What Is The Difference Between Frank And Friedrich

Best friends are meant to stay together and support each other no matter what, even if it seems nearly impossible. In Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter, the narrator and Friedrich struggles to maintain their friendship as Hitler and the Nazis get stronger. Even though Friedrich is Jewish and the narrator is not, they were inseparable in the beginning. They went to school together, played together and even lived in the same apartment building. Unfortunately, as the Nazi’s get more powerful, the farther their friendship gets. In 1925, anti-semitism only occurred to very few people and the Nazis were weak. A few years on, Friedrich and the narrator became good friends. They did everything together even though their religion were very different. Both of their parents were comfortable for them to become good friends because they did not think that being a Jew was any different from being a Christian. On one of their playdates, the narrator’s mother offered to make potato pancakes. The narrator and Friedrich were very happy to help the mother make them because “We [the narrator’s family] only had potato pancakes
On the day of an air-raid, Friedrich was desperate to go into a shelter for safety. Undoubtedly, Friedrich was denied entrance and was forced to stay outside with the bombs, which ended his life. In the shelter, “Mother cried against Father’s shoulder. ‘Do pull yourself together!’ begged Father. ‘You’ll endanger us all’” (136). The narrator did not dare to speak out to let Friedrich into the shelter because he feared for his own life to be in danger. In the time of only eleven years since the narrator tried to stand up for Friedrich in the ball incident, he is being silent and a bystander. After the air-raid, he discovers that Friedrich has died, and the only thing he could do was to hold his feelings that were clawing and twisting inside of him