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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. What was Filip ordered to do to the dead bodies in the cremation room?

2. What genre does the story fall into?

3. Where were Filip and Maurice taken after being caught at the tea vats?

4. What size was the cell that Filip and the others were brought to at the end of their eventful day in Chapter 2?

5. What was the title given to Filip's working party by Stark?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was known as Auschwitz justice as it concerned lice?

2. Why were Filip and the others terrified as Aumeier and Grabner went from cell to cell in Block 11?

3. What dream did Filip have the night he and the others finished the burial of the corpses in the pit?

4. Besides the gas chamber, what other means of mass murder were used at Auschwitz?

5. How did Vacek come to be a block clerk at Auschwitz?

6. Describe the midday lunch the men were given in Chapter 1.

7. What were Filip's thoughts after he and Maurice were caught drinking tea and awaited punishment?

8. When Filip became a crematorium worker, what did he realize was his only chance of staying alive?

9. What did Filip wonder about Stark as he thought of the man's actions at the camp?

10. When Filip and the others were ordered to search and separate the victim's clothing in Chapter 2, how were the items sorted?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the people who survived those years in the concentration camps as explained in the book.

Part 1 - Why did some survive while others perished?

Part 2 - What did the survivors have that some did not?

Part 3 - Did luck play a role in surviving Auschwitz?

Essay Topic 2

The prisoners in the Family Camp refuse to defend themselves when they twice learn that they will be gassed.

1) Why would these people not want to fight for their lives if they knew they were going to die anyway?

2) Explain the thinking amongst the people in the camp.

3) Include some history as to what brought them to this point.

Essay Topic 3

Based upon the deceits and cover-ups that the SS use in their daily interactions with inmates, is it all just a game being played by them? If so, do they enjoy it? Do any of the SS seem to care about the fate of the inmates? If so, which ones?

(see the answer keys)

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