Summary
Florian, the shoe poet, and Klaus register to board the Gustloff. Klaus tells the inspectors that the poet is his grandfather and Florian is his uncle, and they are able to register without any problems. Then they run into Eva, who will sail on the Hansa ship. She gives them their luggage and tells them they must wait in line for luggage inspection.
During luggage inspection, the German soldiers pull Florian aside for additional inspection. A blond, fair-skinned inspector asks what’s in his suitcase and he says it belongs to his nurse, Joana. The inspector teases him for having a private nurse and asks to see his wound. He also demands to know why Florian is able-bodied yet wearing civilian clothes. In response, Florian shows his special pass signed by Koch. The inspector reprimands for not showing all of his papers. Florian angrily scolds the inspector for delaying his mission and wasting the services of the nurse Koch assigned to him.
Alfred asks Joana to go on an evening walk with him but she is disgusted by the thought and says she’ll be busy. She asks Alfred to let her know if he sees Florian, and Alfred decides he must find Florian in order to “bait” Joana. Later, Alfred brings Florian to Joana and she removes his stitches. Joana tells Florian Emilia’s secret: that she was raped by Russian soldiers and made up the story about the boyfriend to continue on. She says Emilia won’t look at the baby yet and asks Florian to try to lift her spirits.
They visit Emilia. Florian digs Emilia’s pink hat out of a pile of coats, holds the baby and puts the hat on her head. He tells Emilia that the baby is pretty and looks like her. He says the baby is Emilia, her mother, her father, and Poland itself. Emilia is moved and reaches out for the baby. She holds the baby close and whispers to her about what her life in Poland was like before the war.
Joana kisses Florian and he kisses her back. Florian leaves to find a place to hide, while Joana returns to the infirmary. At the infirmary, Joana receives a visit from the Nazi inspector. He asks her about her patient with the shrapnel wound and the bad ear. Joana replies that she can’t give out information about her patients. The inspector threatens her, saying that as a repatriated Lithuanian, her liberty belongs to Hitler.
The inspector explains that Florian was rude and claimed that Koch appointed Joana as his personal nurse. The inspector did not believe the story and sent a wire to Koch to confirm. Joana realizes that Florian forged a medical testimony and implicated her in a false story. She covers for him, saying that he mentioned wanting to board the Hansa ship instead.
In the maternity ward, Emilia thinks of Mrs. Kleist’s cruelty. She feels her old feelings of fear return, but her baby’s steady stare grounds her. The shoe poet and Klaus come to visit Emilia and the baby. The shoe poet says that despite all of the death that surrounds them, a new life has been born. He calls the baby a miracle.
Analysis
Emilia finally has a cathartic moment when Joana tells her she is sorry for what happened to her. Joana acts as a mother figure for Emilia, saying the words that Emilia knows her mother would say if she could. Sharing her secret with someone compassionate helps Emilia to come to terms with her past. She hopes that she will be able to clear her conscience and free her soul.
Just as Emilia lets out her pain in childbirth and Joana has a private moment to confront all of the trauma she has experienced, Florian also has a cathartic moment. Passing through additional inspection makes him extremely nervous. The Nazi inspector is a blond, fair-skinned soldier who looks like one of Hitler’s prized Aryans from the propaganda posters.
When the inspector questions him, Florian shows a medical testimony signed by Joana and a special pass signed by Koch. The inspector angrily tells Florian that when he is asked for his papers he must show them all. In that moment, Florian allows all of the ferocity of the past years to rise up inside of him. He scolds the inspector for wasting his time and longs to “batter this blond idiot senseless.”
In contrast with these violent feelings, Florian displays extreme kindness when he visits Emilia and her baby. We learn that Emilia clings to Florian because he shot the Russian soldier who perhaps wanted to rape her, just like the Russians at the Kleist’s farm. For Emilia, Florian is proof that there are still good men in the world.
Emilia’s pink hat is a symbol of survival despite all odds. When Florian visits her in the infirmary, he finds her pink hat in a pile of coats. He puts the hat on the baby, as if to show Emilia that the baby is a symbol of Emilia’s own survival and the survival of her Polish lineage. This act moves Emilia, who feels a great longing for Poland and begins to tell her baby about what Lwów was like before the war. She explains that before the war she lived happily, and Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians, and Hungarians all coexisted peacefully in her hometown.
When Emilia feels her old fears returning, she locks eyes with her baby and the baby’s steady gaze calm her. In Salt to the Sea, children are at once the greatest tragedies of war and the greatest hope for the future. The shoe poet recognizes that Klaus saved him, since he probably only got a boarding pass because he is accompanying Klaus. He sees children as cherubs who look after old men like him, and he calls Emilia’s baby a miracle. Amid the terror and tragedy of war, “life has spit in the eye of death.”
After facing so many awful experiences, the narrators finally enjoy some small miracles and moments of comfort. Even Joana feels happy and safe to be on such a big, sturdy ship. She wonders if all the struggle and worry might nearly be over and hopes that she will soon be reunited with her family.
