50 Fun Facts About Refugee (Alan Gratz Novel)

In Refugee, which Landau survives the Holocaust and later shelters Mahmoud's family in Berlin?

Ruthie is Josef's little sister, alive only because he volunteered to go to the camps in her place. In 2015 she tells Mahmoud her family died so that she could live to help his.

In Refugee, which Spanish word do Cuban officials keep repeating to the passengers on Josef's ship?

Mañana means tomorrow, and the promise is never kept. Mahmoud's family hears the same empty promise from a smuggler in Turkey, day after day.

In Refugee, what prized possession does Isabel trade to a fisherman for gasoline to flee Cuba?

Her trumpet buys two cans of gasoline for the neighbors' homemade boat. She had been playing it on Havana's streets for tourists' pesos.

In Refugee, how does Isabel's best friend Iván Castillo die on the crossing from Cuba to Florida?

A shark attack mangles his leg while he floats beside the boat. The passengers had been taking turns in the water to lighten the cracking hull.

In Refugee, who in Isabel's boat turns out to be Mariano Padron, the policeman from Josef's story?

Lito is Isabel's grandfather, and as a young officer in 1939 he had to tell Jewish passengers they could not land. His guilt over it drives his final choice off Miami.

In Refugee, which of Mahmoud's relatives is handed to strangers on a passing boat after his sinks?

Hana is Mahmoud's baby sister, and he begs the strangers to take her so she will not drown. The family searches every camp for her and has still not found her when the book ends.

In Refugee, Josef Landau's family flees Nazi Germany for Cuba aboard which real ocean liner?

MS St. Louis really sailed in 1939 with more than 900 Jewish passengers holding Cuban visas. Cuba, the United States and Canada all refused to let them land.

In Refugee, which Syrian city does Mahmoud's family flee after a missile wrecks their apartment?

Aleppo had been a shining, modern city before four years of civil war. That same day Mahmoud's father decides to sell the car in Turkey and head for Germany.

In Refugee, which song does Isabel play with a salsa rhythm for her family after settling in Miami?

The Star-Spangled Banner played Cuban-style is where she finally finds the beat she could never count. Her grandfather had warned she would lose it in America.

In Refugee, which Cuban leader goes on television to announce that anyone who wants to leave may go?

Fidel Castro blames the Havana unrest on US agents, then drops the ban on leaving. Isabel's father had already spent a year in jail for trying to escape by sea.

In Refugee, Josef's father is dragged from the family's Berlin home during which event?

Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, saw thousands of Jewish men sent to concentration camps. Josef hears nothing from his father for six months.

In Refugee, which Nazi concentration camp holds Josef's father for six months before his release?

Dachau releases him only on condition that he leave Germany at once. He comes out so shaken that Josef barely recognizes him on the dock.

In Refugee, Josef's father is arrested for still working in which job the Nazis had closed to Jews?

A lawyer in the book, he kept working after an anti-Jewish rule banned it. Seven Brownshirts break into the Landau home in the middle of the night to take him.

In Refugee, from which German port city do Josef and the other passengers set sail for Havana?

Hamburg is where Josef meets his father again, thin and disheveled and sure the whole voyage is a trick. The rest of the family gets there by train from Berlin in a compartment set aside for Jews.

In Refugee, why does Josef's father refuse to attend his son's bar mitzvah aboard the ship to Cuba?

He fears a Nazi trap, convinced the makeshift synagogue is bait. Six months in a concentration camp have left him too frightened to leave the cabin.

In Refugee, what does the rabbi ask the captain to take down before Josef's bar mitzvah at sea?

A portrait of Hitler hangs over the first-class social hall that serves as the synagogue. The German captain agrees at once, to the fury of one Nazi crewman.

In Refugee, how does Josef get his panicking father through the Cuban medical inspection?

He slaps and threatens him, claiming the doctor is a Nazi in disguise who will send him back to the camp. Josef realizes he has become the adult in the family.

In Refugee, what does Josef's father do in Havana harbor that gets him taken ashore alone?

He jumps overboard in a suicide attempt after Nazi crewmen ransack the family's cabin. A Cuban policeman dives in to save him, and he is kept in a Havana hospital.

In Refugee, which US president does the captain hope will admit the passengers Cuba has turned away?

Roosevelt is the captain's last hope, but the United States refuses the ship as well. Reporters circle in small boats as the liner passes Miami and becomes world news.

In Refugee, what do Josef and a group of passengers attempt when they are ordered back to Europe?

They seize the ship's bridge with pipes and candlesticks, hoping to run aground in America. The captain talks them down and promises not to return them to Germany.

In Refugee, which Cuban rhythm can Isabel never hear or count until after she reaches Miami?

Clave is the pulse her grandfather says runs under all Cuban music. He warns her she will never learn it in the United States, and she proves him wrong.

In Refugee, the collapse of which communist ally has left Isabel's Cuba starving by 1994?

Soviet Union aid had kept the island's economy going. Once it stopped, hunger spread so far that Isabel's story opens with her feeding a starving cat.

In Refugee, where do Isabel and the others arrive by mistake, thinking they have reached Florida?

The Bahamas will not let them stay, since anyone coming ashore would be deported to Cuba. Tourists toss them more food and water than they set out with.

In Refugee, where are Cubans caught at sea by the Americans held before being sent home?

Guantanamo Bay is a US naval base at the southern end of Cuba itself. Isabel's grandfather swears he will not be taken there as a patrol boat closes in.

In Refugee, the Castillos' homemade boat is powered by an engine taken from what kind of vehicle?

A motorcycle engine drives the patched-together craft, which was never meant to carry nine people. It overheats and dies early in the crossing.

