Angelika was a complicated person. She reaped the benefits of her beauty during the war by covert actions and when she took Rachel under her wing as a "student" to do the same, she may have been doing it because of her regard for Rachel's mother. Rachel was hardly in a position to refuse to associate with and obey Angelika; she was only a child and was in a very fearful, dangerous position as a Jewish child in Nazi Germany. As far as Rachel's fears still being present ten years later in New York City, the kind of horrors she experienced are not cast aside easily; I'm not sure how anyone could ever completely recover from that sort of experience. As far as her reaction to Angelika at that time, ten years after the war, it's difficult to know how one would react. The fact that Angelika brought Rachel her mother's painting was certainly a positive action.