In the chap­ter titled “Pur­ga­to­ry,” the nar­ra­tor reflects on a lengthy peri­od of fif­teen years spent in New York City, which he describes as his per­son­al pur­ga­to­ry. He recounts his dis­ap­pear­ance from Ger­many at the close of the Sec­ond World War, only to resur­face unno­ticed in Green­wich Vil­lage. There, he rent­ed a dingy attic apart­ment, char­ac­ter­ized by the unset­tling pres­ence of rats scur­ry­ing with­in the walls. This bleak liv­ing sit­u­a­tion per­sist­ed until a month pri­or when he was extra­dit­ed to Israel for tri­al.

Despite the dis­mal con­di­tions of his dwelling, the attic did pro­vide one small solace: it had a win­dow that opened up to a charm­ing pri­vate park formed by the adjoin­ing back­yards. This park, shield­ed from the bustling streets, served as an unsus­pect­ed oasis, large enough for chil­dren to engage in games of hide-and-seek.

From his attic, the nar­ra­tor often lis­tened as the joy­ous sounds of chil­dren echoed from the lit­tle Eden. He was par­tic­u­lar­ly drawn to a spe­cif­ic cry sig­nal­ing the end of their play­ful games—an inno­cent and mourn­ful call, “Olly-olly-ox-in-free.” This par­tic­u­lar cry stirred deep feel­ings with­in him, as it sym­bol­ized an invi­ta­tion for those hid­ing to come out, mark­ing the end of their game. In a poignant twist of long­ing and sad­ness, he expressed his desire for some­one to call out that cry for him, to con­clude his relent­less game of eva­sion from numer­ous threats and dan­gers he faced.

The nar­ra­tor’s yearn­ing for free­dom and con­nec­tion res­onates through­out the chap­ter, under­scor­ing a pro­found sense of iso­la­tion stem­ming from his past actions and cur­rent cir­cum­stances dur­ing those fif­teen years in pur­ga­to­ry. This bond with the inno­cent joys of child­hood stands in stark con­trast to his hid­den life, marked by fear and the shad­ows of his for­mer life.