Girl in the Blue Coat

On Monday of the week following Mirjam’s disappearance, Ollie puts on the Gestapo uniform and prepares to stop the transport with forged orders to inspect the baby carriage. While he does so, Hanneke will try to rescue Mirjam. Behind the plastic cow, Ollie and Hanneke discuss Bas. Hanneke confesses she feels it’s her fault that he has died. Ollie assures her that Bas would have joined the Navy with or without her encouragement. Furthermore, he has his own letter from Bas. It’s short, humorous, and concludes, “Tell Hanneke I love her. And to move on. Not too fast. Maybe after two or three months” (229). Hanneke laughs and then tries to kiss Ollie. He confesses that he’s gay and in love with Willem. This is part of his motivation for resisting.

When the transport arrives, Ollie successfully stops it while Hanneke searches for Mirjam. The people in the transport repeatedly tell Hanneke to be quiet or she will put all their lives at risk. She finds a girl in a blue coat, but the girl runs away from Hanneke in the opposite direction. Nazi soldiers shoot her, and she dies. Ollie accosts Hanneke, and, still pretending to be a guard, insists that he must take her for immediate questioning: She may have been part of a plot to escape.