Marie-Laure LeBlanc
Introduced in Part 0 at age 16, the novel goes back to tell her story from age 6, when she first went completely blind. Marie-Laure is a pretty girl with freckles and auburn hair, who lives with her father in Paris until they are forced to flee during the German invasion, moving to Saint-Malo with her great uncle Etienne. Marie-Laure is bold, curious, imaginative, and highly observational of the sensory details around her, partly due to the fact that she cannot see.
Werner Pfennig
First introduced in Part 0 at age 18, he is a private in the German army in World War II, later telling his story starting from the age of 7, when he is living at an orphanage inside a coal-mining town in Zollverein, Germany. He has a peculiar look: he has white hair, he is always small for his age, and his ears stick out. As the book travels between his childhood and the time period of the bombing of Saint-Malo, Werner is characterized as a markedly intelligent boy in the areas of engineering, science, and math. He struggles between meeting the expectations of the forces around him, especially the ideology of Nazi Germany, and his own feelings of what is right.
Jutta Pfennig
Jutta is first introduced at age 5. She is the younger sister of Werner. She is fascinated by the radio and admires her brother. However, when he decides to go to Schulpforta, a school designed by the Reich to train boys for their army, she is extremely opposed. She does not agree with the actions Germany is taking against other countries, nor with those it's taking against Jews. She is portrayed as a girl with a strong sense of what’s right. Later, as an adult she is portrayed as a woman who has tried to forget the trauma of the war, and who feels guilty for what her country has done.
Daniel LeBlanc / Monsieur LeBlanc
Marie-Laure’s father. A locksmith at the national museum in Paris. He is the sole caretaker of Marie-Laure. When she goes blind he builds scale models of the places they live so she can study them to understand how to get around her neighborhood. He also builds puzzle boxes for Marie-Laure, as well as special puzzle-like safes for the museum. He encourages Marie-Laure to use her imagination and sense of adventure through reading and exploring the museum where he works. His relationship with Marie-Laure is very close and loving; he is characterized as patient, sometimes aloof, and forever devoted to Marie-Laure.
Etienne LeBlanc
The great uncle of Marie-Laure, who lives in Saint-Malo. He was in The Great War (World War I) and was traumatized by the death of his brother—Marie-Laure’s grandfather, Henri. Etienne is withdrawn and reclusive, and he has a great love of radios, science, and books, which he shares with Marie-Laure. He sometimes sees visions of ghosts or people who are not there, which causes him to panic and stay locked in his room. “Her great-uncle seems kind, curious, and entirely sane. Stillness: this is what he radiates more than anything else. The stillness of a tree. Of a mouse blinking in the dark” (Ch 44).
Frank Volkheimer
An older cadet with Werner at school, he is known as The Giant because of his large stature. Later he is a staff sergeant in the German army with Werner during the bombing of Saint-Malo. Although Volkheimer is rumored to be strong and cruel, and is later shown fulfilling his duty of killing resistance fighters without pause, he also has a soft-spot for Werner, whom he treats almost like a brother. In addition, he loves classical music.
Walter Bernd
An engineer in the army with Werner. He is described as pungent, with misaligned pupils. He hides in the cellar with Werner during the bombing of Saint-Malo. He and Neumann Two often make raunchy commentary.
Frau Elena
The directress of the Children’s House where Werner grew up. She is from the Alsace region in France; she is a Protestant nun, and teaches the children French. She likes to drink sherry, and later takes up smoking during the war years. She is characterized as kind, motherly, and not very strict with supervision.
Dr. Geffard
A mollusk expert (malacologist) who works at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris with Marie-Laure’s father. He is a kind older man, with a beard, who likes to eat a roasted duck every day at 3 pm. He calls Marie-Laure 'Laurette', and teaches her about mollusks—and more specifically about snails, also known as whelks.
Hans Schilzer and Herribert Pomsel
The two older boys from Children’s house who join the Hitler Youth and begin acting superior to the other children in the house.
Claudia Förster
Also known as Big Claudia and described as cow-like, she and Jutta work together on tasks at Children’s House. Later, she is one of the last children left at the orphanage, and goes with the others to Berlin to work, where she stops talking completely.
Hannah and Susanne Gerlitz
Twins who live at Children’s House; Jutta sometimes helps care for them. Later they are some of the last children left at the house, and go to Berlin to work in a machine parts factory.
Rudolf Seidler and Frau Seidler
A German official who lives in the largest, most elegant house in the town of Zollverein. Frau Siedler, his wife, seems to Werner to be a magical creature, as he has never met a woman like her: she has painted fingernails and smooth white calves.
The führer / Hitler
Historical figure, chancellor of Germany from 1933-1946, leader of the movement of the Third Reich. Referenced frequently in the book as the führer, his presence looms especially in Werner’s and von Rumpel's narratives.
Monsieur François Giannot
A friend of the museum who lives outside of Paris in Evreux, where Monsieur LeBlanc and Marie-Laure are supposed to take refuge after fleeing Paris with the Sea of Flames.
Frederick
In Schulpforta, he has the bunk above Werner; they become close friends, with Werner often taking care of him and watching out for him. Described as a reedy boy, thin as a blade of grass, skin as pale as cream. He came to Schulpforta from Berlin; his father is assistant to an ambassador. He is an expert in identifying birds. He secretly wears glasses.
