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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did the Germans wait several minutes before they turned on the gas in the gas chambers?

2. What did Olga and her bunk mates have for a "farewell supper" when she left Block 26 to go to Block 13?

3. What was the "astonishing question" that Irma Griese asked Olga?

4. What did L. say that he and Olga must both do after the war?

5. What scientific benefit resulted from Dr. Mengele's experiments involving human subjects?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Olga's colleague, Dr. G, cope with the stress of living in camp?

2. How were the S.S. at Auschwitz affected by the news that Paris had been liberated?

3. How did the Russian, Dr. Mitrovna, save Olga's life?

4. What purpose did the building known as "Canada" serve, both for the Germans and for the inmates?

5. How did the conditions in camp reveal a person's true nature?

6. How did Olga and her friends escape from the ranks of prisoners during the march?

7. Describe Olga's second, and last, meeting with her husband.

8. Why did Olga and her colleagues begin to murder newborn babies?

9. What steps did the Nazis take in order to reassure the newly arrived deportees that their lives in the camp would be bearable?

10. How did Dr. Mengele differ from Dr. Klein?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the social structure and hierarchy (both formal and informal) among the prisoners in the concentration camp. How was this structure different from their previous lives, and how did this subversion of their lives create ironic situations?

Essay Topic 2

Why did the author find the treatment of the children in the Nazi camps particularly disturbing? What made the treatment and the murder of the children more horrific in her mind?

Essay Topic 3

Both the Nazis and the author herself committed murders during this experience. Compare and contrast their crimes. How are these crimes different from one another? What makes the author's crimes more excusable, or at least understandable, than those of the Nazis?

(see the answer keys)

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