Jacob Heym
Jacob is a Jewish resident of the ghetto and the protagonist of the novel. Jacob used to own a shop that sold potato pancakes and ice cream in the summer. After the establishment of the ghetto, Jacob works in the freight yard. He sets off the main drama of the text when he is sent to the military office and overhears a radio report about the advance of the Russian army toward the ghetto. Jacob begins to lie about possessing a prohibited radio. He gradually invents more claims about the Russian army's advance, leading to a web of lies from which he struggles to free himself.
Lina
Lina is an eight-year-old Jewish girl who has been in hiding for two years after her parents were deported to an extermination camp. Lina only escaped the same fate as her parents because she was playing in the yard when they were taken away. She has since lived in the attic of Jacob's building. Lina has a close relationship with Jacob, who took over as her main caretaker after the deportation of her parents.
Mischa
Mischa is a twenty-five-year-old Jew who works at the freight yard with Jacob. The two often move crates together at work. Mischa, a former boxer, is the first person that Jacob tells about his fictitious radio. Though Jacob asks Mischa not to tell others about the radio, Mischa is overjoyed at the news of the Russian advance and spreads the information, eventually leading to the entire ghetto knowing about Jacob's radio.
Kowalski
Kowalski is an old friend of Jacob's and another worker at the freight yard. He was a barber and a frequent customer of Jacob's shop before the ghetto was instituted. Jacob and Kowalski had a deal in which neither had to pay at the other's shop.
Kowalski does not hide his thoughts well, as his expressions reveal his emotions to anyone who knows him at all. He is a loyal friend who saves Jacob from being captured by Nazi guards by deliberately knocking over crates while Jacob is in an outhouse trying to steal a newspaper. Kowalski commits suicide after Jacob confesses the truth about his radio.
Rosa Frankfurter
Rosa has been Mischa's girlfriend since shortly after the two met while in line to receive their ration cards. She is the daughter of the actor Felix Frankfurter, who is hiding a prohibited radio. Mischa and Rosa become engaged to be married after Mischa tells the Frankfurter family about the advance of the Russian army. The inhabitants of Rosa's street, including her parents, are sent to an extermination camp. Mischa saves Rosa from this fate, but Rosa is angry at Mischa for knowing about the deportations and not telling her.
Rosa does not believe in Jacob's radio. In the narrator's imagined (fictitious) ending, Rosa and Mischa agree to take Lina in after Jacob becomes unable to care for her due to poor health.
Kirschbaum
Kirschbaum was a famous doctor in charge of a hospital in Kraków before the ghetto went into effect. Kirschbaum examines Lina when she is ill. He initially disapproves of Jacob's spreading of information, though he begins to change his mind after Jacob shows him how people have developed a renewed sense of hope since he started.
Kirschbaum is summoned to the residence of Hardtloff, the head Nazi officer of the ghetto, to heal Hardtloff after he had a heart attack that morning. On the way there, Kirschbaum swallows poison, which kills him before he arrives.
The Narrator
The narrator, who is never named, is a resident of the ghetto. He was born in 1921. His wife, Hannah, was executed by the Germans. Jacob tells him the story that he then recounts as the central narrative of the text. The narrator is one of the few Jews to survive the extermination camps.
After the war, he returned to the ghetto to verify information from Jacob's story. He goes to the home of a former Nazi officer. It is 1967 when he narrates the story in full.
Hardtloff
Hardtloff is the Nazi head of the ghetto. He institutes the rules for the ghetto, including the rule that trees are prohibited. After Hardtloff has a heart attack, Kirschbaum is brought to save his life. But Hardtloff dies after Kirschbaum kills himself instead of examining him.
The Whistle
The Whistle is a nameless official at the freight yard whose job includes signaling lunchtime by blowing a whistle. He has a wooden leg. The Whistle does not speak in the novel except for when he yells at Herschel for investigating a boxcar full of people.
Elisa Kirschbaum
Elisa Kirschbaum is a serious woman and loving wife to Dr. Kirschbaum. She tells her husband to bring a scarf when he is taken to see Hardtloff. Elisa refuses to show fear or submission to the Nazis. She is last seen in the novel being arrested for her husband's suicide.
