It is in Chapter Eighteen of this great book that you need
to refer to. Understand that Chapter Seventeen narrates the abortive escape attempt that
was planned. Hannah sees "shadows" before she returns with Gitl to their bunkers, but it
is only during the next day, when the people that tried to escape are brutally
slaughtered in front of the Jews, that Hannah realises that Yitzchak was not there among
them. There is therefore hope that at least one of their number escaped successfully and
has not been detected by the Nazis. When Hannah points this out to Gitl, she responses
with a voice that "held a measure of hope." This makes Hannah in turn smile with this
hope:
Hannah
said no more, but in her mind's eye she saw a swift shadow racing into the dark trees.
She smiled with the
memory.
The escape of
Yitzchak offers hope to those remaining, that there may be a life outside of the
concentration camps and a possible future. This is a hope that is incredibly important
to them in the atmosphere of death and despair in which they exist. This is why Hannah
smiles at this memory of the "swift shadow" escaping, which she now realises must have
been Yitzchak.
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