Geneva is more than a refuge on the Landauers’ route out of Europe: it is a threshold where the promise of safety depends on paperwork, money, and the decisions of officials. The city frames both the family’s preparations for escape and the departure that carries them toward Spain, while the border regime turns their carefully assembled plans into a scene of separation.

A refuge marked by new borders

When Rainer von Abt returns to Geneva, he describes the journey as welcome because it brings him back to Liesel Landauer and Viktor Landauer, but says passport control at the border has become absurd. The irony is that a new border now regulates movement where there had previously been none. Liesel answers that such a loss of freedom is small beside other freedoms gained; Rainer’s question about whether she herself is free gives their exchange a personal as well as political edge.

That tension recurs in Geneva’s role as a place of refuge. The city offers the Landauers a temporary base from which to arrange onward travel, but it does not remove the borders that govern who can move and under what conditions. Escape requires not only a destination but a chain of permissions.

The price of onward passage

The family’s plans expose the financial burden built into that chain. To satisfy the Cuban authorities, Viktor explains, each visa applicant needs a fee of $250, a letter of credit for $2,000, a $500 caution against leaving the country, $150 security for onward travel, and a return ticket. The Magallanes tickets alone cost $700. The requirements make refuge a transaction: applicants must demonstrate resources and provide for the possibility that they will be sent back.

At Geneva, Liesel writes to Hana that the family is leaving at last, acknowledging that she wants to be with her but cannot. She signs the card and hurries downstairs, where two Citroëns stand packed with luggage and people. Katalin and two children are in the rear car, Ottilie is in the front, and Viktor is waiting impatiently. Liesel’s brief attempt to send a message to Hana is overtaken by the immediate demand to catch the train.

Departure from the station

Geneva station is rendered as a crowded, noisy passage: trains vent steam, passengers call from third-class windows, and suitcases are lifted aboard. Officials scrutinize papers and tickets as people wave passports and visas in the press of departure. Viktor leads the family through the crowd with a porter and a trolley piled with suitcases. The station recalls an earlier meeting in Město, but the remembered arrival has been reversed: the house is no longer theirs, Rainer is in America, Europe is under the pressure of war, and Hana is pregnant. Liesel follows Viktor toward escape.

Inside the train, the family arranges itself among the bunks. Martin compares the journey to camping; Liesel sits on the lower bunk and watches the grimy station as the engine starts. When the train moves, she says that they are finally going. The movement seems to promise a beginning, but the route remains conditional on official inspection.

Documents and separation

At the border, the passengers queue while German soldiers search the train and officials examine papers. Some people are taken away; others pass through, leaving relief mixed with fear. Viktor lays out passports, French transit visas, a Spanish visa, and the tickets for his family, the children’s nanny, and her daughter. The documents appear orderly, but their presence cannot guarantee passage.

Katalin’s refugee passport does not protect her from scrutiny. When an official questions her, Viktor says she is in their employ; the official rebukes him for speaking without being asked. After consultation, a uniformed figure takes Katalin by the elbow toward a hut. Marika calls for her mother, and Liesel pulls the child close, assuring the officials that Marika is with the family and will be cared for.

The separation deepens when soldiers lead Marika toward Katalin. Viktor protests that Katalin’s papers are in order and identifies her document as a Nansen passport, valid for the family’s earlier departure from Czechoslovakia and for entry into France and Spain. The official orders him back onto the train and warns that he may otherwise be detained. The crowd presses forward, eager not to be singled out; the soldiers take Katalin’s and Marika’s suitcases, and the family must continue without them. Geneva’s departure thus becomes an emblem of the limits of refuge: a valid document and a place aboard the train do not ensure that a family can travel together.