Sixty years later, Sarah’s tragic story intertwines with that of middle aged reporter, Julia. Sarah’s Key follows Julia’s investigation into the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup where Jewish families where arrested and taken to a bicycle stadium and then shipped to Auschwitz. In her research, Julia stumbles onto a trail of hidden secrets, secrets that will change the life of her and many others that link to Sarah Starzynski. During the middle of the night on July 16th, Sarah who refused let the French police harm her little brother Michel, locks him in their hiding place, a secret cabinet in their room. She tells him she would come back for him and is then taken away with her parents in local street cars to an old bicycle stadium.
From Jew parades to gas chambers, Hitler was known for his cruel and unusual tactics during his reign. At this time when the community is faced with many hardships, Markus Zusak uses passage through windows in The Book Thief as a way of gaining freedom from his control. On April 20, 1940, Hitler’s birthday along with Germany’s victory over its enemies and the restraints that held them back since the end of World War I was celebrated by all people of Molching. The Fuhrer called for a grand celebration with parades and music, but more importantly, fire. Citizens were required to surrender all literature from the “old Germany” to be burned in the name of Hitler’s glory.
the Shawl is comprised of two stories, "The Shawl" and "Rosa," originally published in The New Yorker respectively in 1980 and 1983. The first and much shorter of the stories is an extremely powerful account of the brutality of the Nazi concentration camps. Rosa, (who we meet again 30 years later in the second story), has been hiding and protecting her daughter Magda in a shawl. Rosa's 14 year old niece, Stella, (who also is central to the second story) takes the shawl from the child for her own comfort. The horrific events that follow, tiny Magda's search for her shawl and discovery by a German soldier who hurtles her to her death against an electrified fence, shape the remainder of Rosa's life--and this book.
In the book thief, Liesel meminger is riding on a train to her adoption parents with her mother and brother, when her brother dies of unknown causes. While at a small makeshift funeral, Liesel takes the gravediggers handbook, and keeps it. She is adopted by Hans and rosa hubermann, Hans is a nice man but his wife rosa is angry personality, but is good hearted and nice on the inside. In a while she meets her neighbor and soon to be best friend, and lover. Liesel also developed a relationship with the mayors wife, which had its ups and downs, and is also were most of Liesels reading and book thievery was based.
Sunflower Response In the book, The Sunflower, Simon Wiesenthal writes of an incident occurring when he was a Nazi concentration camp prisoner. Barely surviving himself, and while on a work detail, a nurse summons Wiesenthal to the hospital bed of a young and dying Nazi soldier, Karl, who seeks forgiveness from a Jew for the atrocities and murders he carried out against them. Wiesenthal had to decide at the moment, when he was by Karl’s side, whether or not to forgive him. He left the soldier’s side without saying a word. The next day, the nurse who had summoned Wiesenthal the day before told him Karl had died.
By 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of Anne’s father’s office building. Two years later, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945. On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank received a diary and began documenting from that moment on.
Economic difficulties are once more displayed when Sally is forced to sell her fur coat in order to pay for her abortion. This yearning of monetary stability contributed to the increase in support for the Nazi Party. To the economically depressed, Hitler promised to punish Jewish financers who were seen to be exploiting German citizens and profiting during the financial crisis of the early 1930s. Cabaret comments on the growth of Anti-Semitism in Germany at the time. This change on the political stage is represented by the victimisation of Natalia and her family when her dog is slaughtered and ‘Juden” is painted on her doorstep by a group f young boys.
Sofia, also known as Fifi and the youngest Garcia, upsets her father, Carlos, by falling in love with a German and running away with him. When the family celebrates Carlos Garcia's birthday and he meets his new grandson, Sofia's son, this helps relieve some of the tension between the two. Carla, the oldest sister, had become a psychologist and was happily married. Part two in the book focuses more on the girls adjusting to life in New York. In the Dominican Republic, they were apart of the upper class, had
In the beginning of the text, Anna interviews Miriam, a woman who was an “enemy of the state at sixteen”. At the time of the Berlin wall, Miriam attempted to escape East Germany, however she was captured, interrogated, starved and sleep-deprived; the Stasi men tortured her, which caused mental scarring as well as “some strange little tics”. After her release from prison Miriam married her husband, Charlie. The Stasi took Charlie and murdered him, although, they told Miriam that he committed suicide. At the funeral the directors would not let Miriam see the body, leaving her without closure and wondering what really happened to him.
In the book it states ‘The Book’s Meaning: number one, it was the last time she saw her brother and number two, it was the last time she saw her mother.” (Page 38). She keeps it under her mattress because she doesn’t want anyone to find out that she “stole” it and because it has a special importance to her. When Hans Hubermann first discovers Liesel’s book, he has a calm and yet subtle reaction. In the book there is a conversation between Liesel and her Papa regarding the stolen book. In the book the conversation goes like this, “‘Is this yours?’ ‘Yes, Papa.’ ‘Do you want to read it?’ Again,’ Yes, Papa.’ A tired smile.