approaching the school and leads his mother and sister to a window. After breaking the window, they climb out and run to a nearby house. However, the storm troopers chase them down, search their pockets, and find papers identifying them as Jews from Berlin. The soldiers tell them that they will be taken to concentration camps. Josef’s mother offers them money, and then diamond earrings, which she had sewn into the lining of Ruth’s jacket. The soldiers tell her that there is only enough to save one of her children. Josef realizes that the soldiers are playing a cruel game: his mother must choose whether he or Ruth has to go to a concentration camp.