All But My Life: Daniel Leon

An event in the book that impacted me was when Gerda was caught with her English book. The officer that caught her immediately took her to his superior, and expected her to be punished without mercy. The superior officer pretended to be just as vicious, but when the officer left the room, he was kind to Gerda. He told her to run home as fast as she could, and that she would not be punished. He knew that a teenage girl who was interested in the English language was not a threat, and he didn't treat her differently because she was Jewish. Gerda says that he was one of two out of the hundreds of Germans she had met that acted as though they were human. She also wonders why he let her go, as do I. I think that one reason was because she was just a child. Another reason could be, because despite what most Nazis thought, he did not believe that Jews where a different or inferior race. Either way, he was nice to Gerda, and she probably wouldn't have survived without his kindness.