some questions

It's been a LONG time since I saw the movie or read the book. But I still got the book somewhere, so I could check some things:

1). were anna and lotte jewish? at one point when anna is at the farm, they say something about being good christians. and after leaving her uncle, anna was raised by nuns. i thought they mention that lotte's family is jewish.

No, Anna is raised by her uncle (and grandfather) who’s catholic. Lotte grows up in a socialist and non-religious family. Lotte does fall in love with a jewish boy who later dies in a concentration camp. After the war she marries his brother.

2). why did anna's uncle not allow her to talk to the blacksmith?

In the book the relationship with her uncle is much more complicated, in the beginning there’s still a positive side. He doesn’t like the boy because he sympathises with Hitler and the nazi’s, whom he considers anti-catholic. He also thinks the boy is a rebel and a ladies man. I think in the movie it’s also implied he doesn’t want her to associate with boys in general.

3). when anna is told she was retarded, she reads the paper and says something like 'he was paid'. what is she talking about?

I’m not sure to be honest. Perhaps she meant that the clerk who had given her the document to sign when she turned 21 was paid by her uncle not to show the part that said she was retarded? I can’t imagine that the uncle got some sort of compensation from the government.

4). at the beginning of the movie, why were the two families fighting over the girls? was it because the uncle wanted a free worker for his farm? and why did the rich family want a sick girl?

In the book the grandfather only wants the healthy child because he can use her on the farm and he believes she belongs with family. He doesn’t want the sick girl, that’s why his sister offers to take her in. The rich family wants her because they could take care of her and nurse her back to health in a more healthy environment. In the movie the rich family wants them both, but the farmers don’t agree with that because they are more closely related and indeed want a free worker on the farm.

5). when lotte forgets her purse, where were they supposed to be going? on a train? or were they at a movie theater? the nazis captured david on the street but how did they know that david was jewish?

Weren’t they going to the opera? I think while going back to fetch the purse he ended up in a razzia. He probably had to identity himself and tell them he was jewish, that’s when they took him away. In the book however, David gets caught while playing music with jewish friends, they ask who’s jewish and he steps forward.

6). how did david's family survive the war? they were jewish and the movie didn't show them in hiding.

I’m pretty sure his family went into hiding at Lotte’s house.

7). what did anna die from?

In the book she dies of a heart attack while taking a bath. I think that in the movie she just dies from cardiac arrest, pehaps due to the cold. Her health wasn’t that great to begin with.

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