They Went Left

Monica Hesse’s 2020 novel They Went Left is a work of historical fiction aimed at adults and young adults. Hesse’s work traces the journey of 18-year-old Zofia Lederman, a Polish Jew, after she is liberated from a Nazi concentration camp; Zofia travels through war-scarred Europe in 1945 in search of her younger brother, Abek. The novel deals with themes of antisemitism, displacement and violence, Memory and Trauma, and the redemptive and healing power of love. Hesse’s novel has been met with public and critical acclaim and has received numerous awards, including features on the New York Times bestseller and Best Book of the Year lists, the Sydney Taylor Honor Book award, the NPR Best Book of the Year award, and the Booklist Editor’s Choice award.

This guide is based on the 2020 Little, Brown and Company hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss antisemitic violence and genocide, as well as general violence.

Plot Summary

When the Nazis invade Poland, Polish Jews from the city of Sosnowiec, renamed Sosnowitz, are systematically rounded up and forced from ghettos into cattle cars to be taken to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Among the thousands of people are the Ledermans, consisting of Zofia, her mother, her father, her grandmother, her aunt, and her younger brother. Zofia’s father is shot at the soccer stadium when he tries to help a man whom guards are abusing. Zofia’s brother, Abek, and her grandmother, Baba Rose, die on the journey, and her mother and aunt are sent to the left—to die in the gas chambers at Birkenau. Zofia endures three years in various concentration camps. These events are recalled in flashbacks throughout the novel.

The events of the story begin after the war. Zofia recovers in the hospital from starvation, exhaustion, and frostbite damage. Furthermore, she struggles to deal with the trauma of her years of imprisonment and the loss of her family. She falsely believes that Abek is still alive, even imagining various farewells between them. She is unable to access the real memory of his death and, therefore, is obsessed with the idea of finding him. She is taken to Sosnowiec by Dima, a kind Russian soldier who hopes that a romantic relationship will form between them.

Zofia hopes that Abek will be at their family’s old apartment; she believes that she instructed him to meet her there. She receives a frosty welcome from their neighbor, Mrs. Wojcik, and Zofia infers that Mrs. Wojcik, who later puts a Swastika flag in her potted plant on the landing, hoped that Zofia’s entire family had been killed. Zofia bumps into Aunt Maja’s old friend, Gosia, at the bakery. Zofia, Gosia, Dima, and Dima’s commanding officer, Commander Kuznetsov, have dinner on the floor of Zofia’s family’s apartment, which has been robbed of all furniture. They discuss the possible location of Abek; Kuznetsov suggests that he could be in a refugee camp near Dachau. The guests leave. Dima insists on bringing Zofia a bedroll. Dima sleeps near Zofia on the ground. Zofia is unable to sleep; she takes Dima’s money and leaves him a note explaining that she is going to find Abek.

Zofia travels by train through Poland and then Germany. Much of the land is destroyed by recent Allied bombing. A kind man offers her spirits when she wakes up, distressed; trains now remind her of the trip to Birkenau. The man agrees that he also hates trains. After days of train travel and taking horse-drawn carts between stretches of destroyed railway, Zofia finally reaches Foehrenwald refugee camp. There is no record of Abek at the camp, which is unsurprising given that it is an adults’ camp. Zofia learns of a nearby orphanage a few hours’ ride away. Mrs. Zost, the camp administrator, promises that Zofia can travel there with Josef Mueller, another camp resident who is going in that direction on a supplies trip in a few days.

Zofia’s first interaction with Josef is confusing; he gets in a violent fight with a man and then insists on carrying Zofia’s bag to her new cabin. Zofia is housed in a room with two other girls, Breine and Esther. Breine is excited about her upcoming wedding. The girls try to interest Zofia in taking a class in typing or gardening, but Zofia insists that she already has something to do: She is trying to find her brother. 

Zofia travels with Josef toward Dachau a few days later. She is upset when Josef suggests that Abek might not want to be found. Josef apologizes. They reach the orphanage. Zofia is upset that Abek is not there. She leaves a flyer on the crowded corkboard. While she is there, the nun shows Zofia a boy who crams bread into a hole in his mattress, terrified that the food might run out. At one point, the nun asks Zofia to assist a boy in cleaning himself up from a soup spill, but Zofia feels panicked and overwhelmed because the incident reminds her of Abek. Josef helps the boy instead.

On their way back to Foehrenwald, Zofia and Josef stay overnight with an old couple in exchange for helping with chores the following day. Zofia is upset as she talks to the couple’s adopted daughter, whose mother (presumably a Jew) was taken away four years earlier. Zofia thinks of a woman she knew at the hospital, who also had a young daughter left with a German couple; the woman died by suicide shortly after liberation.

Zofia, a talented seamstress, volunteers to help Breine’s wedding preparations by fixing an old, oversized dress Breine finds in the donations pile. Josef sits with her as she modifies it. Zofia challenges Josef about his hot and cold behavior toward her. Suddenly, a boy arrives, asking for Zofia. Amazed, Zofia goes to him. He says that he is Abek, and they embrace, sobbing.

Zofia is amazed at Abek’s sudden reappearance. She talks to him incessantly as they go to her cabin. Finally, when Zofia stops talking, they admit that it’s a bit strange to be reunited. He sleeps beside her bed.

The next day is Breine and Chaim’s wedding. Zofia spends the day finishing the wedding dress. The service is beautiful as well as tragic; neither the bride’s nor the groom’s family is still alive, apart from an estranged uncle who arrives at the camp to walk Breine down the aisle. Zofia cries as she sees the joyous Jewish wedding ceremony. She and Josef share a long and loaded look. At the wedding dinner, Abek is irritated with Zofia for suggesting that he shouldn’t drink too much wine. Josef and Zofia dance together and kiss. They go back to Josef’s cabin and have sex.

The next morning, Zofia and Abek go for a walk together. They find old bikes, and Abek teaches Zofia how to ride. Josef arrives, and the three of them consider how the bikes could be fixed.

Abek accuses Zofia of continually quizzing him about their shared past, but Zofia is upset and confused by the seemingly glaring omissions in Abek’s memory of their family. One day, Zofia is pleasantly surprised that Abek remembers the character’s name from a fairy tale their family used to tell, but then, she sees the same fairy tale in a book of Polish fairy tales in the camp’s library. She feels disturbed by a growing suspicion that the boy calling himself Abek isn’t actually her brother.

Zofia snaps at Abek over dinner and goes to her cabin. Josef follows her and holds her. Zofia suddenly remembers that the throat jab Josef used on Rudolf on her first day in the camp is the same movement that a Nazi guard used on her father before he was shot in the soccer stadium in Sosnowiec. She realizes that Josef was a Nazi soldier and angrily tells him to leave and never touch her again.

Zofia finds Abek in the library. He admits that he is not Abek but that he found the message that Zofia embroidered into Abek’s coat—an A-Z list of all things important to them both. He kept the scrap of material as it reminded him of his older sister’s love for him. The boy’s actual name is Lukasz; his entire family was killed at Birkenau, and he became obsessed with the idea of finding the Ledermans, especially the older sister. He asks if he can still be Abek. Zofia agrees that he can be.

In the epilogue, Zofia and Abek (once Lukasz) travel to Ontario, Canada, together to start a new life.