Blog #7

Summary:

Irene now knowing her family is alive then becomes separate.  Tatuś (the father of Irene) is taken away to a factory from the German's, Irene's mother takes the 3 younger girls with her to find her husband but leaves Irene and Janina only because they have more of German features and doesn't want nothing to happen to them.  Months passed and the family hasn't been reunited who Irene finds out her little sisters are put into a factory.  As Irene is walking home from her work she is taken in a truck with other Poles and is force to work in a factory like her father was.  She was then hired as an assisted to a man named Schulz who they both are servants to Herr Major.  She also makes friends to Jews who work in a laundry.  A man named Rokita plans on exterminating the Jews at the end of the month before the Soviet Union gets to them, which leads to Irene an uneasy feeling on how to save her Jewish friends.

Connections:

While I was reading the book I made a connection with the famous Anne Frank.  Irene who is a Pole not a Jew works for the Nazi but she is on the side of Jews.  She's conflicting on which side she should be on, the Jew or the German.  That is until while she was cleaning a table that was filled food from the Nazi eating dinner there, she heard Rokita say by the end of the month they will pick up all the Jews and exterminate them.  "'Why is that?' he asked Rokita, a bit tiredly.  Rokita grinned.  'Because, my dear major, by the twenty-second of this month, Ternopol will be judenrein.  Won't that be wonderful?'" This piece of evidence shows that Rokita has now have an exact date for Ternopol to become Jew free, making Irene panic.  I thought back of when Anne Frank had to hide in the attic I believe in a store, while Irene hid her friends in a grating in the Major's bathroom.  The grating can be hidden if the sunlight isn't directing towards it to much which made me think of the bookcase that actually hid the stairs to where the Franks were hidden.  In page 169, "Then I noticed, high on the wall above the toilet, a grating.  I had never taken note of it before, but the play of the light had drawn my eyes there." This evidence shows that the light was able to make the grating appear more but without much light the grating seems invisible.  A good hiding place for the Jews.  Another connection is when the Franks had to stay quiet while hiding so no one suspects anything.  In this case while Irene was in the Major bathroom a soldier accidentally came in at the same time which had to make the Jews quiet throughout out the time, especially since it's the Major's bathroom.  In page 174 it states, "Looking quite sheepish, he turned and let himself out.  Obviously, he did not expect to find Jews hiding in the major's bathroom.  If he has taken even a moment to look around, he would have spotted the vent.  And he would have seen the shadowy form of Ida Haller, sitting cross-legged behind the screen."  This piece of evidence shows that they had to be careful since the Nazi soldiers are in that Villa and will suspect and kill a Jew.  This reminded me of Anne Frank of when they had to be dead silent until 12 or so.