Small Surprises

The Persicke brothers confront the drunken burglars; Baldur needles Borkhausen until Adolf and his SS brother knock both men unconscious, planning to hand them to the police as thieves caught in the act. Returning from his late shift, Otto Quangel notices lights burning oddly in Frau Rosenthal's flat and is intercepted on the stairs by Judge Fromm, who tells him to go up first. Quangel arrives to find Baldur gloating over the haul, until Fromm appears in a black silk dressing gown and announces that old Persicke is upstairs trying to hang himself with a towel, sending the brothers running. Fromm coolly warns Baldur that handling the burglary 'properly' means police, publicity, and Gestapo scrutiny of his own family's seventeen suitcases of loot; Baldur, calculating that discretion serves him better, lets Quangel and Fromm slip away unquestioned. On the stairs, Fromm offers Quangel help if the Rosenthal business brings trouble; Quangel, careful, denies knowing her at all.

Fromm out-manoeuvres the Persickes purely through suggestion, letting Baldur talk himself into self-interest rather than issuing a single order, the chapter's real demonstration of the quiet authority Quangel will later borrow from him. Quangel's flat denial of knowing Rosenthal previews the discipline his resistance will require.