In Refugee, what kind of vessel nearly runs down Isabel's stalled boat in the Straits of Florida?

A huge tanker bears down on them until the engine restarts at the last second. Its wake throws Señor Castillo into the sea, and Isabel dives in after him.

In Refugee, what does Isabel beg tourists to throw down for her feverish, heavily pregnant mother?

Aspirin is what the family lost when a wave swept their medicine into the sea. A woman among the tourists throws some down along with the food and water.

In Refugee, which belonging of Iván Castillo does Isabel keep and wear after his death at sea?

His baseball cap is still lying in the boat after the others lower his body into the water. Her grandfather says a Catholic prayer first, though the faith had long been suppressed.

In Refugee, what does Isabel's grandfather sacrifice himself to do as the boat nears Miami Beach?

He swims off to distract the Coast Guard, knowing he will be sent back to Cuba. The others paddle for the sand while the cutter turns toward him.

In Refugee, what is Mahmoud Bishara's rule for surviving the streets of his war-torn Syrian city?

Be invisible, hoodie low and eyes down, so no bully or gunman has a reason to notice him. By the end he decides that people only help refugees they can see.

In Refugee, which ruler's crackdown on protesters starts the civil war that Mahmoud's family flees?

Bashar al-Assad is described as a man who makes his enemies disappear. When armed men ask Mahmoud's father whose side he is on, he says he is against whoever drops the bombs.

In Refugee, which protest movement reaches Syria and leads to the civil war Mahmoud's family flees?

The Arab Spring toppled rulers elsewhere, but most Syrians at first stayed indoors to see what would happen. Four years on, Mahmoud walks his brother home and turns away from a boy being robbed of his bread.

In Refugee, what does Mahmoud's father run back through gunfire to rescue from the family car?

His iPhone and charger hold the maps the family needs to reach Turkey on foot. He jokes that he only went back so he could keep playing Angry Birds.

In Refugee, in which Turkish port city do the Bisharas wait a week for a smuggler's boat to Greece?

Izmir is where the family sleeps in an abandoned mall while the boat is promised again and again. Rent there soon climbs to five thousand Syrian pounds a night each.

In Refugee, what does a Syrian boy sell Mahmoud's family in Turkey that proves to be fake at sea?

Life jackets bought from the boy do nothing to keep them afloat once they are in the water. Mahmoud's father tells everyone to kick off their shoes to stay up.

In Refugee, what kind of boat does the smuggler pack with thirty Syrians for the crossing to Greece?

A rubber dinghy built for twelve carries thirty, at a thousand euros a head. It bursts on rocks in the dark and throws everyone into the sea.

In Refugee, on which Greek island are Mahmoud and his family landed after being pulled from the sea?

Lesbos was always the plan: land there, then take a ferry to Athens. On its shore Mahmoud's father quietly suggests taking shoes from the drowned.

In Refugee, who pulls a pistol on Mahmoud's family in a dark Serbian field and demands their money?

A taxi driver hired for the ride north demands three hundred euros, then orders them out of the car. Mahmoud's father counts out the notes with shaking hands.

In Refugee, in which country are the Bisharas tear-gassed at a razor-wire fence and locked up?

Hungary treats them as criminals, and Mahmoud's father is beaten with a nightstick. Asked whether he wants asylum there, he refuses outright.

In Refugee, which country takes in Josef, his mother and his sister once the ship returns to Europe?

France is safe for less than a year before the German army invades. Of the passengers shared out among four countries, only those sent to Britain stayed beyond Nazi reach.

In Refugee, which Jewish mourning custom do Josef and his father follow at a funeral held at sea?

Tearing their clothes marks the burial of an old passenger who died on the voyage. Josef rips his own collar again when the ship sails away from Havana without his father.

Which Holocaust institution honored Gustav Schröder, the real captain in Alan Gratz's Refugee?

Yad Vashem named him Righteous Among the Nations in 1993, decades after his death. West Germany had already given him its Order of Merit for rescuing refugees.

In Refugee, whose visit to the refugee camp lets Mahmoud walk out past a soldier with a rifle?

UN observers are why the soldier at the door lowers her rifle instead of stopping him. Other children follow Mahmoud out, and soon the whole camp is walking behind him.

In Refugee, which country's border does Mahmoud reach at the end of a twelve-hour march of refugees?

Austria has left the crossing unwatched, and locals who saw the march on the news are waiting with food, drinks and clothing. The family stops just over the line to pray.

In Refugee, what happens to Isabel's mother just as the sinking boat reaches the Florida shore?

She gives birth to a boy in the last yards before the beach. Isabel runs up the sand holding her newborn brother in the air.

Which publisher released Alan Gratz's Refugee as well as his later war novels Grenade and Allies?

Scholastic published the book in July 2017 for readers aged eight and up. His first novels had come from another house, Dial Books.

On which newspaper's bestseller list did Alan Gratz's Refugee stay for more than five years?

The New York Times list had it at number one, and the paper named it a Notable Children's Book of 2017.

Which Alan Gratz novel from before Refugee is based on Holocaust survivor Jack Gruener's story?

Prisoner B-3087 follows Yanek, a boy from Kraków who is forced through ten concentration camps. It was published four years before Refugee.

Into which format did Alan Gratz adapt Refugee, with illustrations by the artist Syd Fini?

A graphic novel version arrived from the same publisher in 2025, eight years after the original. Gratz wrote the adaptation himself.

Which Spanish name is given to the Cubans who, like Isabel in Refugee, fled by sea in 1994?

Balseros comes from balsa, the Spanish for raft. More than 35,000 Cubans left that summer on homemade craft like the one the Castillos build in their shed.