Content warning: The guide contains discussions of antisemitism, the Holocaust, starvation, and violence that appear in the source text.

Wartime necessitates personal transformation by compelling individuals to adapt to extreme and often life-threatening circumstances. Girl in the Blue Coat dramatizes how, in times of conflict, the ordinary routines and expectations of daily life are upended, forcing people to reassess their values, priorities, and roles. Soldiers undergo rigorous physical and mental training, transforming from civilians into combat-ready individuals capable of facing the horrors of battle. Civilians who don’t go to war also experience profound changes. They take on new responsibilities, such as working in industries critical to the war effort, volunteering for civil defense, managing households with limited resources due to rationing, and selling goods on the black market.

At the beginning of the text, Hanneke has a strong sense that she is “not the same girl” that she was before the German occupation of Amsterdam. She has lost not just her boyfriend and her best friend, but also her sense of optimism and idealism. Where she was once a model student and daughter, she now trades in black-market goods and hides the truth from her parents.