Summer of My German Soldier

Summer of My German Soldier (1973) is a young adult novel by American author Bette Greene. The book is heavily based on Greene’s own childhood in Arkansas and Tennessee during World War II and her experiences growing up Jewish in the conservative Christian South. A made-for-TV film adaptation starring Kristy McNichol was released in 1978. The sequel to the novel, Morning Is a Long Time Coming, was published in 1978. Summer of My German Soldier was a National Book Award finalist.

This study guide refers to the 1973 Dial Books for Young Readers edition.

Content Warning: The source material deals with parental physical and emotional abuse. In addition, the source material contains racism and antisemitism, at times featuring racist language.

Plot Summary

The novel is told from the first-person point of view of 12-year-old Patty Bergen, a Jewish girl living in Jenkinsville, Arkansas, during World War II.

Jenkinsville is a small, Christian town, where Patty’s parents run a general store. Though the Bergens are the only Jewish family in town, they are not close: Patty’s father is abusive and beats her. Her mother is cold, constantly criticizing Patty, and she does not intervene to stop her husband’s beatings. Patty’s parents clearly prefer her pretty, easy-going younger sister, Sharon, and while Patty’s maternal grandparents show her affection, they live hours away in Memphis. Only Ruth Hughes, the Bergens’ African American housekeeper, shows Patty kindness.

Patty finds Jenkinsville boring until the town becomes the site of a German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp. When the train brings in a group of German soldiers, Patty goes to witness their arrival. The POWs are later brought into her parents’ store to purchase hats since they are being put to work to picking cotton, and Patty meets Frederick Anton Reiker. Anton is the only one of the Germans who speaks English, and he translates for the others while they are in the store. Patty immediately likes him, as he treats her respectfully and seems interesting.

Patty’s family goes to Memphis to visit her maternal grandparents, who are wealthy. Patty loves to read, and her grandmother slips her money to buy books. She keeps her books and other precious items in her hideaway, the abandoned room above her parents’ garage.

Several days later, Anton escapes from the POW camp, and Patty sees him at night by the train tracks. That same day, eight Nazi saboteurs are arrested on the East Coast. Although Anton has no alliance with them and is not a Nazi sympathizer, public officials later assume he is with them. Patty hides him in her hideaway for several days. He remains a secret until he rushes out to help Patty when her father is beating her. Patty yells at him to go away, and Anton retreats. Ruth, however, sees Anton.

The next day, Ruth asks Patty who the man is who tried to help her, and Patty reveals everything. Patty tells Ruth that she thinks Anton likes her, and Ruth agrees that Anton truly cares for Patty, having risked his life to help her. Ruth makes a meal for Anton, and the three of them sit together at the table talking to one another, one of the happiest moments in Patty’s life.

Anton does not want to endanger Patty and Ruth, so he decides to leave that night by jumping the train that runs through Jenkinsville. Patty gives him clean clothes, including a monogrammed shirt she’d bought for her father. Before Anton leaves, he gives Patty his father’s ring, which is his most prized possession. This means everything to Patty and helps her begin to understand that she is a good person.

Months later, Patty shows her ring to Sister Parker, one of her parents’ employees. The ring is clearly valuable, and Sister Parker shows it to Patty’s father, who becomes suspicious and calls the FBI. When they arrive, Patty lies about where she got the ring, saying that it was a gift from a beggar. Several days later, the sheriff comes to question Patty. He pulls out the shirt she gave Anton and also a picture of Anton, asking whether he is the man she helped. The shirt is bloodstained and bears a bullet hole. He then shows her a newspaper clipping detailing Anton’s death while he resisted arrest. Patty breaks down and confesses, but she does not implicate Ruth, insisting that she helped Anton on her own.

Patty’s father is furious and verbally abuses her; Ruth intervenes and is fired. Patty stays with her grandparents in Memphis while her trial occurs. She is cleared of being a Nazi sympathizer but is found guilty of lesser charges and sentenced to four to six months in reform school. Because of their association with the case, her parents are pressured to leave town.

Ruth has trouble making friends in the reform school because they think she is a Nazi sympathizer. Ruth pays Patty an unexpected visit and gives her the news that her old school is thinking about publishing her story. Patty tells Ruth that she doesn’t know why her parents don’t love her and that it must mean she is a bad person. Ruth insists that Patty is not a bad person; it is her parents who are the problem.

At the end of the book, Patty leaves reform school aimless and unsure of what to do next. She is not sure if she will ever be able to put her life together, but thanks to the influence of Ruth and her experiences with Anton, she is determined to at least try.