Rabbits

Rabbits in the novel are shown within systems of human use: bred in large numbers for their fur and trained to perform for powerful visitors. The rabbit Snowball turns that utilitarian setting into a small, uneasy spectacle, while a separate reference to rabbits helps explain why the girls preferred the less mobile Torquil the tortoise.

Breeding and Utility

At dinner, after the soup bowls have been cleared and the thick beef stew served, Paul Doll recounts Heinrich Himmler’s visit to the Rabbit Breeding Station in Dwory seven weeks earlier, in mid-July. Doll describes hundreds of white, fluffy Angora rabbits raised for their fur, which he says was intended to keep German aircrews warm on their missions. The animals are presented as a managed resource, their appearance and numbers framed in terms of production and military use.

Snowball’s Performance

Within Doll’s account, Snowball is singled out as an especially beautiful rabbit. A prisoner who had been a doctor—whom Doll corrects to a veterinarian—had taught the animal tricks. The trick Doll dwells on is begging: Snowball sat upright on its hind legs with its forepaws raised. The trained gesture makes the rabbit’s performance legible to its human audience, but Doll also recalls that Snowball looked alarmed as it begged.

Himmler and his entourage applauded the performance. Doll tells the story with a leer, turning the rabbit’s trained act into an anecdote about the amusement of senior Nazi visitors. The applause does not erase Snowball’s alarm; instead, the contrast leaves the animal caught between an imposed performance and the pleasure it gives its audience.

Rabbits and Torquil

A later domestic scene places rabbits in a different contrast. The girls love Torquil the tortoise because, unlike the weasel, the lizard, and the rabbit, he cannot run away. The detail does not describe the girls’ treatment of the rabbit, but it gives the animal a place among the more mobile creatures and clarifies what draws the girls to Torquil: his inability to leave. Across these brief appearances, rabbits occupy contrasting positions—as farm stock, a trained attraction, and animals whose capacity for movement distinguishes them from the tortoise.