when jim sees a boy with his mother, he starts remembering his own mother and when he last saw her, near a fence in the concentration camp. he runs away one evening thinking the fence is nearby. jim finds a fence at a factory, but cannot find his mother among the workers going home. steve eventually finds jim and tells him that his mother is dead (steve has reason to believe she had been gassed) so he will stop searching for her. he also informs jim that he is going to try to adopt him and take him to america to start a new life there.