Rifka

Rifka is a young girl of twelve and later thirteen years old. She is Russian and Jewish, a fact which has been hard for her family and which has subjected them to much persecution. She loves to read, and is very intelligent; she carries with her a copy of Pushkin's poems that her richer cousin has given to her, and she learns Flemish and later English with apparent ease in a very short period of time. Very persevering, Rifka rarely lets herself get too upset by the many events that come her way. Though she is sad to leave her parents and go to Belgium, for example, she is stoic and accepts what has to be. She is also extremely stubborn, as in the case where she attempts to distract the soldiers, or later when she convinces the doctor that she will be a productive woman in society...