Answer:
A sleeping draught.
Step-by-step explanation:
The historical fiction "Refugee" by Alan Gratz revolves around the lives of three children from different times and different places in their struggle to escape their war-torn home. The novel follows Joseph, Isabel, and Mahmoud in their families' struggles to find safety and a place to call a new home.
Josef's father Aaron Landau had been a prisoner of the Nazis. So, he was anxious that his family will be taken to the camps and made to suffer, or worse killed. He revealed excitedly and behave erratically on the ship that his wife decided to get a sleeping draught for him, but claiming it was for her. If the ship's doctor knew it was for Aaron, he might not allow the Landau family to cross over to Cuba and so, Mama decided to lie and tell the doctor that it was for her.
Unfortunately, the doctor made her drink the medicine on the spot, leading to her drowsy state and leaving Josef to take care of the whole family on the ship.