“Although Pierrot Fischer’s father didn’t die in the Great War, his mother, Émilie, always maintained it was the war that killed him.” 

The opening lines of the novel emphasize the lingering impact of violence, and of war in particular. On a personal level, Émilie’s thought pinpoints war as the root of Wilhelm’s struggles with mental health, alcoholism, and abusive behavior. Beatrix later confirms this when she tells Pierrot about the trauma Wilhelm experienced in World War I. His struggles position Wilhelm as representative of a generation of disenfranchised Germans, whose experiences of loss and frustration were manipulated by Nazi ideology.  

“‘I don’t like those moments, either’ said Papa quietly. ‘But sometimes it’s as if a dark cloud has settled over me and I can’t get it to move on. That’s why I drink. It helps me forget.’ ‘Forget what?’ ‘The war. The things I saw.’ He closed his eyes as he whispered, ‘The things I did.’”

Wilhelm refuses to share his war experiences, even arguing with Émilie when she confronts him about them. Yet, in this rare moment of personal confession, he opens up to Pierrot about why he behaves the way he does. In terms of the entire arc of the novel, Wilhelm’s escape from his problems and refusal to come to terms with his regrets contrasts with Pierrot’s decision to make amends for his own wrongdoings as the novel closes. 

“‘You must never underestimate how kind people can be, Pierrot.’ ‘Or how cruel,’ muttered Simone from behind her desk.” 

The Durand’s orphanage does not provide Pierrot with a home or community that is exactly secure or nurturing, but Simone and Adèle do their best to provide and care for him. This includes sharing some words of wisdom and realism with him. While the rather sunny Adèle assures Pierrot of humanity’s good side, the more serious Simone urges him to be on alert for its darker tendencies. Both statements foreshadow later events in the novel, including the cruelty Pierrot both experiences and doles out, as well as the eventual kindness that Anshel shows in forgiving him, despite his past association with the Nazis.  

“Pierrot frowned. So Hugo was a Jew, too? He wanted to laugh at what Josette had said, but he remembered some of the things the boys in his class had said to Anshel and how badly they had upset his friend.”

The Boy at the Top of the Mountain makes references to anti-Semitic ideology and behaviors that reflect issues in the period leading up to and during World War II. Pierrot initially reacts to these ideas with confusion. When Josette uses a slur against Hugo, Pierrot is torn. On one hand, he longs to be accepted by anyone, and so he wants to go along with Josette. On the other hand, he recognizes that his first and best friend, Anshel, is a Jew, and he empathizes with the mistreatment he had faced. However, Pierrot chooses to ignore this and tolerate anti-Semitic ideas. 

“They marched away, and Pierrot watched their retreating backs, massaging the fingers of one hand with the fingers of the other. As he did so, the little boy turned around in his mother’s arms and raised a hand to wave good-bye, and their eyes met. Despite the pain in his knuckles, Pierrot couldn’t help but smile, and he waved back.”

As Pierrot travels from the orphanage to Berghof, he experiences cruelty when bullied by Hitlerjugend and also when a Nazi official steps on Pierrot’s hand after he bumps into him and falls. Symbolically, this moment of cruelty is mixed with kindness, as the official’s young boy turns to wave. Pierrot’s own involuntary smile foreshadows the way that cruelty will be mixed when kindness at the end of the novel when Anshel and Pierrot reconcile.

“The mountain again. ‘Why am I on a mountain?’ asked Pierrot. ‘What sort of place is this?’ ‘No more questions,’ said Herta, turning away.”

Berghof, which can be translated as “mountain court,” is located on an Alpine mountain, above the village of Berchtesgaden, Austria. This means that Hitler’s home is physically remote, but the symbolic distance from reality is even more significant. On top of the mountain, in a mansion filled with servants, Hitler leads a life of luxury while war and cruelty go on around him. Though Pierrot is curious about what the place signifies, Herta and others warn him not to become too involved for his own safety.

“He can treat others in a way he never would while wearing normal clothes. Collars, trench coats, or jackboots, uniforms allow us to exercise our cruelty without ever feeling guilt.”

Ernst’s comment about how uniforms mask the moral implications of cruelty echoes the way that the beautiful Berghof site obscures Hitler’s hateful agenda. He implies that the “groupthink” mentality suggested by uniforms is to blame by facilitating the removal of moral responsibility from the individual. Despite this warning, Pierrot is drawn to the allure of uniforms, desiring the sense of belonging that they represent.

“‘You were born in France, that’s true,’ she said. ‘And your mother was French. But your father, my older brother, was German. And that makes you German, too, do you understand? From now on, it’s best that you don’t even refer to where you came from.’”

When Pierrot arrives at Berghof, Beatrix sets out to erase the French aspects of his identity, including his clothing and even his name. More broadly, she recommends that he choose to no longer consider himself French at all, a move she legitimizes by pointing out that she and her father Wilhelm are both German. Her intention at the time is to protect Pierrot and keep him alive. Yet her actions have the unintended consequence of making Pierrot more open to adopting nationalistic, bigoted Nazi ideology.

