How did Inge get to Norway?

It is more likely that Norwegian women went to Germany in the years before 1914, for a better life. Germany really outclassed Norway at that time. What could be construed is that she and perhaps one or more Norwegian girls worked for a German estate in the eastern parts of Europe that were taken away from Germany after WWI, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, etc. Because of the postwar hardship, it may have made good sense for the Norwegian maids to go back home, and just maybe they took their friend Inge with them. This business was sort of repeated after WWII when these same countries fell under Soviet control. Displaced Persons.

I have not read the short story, but want to, so I won't read your spoiler. After the war, Germany was thrown into deep depression due to the reparations they were made responsible for. Perhaps she fled Germany to escape the utter despair most Germans had to live with. Regardless, her life before her moving to America is inconsequential. The story develops and revolves around her life in America with Olaf. It is her fresh beginning that we come to admire and relate to, not her past.

"Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?" -- E.A. Poe

Thank you for explaining how Inge was in Norway in the short story -- that isn't a spoiler at all, it is just part of the background which should have been included in the film.

The film makers didn't seem to believe in the strength of their story -- they seemed to think that they had to embellish it with their own mystery -- their mystery was that Inge had no explanation for why she was in Norway, she had no logical reason for having no papers, and she did not know that a German would not be welcomed. The REAL story is that she had a logical reason for having been from Norway, that there was some story on the up and up about how she had lost her papers (when she lost her family?), and that she would know she had to convince the townspeople that she was not their enemy. Instead, she was played off as though she was not very intelligent, that she couldn't communicate even though they all shared the Norwegian language, and that she was oblivious to the fact that her country was at war with the U.S.

Sad, I was really impressed with most of the film, but then I kept wondering how Helen Keller got moved to Minnesota.

Rina my German friend said the same thing when she saw the movie. Her friend was from Norway and she can't understand her. The scene from the train station is strange since the "German" character interacted fluently with the Norwegian character.