A summary of "Night in Lisbon" by Erich Maria Remarque

This book is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, published in 1962. It tells the dramatic story of the survival of German refugees at the dawn of World War II. It concludes the author’s émigré series, which also includes "Love Thy Neighbor" (1939) and "Arc de Triomphe" (1945), forming a single cycle about the fates of exiles.

In 1971, the book was successfully adapted into a television film of the same name in West Germany, directed by Zbyněk Brinich.

Night meeting in Lisbon

The events unfold in the autumn of 1942 in Portugal. The protagonist, a German émigré living under an assumed name with his companion, Ruth, watches a passenger ship in the port of Lisbon. The ship is heading to New York, but the fugitives have no money for tickets or American visas. Their Portuguese residency permit is expiring, and their last chance to win back their losses at the Estoril casino ends with them losing almost all their savings.

A stranger approaches the hero on the embankment. He offers to give him two boat tickets and his American visas for free. In exchange, the man asks to stay with him until dawn and listen to his life story. Introducing himself as Josef Schwartz, the stranger leads his companion to the city’s nightlife and begins his story.

Return to Germany and escape with Helen

Schwartz recounts how, in 1933, he was sent to a German concentration camp after being denounced by his wife Helen’s brother, a committed Nazi named Georg Jürgens. After escaping, Schwartz fled to France. In the spring and summer of 1939, in Paris, he was overcome by a painful melancholy. Having inherited the passport of a deceased Austrian, he assumed his name and smuggled himself into Germany to see his wife.

In Osnabrück, Schwarz contacts his childhood friend, the doctor Rudolf Martens, by phone, using the childish passwords "Winnetou" and "Old Shatterhand." Martens arranges a secret meeting with Helen. Upon seeing her husband, she refuses to remain in the Reich and decides to flee with him. She has a valid passport. During Georg’s unexpected visit, Schwarz hides in a closet. The couple then travels to Münster, from where Schwarz illegally crosses the border into Switzerland, and Helen joins him legally.

The couple spends the summer in Ascona, Switzerland. However, German authorities begin to take an interest in Helen, and Gestapo officer Krause demands her return. Fleeing persecution, the couple travels to France on tourist visas.

French camps and a deadly disease

In September 1939, war broke out. French authorities arrested German émigrés. Schwartz was sent to the Le Vernet men’s camp, and Helen to a women’s camp in the Pyrenees.

In 1940, during the defeat of France, Schwartz escaped. Wearing an electrician’s overalls, he infiltrates Helen’s camp. The French prefect, showing compassion, crosses Helen off the list, listing her as deceased. This saves her from being handed over to the Nazis.

The couple hides in the south of France. In Biarritz, Helen suffers a severe attack. Doctor Dubois writes a prescription for a strong painkiller and reveals the truth to Schwartz: Helen is terminally ill with cancer. She knew about her diagnosis even before fleeing Germany, but refused surgery to spend her remaining time with her husband.

The massacre of the Gestapo and the path to the border

In Marseille, Schwartz is captured by Gestapo agents. He is tortured during interrogation at his country house. Soon, Georg Jürgens appears. Schwartz feigns defeat and promises to persuade Helen to return to Osnabrück if Georg takes him to her.

On the way in the car, Schwartz lulls an SS man into a false sense of security. On a sharp turn, he slits Georg’s throat with a razor blade. Hiding the body in the bushes, Schwartz takes the dead man’s documents, money, and car. Gregorius, a passport forger, inserts Schwartz’s photo into Georg’s passport.

In Georg’s car, Schwarz, Helen, and a 12-year-old orphan they accidentally rescued cross Spain. Their Nazi officer’s documents allow them to bypass border checkpoints without inspection, and the fugitives arrive in Portugal.

The end of the night and further events

In Lisbon, Schwartz sells his car, rents a place, and arranges American visas. It seems salvation has been achieved. However, on the eve of the ship’s departure, Schwartz finds Helen dead. Suffering excruciating pain, she takes poison, not wanting to become a burden to her husband.

Schwartz gives the tickets, passports and visas to the narrator and goes off to join the Foreign Legion to fight the Nazis.

The narrator and his companion, Ruth, sail to New York. In America, Ruth marries another man, and the couple divorces. After the war, the narrator returns to Europe, renews his documents, and gives Schwartz’s passport to a new refugee. All he has left as a souvenir is a piece of amber with a fly stuck in it, found in Helen’s letters. In ruined Osnabrück, the narrator tries to find traces of Schwartz, but the city knows nothing of him.