“‘I know it must seem strange,’ she replied. ‘But letters from this…this Anshel boy could get you into more trouble than you realize. You and me. It wouldn’t matter if his name was Franz or Heinrich or Martin. But Anshel?’ She shook her head. ‘A letter from a Jewish boy would not go down well here.’”

Beatrix also recommends that Pierrot sever ties with Anshel. Again, her intention is to protect Pierrot, as she recognizes that if Hitler found out his best friend is a Jew, the consequences would be disastrous. Neither Beatrix nor the novel as a whole go into detail about the ideas behind Nazi anti-Semitism, but the danger is clear. In this case, Beatrix’s suggestion has another unintended consequence: increasing Pierrot’s confusion about whether to consider Anshel and Paris as home. Under the sway of Nazi ideas, he sides with them instead. 

“[H]e could never understand the enjoyment some people got from hurting others” 

Having just watched Emma slaughter two chickens, Pierrot is horrified and runs to his room to process and write to Anshel about what happened. For Pierrot, the event spurs a broader reflection on violence. Having been the victim of bullying for much of his life, the softhearted Pierrot rejects cruelty at this point. In a relatively short time, he transforms into someone who exercises cruelty over others, implying that he simply represses his former aversion to violence. 

“‘Don’t you ever think,’ he asked cautiously, ‘that it would be better to be a bully than to be bullied? At least that way no one could ever hurt you.’” 

The conversation that Pierrot has with Katarina about bullying reveals the way he legitimizes his acts of cruelty and violence. Katarina encourages him to brush off the taunts of bullies. Pierrot, on the other hand, fantasizes about having power over others, which he justifies by considering it a way to have protection and respect. This discussion foreshadows the way he later justifies acts like the executions of Beatrix and Ernst. 

“Pierrot stood where he was told and read the words slowly to himself first before looking up at the Führer nervously. He felt the most curious sensation inside. He wanted to speak the words aloud, and yet at the same time he did not want to speak them aloud.”

Pierrot’s acceptance by Hitler provides him with attention and a connection to power like he had been craving. When the Führer gives him the Hitlerjugend uniform, the gesture fills Pierrot with pride. At the same time, there is a voice within him that is uneasy, particularly when Hitler asks him to swear an oath of loyalty. Pierrot complies out of fear, stifling that voice of moral reason and following the allure of power. 

“‘My father was a shoemaker.’ ’My father was a king.’ ‘My father was a soldier.’”

When the Duke of Windsor visits Berghof, Pierrot witnesses a remarkable conversation between Hitler and the abdicated king of England. The two powerful men reminisce about their pasts and ability to move others, with Hitler implying that his humble beginnings did not prevent him from becoming a powerful leader. When Pierrot interjects that his own father was a soldier, he is attempting to join in the conversation and bond with the men. He fails to foresee that Hitler will perceive the comment as a slight.

“Something must be done. Not just for him but for all the Pierrots out there. The Führer will destroy the whole country if he’s not stopped. The whole of Europe. He says that he is illuminating the minds of the German people—but no, he is the darkness at the center of the world.” 

By this point, Pierrot has become very close to Hitler, alarming Beatrix. The Boy at the Top of the Mountain plants clues that Beatrix is involved in efforts to resist Nazi power, but this conversation between her and Ernst is direct evidence. It expresses her realization that bringing Pierrot to Berghof may have been a mistake, as well as her resolve to do something about it—which the novel later reveals is the plot to poison Hitler. More broadly, the quote expresses her moral opposition to Nazi rule, the “darkness at the center of the world.”

“You remember how we heard that his father had been taken from his bed in the middle of the night and dragged out of Berchtesgaden and no one ever heard from him again?”

As Pierrot’s involvement with, and allegiance to, the Nazis grow, Katarina becomes one of the primary voices of moral opposition. Her closeness to Pierrot—she had previously defended him from bullies—facilitates this. During this conversation, Pierrot talks up Nazi ideas, while Katarina mocks them, showing her opposition. When she directly mentions the disappearance of Heinrich’s father after he made critical remarks about the Nazis, Pierrot simply ignores them. By repressing the reality of Nazi anti-Semitism and cruelty along with his memories of Anshel, he justifies his allegiance to Hitler. 

“You did this, said a voice in his head. You killed him.”

As Pierrot watches Ernst and Beatrix’s execution in horror, Pierrot hears a moral voice declaring his culpability. Pierrot attempts to suppress the voice, going so far as to declare out loud that his aunt and the chauffeur were traitors and therefore deserved death. Yet the overwhelming shock of the executions and the power of this sudden feeling that he is responsible for their deaths make clear that a part of him with moral sensibility still exists, buried beneath the layers of insecurity and Nazi ideology. 

