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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. While Filip was in the gas chamber, who did he look up to find surrounding him?

2. When half of the crowd at the end of Chapter 3 were behind the door of the crematorium, what was the other half, still dressed, doing?

3. What was a bum-boy?

4. How many Red Army prisoners of war were left alive by January, 1945, out of the 13,000 taken?

5. How long did Filip live in Block 11 in Auschwitz before being sent to Birkenau?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was "extermination through labor"?

2. Filip considered Dr. Pach to have exemplary qualities of humanity. Why?

3. What were the male prisoners' main motives for wanting to visit the women's camp?

4. How did Filip and others come to realize that members of Birkenau's Sonderkommando who were taken to Lublin had been murdered?

5. How did Filip feel his life had changed for the better when he was moved to Birkenau?

6. What led the SS to believe that Kapo Kaminski was thoroughly competent to carry out his duties?

7. Compare Filip's feelings during his work in the crematorium with his return to the prison camp.

8. Why did the SS decide not to shoot the first load of people from the Family Camp who were in the changing room?

9. What put Filip's mind to rest concerning Mietek being a Kapo at Birkenau?

10. In what ways did the prisoners of the Family Camp change their emotional state once inside the changing room?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Germans do not want the prisoners to contract typhus, which is evident by their warnings and "delousing" sessions. Why, then, aren't prisoners given soap, towels or water on a regular basis for showering? Explain the discrepancy between the prisoners' living conditions and the German's need for them to avoid lice.

Essay Topic 2

In the book, Muller states that Vacek is a "professional criminal". Considering the way in which he treats the prisoners (the truncheon beatings, "sport" and throwing the morning tea into a gulley), is Vacek more than just a "professional criminal"? How else can he be described, considering that he, too, is a prisoner at Auschwitz?

Essay Topic 3

What do you think Filip Muller's reasons are for writing this book? How might his reasons for writing the book relate to his suicide attempt in the gas chamber? Do you believe those reasons to be valid? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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