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Holocaust Literature Final Study Guide
Answer each question.
All But My Life
1. What is the meaning of the metaphor of the watch at the beginning of the story?
2. What is evidence the Weissmann family knows of the impending Nazi peril?
3. Why don’t they leave with their visas?
4. Why do neighbors, even some Jewish families, display a Nazi flag?
5. Why are radios among items that had to be handed in?
6. What does the family learn of what happens to men that are taken, like Arthur?
7. How does the family react when told leave money and valuables in their home?
8. What promise does Gerda make to her father regarding dealing with despair?
9. What normally happens to Poles who fraternized with Jews?
10. Who is Nania?
11. In what way does the family adjust to changes in their life?
12. What is Gerda doing as a form of resistance?
13. What was the purpose of Erika’s letter to Gerda?
14. The last birthday gift Gerda ever received from her parents was:
15. Papa makes a strange request of Gerda. He asks her to:
16. Gerda believes that the Jews do not fight back or run and hide because:
17. What happens during the liquidation of the ghetto?
18. What is the “choiceless choice” Gerda is faced with?
19. What finally convinces her to remain with Ilse?
20. Who was Suse?
21. In order to see Gerda, Abek:
22. What keeps Gerda going each day?
23. In order to break Gerda’s resistance, the German man in the factory:
24. What is different about the new factory to which Gerda is assigned?
25. What are indicators that Germany is losing the war?
26. Gerda is upset at the train station when she sees:
27. How does the Betriebsleiter punish the girls at Grunberg?
28 Suse and Gerda are lucky enough to be assigned a new job at Grunberg. Because they keep
track of the weight of all material produced, what is their reward?
29. When the girls are forced to undress and are given new numbers by the SS, Gerda exchanges
her mother’s valuable pendant for:
30. 2,000 girls were in Gerda’s column for the Death March. Approximately how many
survived form that original number?
31. What is unique about Gerda’s attire?
32. Why don’t the girls follow Gerda’s plan to escape and hide in the woods?
33. In Chemnitz, Gerda raises morale in the camp by:
34. While waiting in the factory building, the Czeck citizens warn the girls that:
35. How does the liberated soldier, Kurt, begin to rebuild Gerda’s self-esteem from the first time
they met?
36. After Gerda is liberated and is in the hospital, what does she save from her possessions?
37. Why is the date that Germany surrendered especially significant for Gerda?
38. What gift does Kurt Klein bring Gerda in the hospital?
39. In the hospital, Gerda discovers that Liesel:
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40. How does Kurt surprise Gerda at the end of Part III?
The Book Thief
Write descriptions for each character.
41. Robert Holtzapfel
42. Rudy Steiner
43. Franz Deutscher
44. Ilsa Hermann
45. Hans Hubermann
46. Rosa Hubermann
47. Frau Holtzapfel
48. Tommy Muller
49. Walter Kugler
50. Michael Holtzapfel
51. Viktor Chemmel
52. Frau Diller
53. Arthur Berg
54. Death
55. Max Vandenburg
56. Erik Vandenburg
57. Werner Meminger
58. Ludwig Schmeikl
59. Liesel Meminger
60. Alex Steiner
Answer each question.
61. What is the point of view of the novel?
62. What book does the book thief steal first?
63. What musical instrument is at the center of the Hubermann home?
64. Whose basement becomes an air raid shelter for Himmel Street?
65. How did Hans Hubermann know Max Vandenburg prior to Max living with the
Hubermanns?
66. Why is Liesel whipped by a German soldier?
67. How does Liesel calm the group congregated in the air raid shelter?
68. Who is the author of The Word Shaker?
69. How is the novel The Book Thief organized?
70. With whom does Max imagine himself fist-fighting on a regular basis?
Define each literary device.
71. simile
72. personification
73. metaphor
74. onomatopoeia
75. euphemism
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Maus II
Answer each question.
76. The author of Maus II is whom?
77. What is the broad historical context for Maus II?
78. What is the relationship of the author to Vladek?
79. Maus II describes Vladek’s experiences in which specific Nazi camps?
80. A major theme in the story is?
81. Besides extermination of Jews, what other purpose did the camps fulfill?
82. Which animal does the author use to depict the Germans?
83. Which animal does the author use to depict the Jews?
84. In Maus II, the character Anja is whom?
85. What was the major gas used in the extermination of Jews as shown in Maus II?
86. After the Holocaust, what happened to Vladek’s wife, Artie’s mother?
Night- Describe each character.