Henri LeBlanc
Marie-Laure’s grandfather who died in the Great War/World War I. His room is impeccably maintained by Etienne in their childhood home. Recordings of his voice still exist, and Etienne at one point played them nightly on the radio, followed by a recorded song Henri played on the piano; this recording was “The Professor," to which Jutta and Werner listened as children.
Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel
A German officer who has been given the task of locating and cataloguing objects of cultural value for the führer. He is 41 years old when he is first introduced in June 1940. He has a wife and two daughters. His oldest daughter is named Veronika. In the course of the novel he is diagnosed with cancer. He is characterized as patient, detail-oriented, and cruel.
Dr. Hauptmann
The professor of technical sciences at Schulpforta; he identifies Werner’s talent for science and math, and takes him on as a lab assistant. Dr. Hauptmann has two greyhound dogs, and his lab is a fire-lit library. He is mysterious to Werner, who is unsure of what Dr. Hauptmann’s connections are and why he has Werner working on all of these mathematical equations. Werner suspects Hauptmann of being cruel and uncaring.
Professor Hublin and the assistant director
Professor Hublin is mineralogist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, who gives a tour, along with the assistant director of the museum, to Sergeant Major von Rumpel when he comes to look for the Sea of Flames.
Claude Levitte / Big Claude
The man who runs the Parfumerie in Saint-Malo. He collaborates with the Germans in order to get more rations for himself and his family. He is known as Big Claude because he is a fat man: he is described as having a double chin and beady observant eyes.
Bastian / The Commandant
The leader of the field exercises at Schulpforta, he seems capable of incredible cruelty. He wears hobnailed boots and a jacket decorated in war metals; he has a round belly, and a pitted face. He pits the boys against each other to pick out the weakest in the group; he preaches the nationalist propaganda of the Third Reich.
Bäcker and Ernst Somebody
Bäcker is a boy chosen during field exercises by Bastian, who makes Bäcker choose the weakest of the group. Ernst is the boy chosen as the weakest: a slow runner with dark hair.
Helmut Rödel
A small child at Schulpforta in Werner’s age group. He from the south of Germany, and keeps his hands balled in fists nearly all his waking hours. He is the first to choose Frederick as the weakest during field exercises.
Reinhard Wöhlmann, Karl Westerholzer, Martin Burkhard, Dieter Ferdinand
Classmates of Werner’s at Schulpforta, some of whose fathers are killed in action.
Frau Schwartzenberger
A Jewish woman who lives in Frederick’s building in Berlin. Werner thinks of her as a Jewess: she is the only Jewish person he has ever seen. They share an elevator with her; Werner observes her paper bag of wilted greens, and the star sewn into her threadbare clothes.
Fanni
The maid of Frederick’s house, a large woman with baggy arms and a downy face, who is kind and loving towards Frederick.
Frederick’s mother
A rich cheerful woman who invites and pays for Werner to come home to Berlin with Frederick for the January recess from Schulpforta. Initially she is characterized as a haughty, arrogant, and social woman. Later, she is characterized as lonely and guilty.
Dupont
A half Algerian man in Paris who specializes in making imitation gems; he constructs the three imitation Seas of Flames, commissioned by the National Museum.
Crazy Hubert Bazin
A veteran from the Great War who sleeps in an alcove behind the library. He lost his nose, eye, and ear in the war, and wears a copper mask over half his face. Marie-Laure describes his breath as smelling like crushed insects. Madame Manec brings him food; he tells Marie-Laure stories of the history of Saint Malo, and later gives her a key to an old kennel filled with snails that exists underneath the ramparts. He mysteriously disappears.
Madame Guiboux
Her son repairs the shoes in Saint-Malo.
Madame and Monsieur Hébrard
Madame and her daughter sort the mail of Saint-Malo, including that of the Germans, and they participate in the resistance. Monsieur Hébrard is the book seller of Saint-Malo.
Madame and Monsieur Ruelle
The bakers of Saint-Malo. Madame Ruelle in particular plays a large role in the resistance, and also helps care for Marie-Laure and Etienne by giving them vegetables.
Madame Blanchard
An ancient widow, who participates in the resistance with Madame Manec.
Neumann Two
An underweight corporal who is Werner’s first contact in the Wehrmacht, the division of the army he is sent to. He is addicted to pills. He likes to talk about sex.
Neumann One
The 30-year-old driver of the Opel, the truck that Werner’s team uses to drive for their duties in the Wehrmacht.
The Viennese girl
Werner first sees her playing outside in the empty city of Vienna, a little redheaded girl in a maroon cape, about six or seven years old, small for her age. She has big clear eyes that remind him of Jutta’s. Moments later, in a misled attempt to find a partisan radio broadcast, Neumann Two shoots both the girl and her mother in their own apartment. In the following chapters, the girl haunts Werner, and he frequently sees her hovering above him.
Albert Wette
Jutta’s husband in Part 12. A kind, balding accountant, who loves running model trains in their basement.
Max
Jutta’s 6-year-old son in Part 12. Curious, clever, asks questions no one can answer, and loves making paper airplanes.
John
A Canadian scientist and Marie-Laure’s one time lover, who is described as leaving objects scattered around any room he enters. He is the father of Marie-Laure's child, Hélène, in Part 12.
Hélène
Marie-Laure’s daughter in Part 12. A short-haired, petite, 19-year old aspiring violinist, described as self-possessed; she lives with Marie-Laure.
Michel
Marie-Laure’s 12-year-old grandson in Part 13, who plays online games and patiently walks his grandmother through the Jardin des Plantes.
