Life in the Cell

Reichhardt's day is rigidly ordered: cold washes, exercise, reading, an hour's pacing during which he hums Beethoven, Mozart or Bach, and Quangel, against his own scepticism about music, finds himself moved and ashamed of a life spent in self-isolation. Reichhardt teaches him chess, and Quangel quickly becomes the better player, which sets him mourning all the things he never let himself do or feel. He confesses his despair that of the 285 postcards he wrote, 267 were handed straight to Inspector Escherich, and the eighteen that got through 'didn't do any good, either'; Reichhardt answers that opposing evil matters regardless of outcome, that no one acted alone even though each must die alone. Quangel considers sending Anna a smuggled letter through Chaplain Lorenz but decides against it, unwilling to risk the chaplain's life. The next day Lorenz brings terrible news, and Quangel begs him to keep it from Anna for now.

This chapter completes Reichhardt's education of Quangel, who now measures a life by chess, music, conversation. His arithmetic of failure, 267 of 285 postcards seized, is among the book's bleakest facts, answered only by Reichhardt's claim that resistance carries worth beyond result. The withheld news is a deliberate cliffhanger.