“It was Pierrot who had climbed out of bed that morning, but it was Pieter who returned to it now before falling soundly asleep.” 

As Part 2 of the novel closes, Pierrot effectively says goodbye to his family and past. By justifying Beatrix’s and Ernst’s deaths in the name of allegiance to Nazi rule, Pierrot can sleep “soundly.” Yet this comes with a price: his choice erases his identity as the French-German Pierrot and replaces it with the Nazi German Pieter, a shift of name and person that he had previously resented. 

“Pieter felt his face grow red and wished that he had not come out here at all. They were jealous of him, that was all, he told himself. He would make them pay some day when his real power was his.”

Even after fully accepting Hitler’s Nazism, Pierrot does not escape bullying. When a group of high-ranking Nazi officials visit Berghof, they mock Pierrot for having the title of Scharführer without having earned it. Hitler’s inflation of Pierrot’s ego has blinded him to reality and made it even more painful when others mock him. The danger of this combination is clear when Pierrot menacingly imagines getting vengeance on the men in the future. The passage implies that the hate and cruelty fostered under Nazi rule only breeds more of the same.

“‘Forgive me, I think I must have misheard,’ said Pieter. ‘I thought you said there would be no water coming from the showers.’”

Pierrot’s naiveté draws a sharp contrast to his bloated sense of self-importance and belief that he is on a path of power. While Nazi officials meeting at Berghof discuss plans for the construction of concentration camps with horrifying matter-of-factness, Pierrot is oblivious to reality. His failure to grasp the fact that the officials are discussing plans to murder millions of concentration camp inmates encapsulates his broader inability to perceive the implications of his actions.

“‘[I]t’s nothing like the mistake your poor aunt made the day she decided to take you in.’ Her face softened for a moment, and she stared down at him. ‘What happened to you, Pierrot?’ she asked. ‘You were such a sweet boy when you first came here. Is it really that easy for the innocent to be corrupted?’”

Emma’s comment about Pierrot’s loss of innocence is one of the few times someone confronts him about his actions. Coming just after the shock of Pierrot’s assault on Katarina, the reminder that Pierrot was once a soft and impressionable boy emphasizes the despicability of the act. Emma’s question about the innocent being corrupted applies not just to Pierrot, however, but can also be posed regarding any of those who accepted Nazi ideology. 

“I will never speak of this place again, Pieter. You would be wise to do the same. Leave now, before the armies arrive. You’re still young. No one needs to know the terrible things you’ve done. That we’ve all done.” 

Herta, like Emma, serves as a moral guidepost to Pierrot. As life at Berghof crumbles, World War II comes to an end, and the final residents depart, Herta urges him to leave. In this way, she implies, Pierrot would be able to sever his ties with Berghof, Hitler, and the Nazis, and perhaps lessen the severity of life after the war. However, he chooses to stay, seemingly crippled by both the enthusiasm with which he had adopted Nazi ideology as well as his lack of an obvious place to go.  

“Don’t ever pretend that you didn’t know what was going on here. You have eyes and you have ears. And you sat in that room on many occasions, taking notes. You heard it all. You saw it all. You knew it all. And you also know the things you are responsible for. […] You have many years ahead of you to come to terms with your complicity in these matters. Just don’t ever tell yourself that you didn’t know. […] That would be the worst crime of all.” 

Beginning to realize the monumentality of his actions during Nazi rule, Pierrot asks Herta if there will be forgiveness, a prospect she finds unlikely. For once, Pierrot does not bemoan being infantilized, but he raises the fact that he is young to excuse his allegiance to the Nazis. Herta’s response is critical and pinpoints the only way that Pierrot can eventually make amends after the war: by accepting responsibility for his part in the atrocities that had occurred. 

[H]is eyes turned in the direction of Paris, the city of his birth, a place that he had all but disowned in his desire to be important. But he wasn’t French anymore, he realized. Nor was he German. He was nothing. He had no home, no family, and he deserved none.” 

Alone at Berghof after everyone else had left, and finally accepting that he should not stay there, Pierrot begins to wonder where to go. His mind drifts back to Paris, his childhood home. Yet, he recognizes that by having rejected it (as well as Anshel and the French part of his background) during the war, he no longer has a right to claim it as home. At the same time, with the imminent fall of Nazi rule, he must now relinquish his German identity as well. It dawns on him that he will be displaced, foreshadowing the years he will spend after the war wandering from place to place. 

“When he couldn’t sleep, which was often, he lay staring at the ceiling, thinking: I am responsible.”

Imprisoned in the Golden Mile Camp, pretending to be deaf, Pierrot begins the process of making amends for his actions. He starts by following Herta’s advice and taking responsibility for his actions. Reading newspapers in the camp and learning about the millions of lives shattered and lost on account of the Nazis, Pierrot no longer suppresses or displaces responsibility. He accepts his part in having fostered a culture of hate and violence. Only by doing so is he able to begin opening a space for reconciliation.