87. Elie
88.
89.
90.
91.
Chlomo
Martha
Juliek
Franek
92. Meir Katz
93. Zalman
94. Eliahou
95. Idek
96. Schächter
Answer each question.
Section 1, pages 1-20
97. Describe Moshe the Beadle.
98. Describe Elie Wiesel's father. What was his occupation?
99. Why was Moshe the Beadle important to Elie Wiesel?
100. Summarize the story Moshe the Beadle told on his return from being deported. Why did he say
he had returned to Sighet?
101. What was the public reaction to Moshe's story?
102. What was the setting and the year for the first section of the book? What was the world condition
at the time?
103. Describe, in order, the events that happened from the last day of Passover until Pentecost.
104. How did Wiesel say he felt about the Hungarian police?
105. Who was Martha? What happened when she visited the Wiesel family in the ghetto?
Sections 2, 3, pages 21-43
106. To what did Wiesel compare the world?
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107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
112.
113.
114.
115.
116.
What did Madame Schächter see in her vision?
How did the other people in the car react to Madame Schächter?
Where did the train stop?
What did the Jews in the train car discover when they looked out the window?
When did Wiesel say the travelers left their illusions behind?
Which notorious SS officer did they meet at Auschwitz?
What was Elie's main thought as the men and women were being herded from the train?
What prayer were the people saying? Why was it unusual?
What did Elie do when the gypsy struck his father? Why? What was his father's response?
How long were Elie and his father at Auschwitz? Where did they go after that?
Section 4, pages 45-62
117.
118.
119.
120.
121.
122.
123.
Describe Elie's encounter with the dentist.
What did Elie Wiesel do when Idek hit his father? What was he thinking?
Who took Elie's gold tooth? Why did Elie give it up?
What were the only things in which Elie took an interest?
How did Elie describe the men after the air raid?
What happened to the young man from Warsaw? Why?
How did Elie say the soup tasted the night the pipel (young servant boy) was hanged?
Section 5, pages 63-80
124. What did the men do on the eve of Rosh Hashana?
125. How did Elie feel while the others were praying?
126. What was Elie's decision about fasting on Yom Kippur? Why did he make that decision?
127. What was Elie's "inheritance" from his father? Why was his father giving it to him?
128. Did the men remember to say the Kaddish for Akiba Drumer?
129. What did Elie dream of when he dreamed of a better world?
130. What happened to the patients who stayed in the hospital instead of being evacuated?
131. What was the last thing the head of the block ordered the men to do before they evacuated?
Why?
132. What was the weather like during the evacuation?
Sections 6, 7, 8, 9, pages 81-109
133. While running, an idea began to fascinate Elie. What was the idea? What kept him from carrying
out his idea?
134. What did Elie realize about Rabbi Eliahou and his son?
135. What was the name of the camp to which the men walked?
136. Describe Elie's meeting with Juliek.
137. How long were they at Gleiwitz? Where did they go next?
138. Who was Meir Katz? What happened to him?
139. How many men started out in the train? How many were left when they arrived at
Buchenwald?
140. What happened to Mr. Wiesel, Elie's father?
141. What was Elie's only desire?
142. What happened on April 10, 1945?
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The Sunflower
Answer the questions
143. In the beginning of the story, what are Simon and Josek debating?
144. What tactic did the Nazis use to break the will of the Jews?
145. When the words ‘disinfection’ and ‘shower’ are used by the Nazis, they are really
euphuisms for what?
146. How does Simon feel when he sees the patient in the infirmary?
147. In which way is Simon compassionate to Karl?
148. Which is an assumption that Karl makes as he lies dying?
149. What information about Karl is the reader not aware?
150. Why is being a slave laborer better than staying inside the camp?
151. What is an example of ‘Nazi duplicity’ perpetrated against the Jews?
152. What is the point of Josek’s argument about forgiveness?
153. Some Jewish liberated prisoners chose to resettle in
154. Which country suffered the most Jewish deaths?