Displacement
Among the most dominant themes in Refugee is displacement from one's physical and cultural home. Gratz explores the theme in each of the three storylines. For Josef, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party's anti-Semitic policies steadily erodes his German-Jewish family's cultural connection to Germany. By 1939, Aaron Landau is granted release from a concentration camp on the condition that he leave the country; with this forced fleeing, Josef's family is physically displaced. For Isabel, the widespread poverty of mid-1990s Cuba and the crackdowns of the Castro regime prompt her family to abandon their homeland for a better life in the US. Isabel's grandfather knows they are struggling to survive, but he also knows that with physical displacement comes the risk of Isabel losing touch with her Cuban cultural heritage. In Mahmoud's storyline, his family endures the civil war until they are physically displaced from their home by a bomb that blows a wall away. Unable to hang on any longer, the Bisharas move with other refugees from camp to camp, eventually finding asylum in Germany. Ultimately, it is political conditions beyond the refugees' control that force them to take the drastic measure of leaving behind everything they know.
Survival
Survival—continuing to live despite extreme circumstances—is another major theme in the novel. Gratz introduces the theme in Josef's storyline by depicting his father's manic need to board the MS St. Louis. Having been in Dachau for six months, Aaron is still in survival mode and believes he must force his way onto the ship; Aaron knows better than his family what the Nazis are capable of, and he has spent half a year somehow avoiding death. Gratz also explores the theme of survival with the Castillos' and Fernandez's herculean joint efforts to keep their homemade watercraft afloat. Through storms and sharks and close calls with tankers and Coast Guard vessels, the Cuban refugees bail and paddle their way to a new life in the US. Survival arises most prominently in Mahmoud's storyline when his family is stranded in the Mediterranean; they have to tread water to stay afloat, as their life jackets turn out to be fakes. To keep from drowning, Mahmoud takes the life jacket of a dead man he comes across, knowing he must let the man sink if he wants his mother to live. For each character, the biological imperative not to die prompts them to act in ways they never would have thought conceivable.
Visibility
Visibility—the degree to which someone attracts attention—is a key theme in Refugee. Gratz explores the theme mainly through his depictions of Josef and Mahmoud. For Josef, growing up during the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Berlin means he can remember a time when he wasn't singled out for being Jewish. With anti-Semitic propaganda distributed everywhere, Josef becomes hyper-visible, his Jewish identity announced to everyone in society because of the yellow armband he is forced to wear. In Mahmoud's case, tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims become pronounced during the Syrian Civil War. He realizes that if he wants to avoid conflict with other boys, he must go unnoticed in public, pulling his hoodie low and not intervening when he sees a boy being robbed. However, Mahmoud sheds his invisibility at a Hungarian refugee camp, understanding that he and other refugees must make their plight known to the international public if they want to build support. In a show of defiance, he leads a procession of refugees across the country to Austria, attracting global media attention and the sympathy of people across the world. In this way, Mahmoud declares his humanity, rejecting the dehumanization he felt when he tried to go unnoticed. A similar thing happens in Josef's storyline, as the MS St. Louis passengers' struggle to find refuge makes world news and contributes to several countries agreeing to take them in.
Prejudice
Prejudice is another dominant theme in the novel. Defined as hostility or dislike coming from baseless opinions, the theme first arises in the opening chapter. Living under an increasingly authoritarian government, the Landaus have their home ransacked by Nazi Storm Troopers who strike terror into their hearts and arrest Josef's father, simply because he is a Jew working in the profession he has always held. Prejudice against Jews continues to haunt Josef's storyline, as he is scorned by the Nazis working on the MS St. Louis, and is rejected by several countries unwilling to take in any more people seeking safety from the Third Reich. Mahmoud also encounters prejudice on his journey from Syria to Germany. Along the way, residents of nations not involved in the conflict look upon him and other refugees with distaste, as though their dishevelment and desperation are their fault. Mahmoud's father is also beaten by racist Hungarian detention center guards, who despite the Syrians because they are Arabic-speaking Muslims trying to find refuge in non-Muslim countries. As unpleasant as these encounters are, Gratz contrasts these instances of prejudice against moments of true empathy to create a well-rounded depiction of the refugee experience.
Self-Sacrifice
Self-sacrifice is a crucial element of Refugee. Best described as helping others by giving up one's own interests, the theme first arises in Isabel's storyline. Worried about her father getting into further legal trouble, she runs to her neighbors to ask if they can join the Castillos in fleeing; to gain access to the watercraft, Isabel trades her prized possession, a trumpet, for the gasoline needed for the crossing. Self-sacrifice also arises as a theme when Lito dives in the water to divert the US Coast Guard, giving his family a better chance of making it to shore before they are caught. At the end of the novel, Mahmoud learns from an elderly Ruthie Landau that her brother Josef volunteered to go to a concentration camp so that she could go free. In this way, Josef's self-sacrifice has a ripple effect through time, enabling Ruthie to open her home to the Bisharas more than half a century later.
Trauma
Trauma—emotional shock that follows a distressing event—is another major theme in the novel. Gratz explores the theme most explicitly through the character of Aaron Landau. After his arrest during Kristallnacht, Aaron spends six months at the Dachau concentration camp. For the extent of his time there, Aaron is starved and psychologically tortured, forced to watch Nazis slowly drown at least one Jewish prisoner every day. The shock of what he has endured stays with Aaron, who leaves Dachau so physically and psychologically transformed that his son barely recognizes him. Aaron exhibits post-traumatic stress disorder throughout the book, too paranoid to leave his cabin on the MS St. Louis out of fear that the Nazis on the ship will trap him. Ultimately, without appropriate therapeutic intervention available to Aaron, the fear of being killed by Officer Schiendick prompts Aaron to attempt suicide by jumping overboard.
Support
Another major theme in Refugee is support—emotional or material assistance one provides to others. The theme arises in Josef's storyline when he discovers that life on board the MS St. Louis is like a dream compared to living in Berlin under the Nazis, as the German stewards treat him and his family like regular people. It turns out that Captain Schroeder has gone against convention in Nazi Germany and ordered his crew to not exercise prejudice against the refugees, who the captain does his best to save from the horrors of concentration camps. Mutual support is also key to the survival of the Castillo and Fernandez families, who, despite bickering, use their strength, ingenuity, and optimism to keep each other alive through trying circumstances. Support also arises as a theme in Mahmoud's storyline when he leads refugees across Hungary to find Austrians on the other side of the border waiting to celebrate their arrival and distribute food, beverages, and clothing. The supportive atmosphere follows Mahmoud and his family to Berlin, where Ruthie takes them in, agreeing to house the family until they have established themselves in a country she was once displaced from.
