View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How long after their arrival did Olga and her fellow prisoners receive blankets?

2. What "rumor" did the woman in Olga's barrack share with Dr. Klein?

3. Other than for eating, of what use were the twenty bowls issued to the prisoners in the barracks?

4. Why did the elderly man not eat the potatoes in his soup?

5. Why did Olga and her family join her husband when he was deported?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the Germans allow the prisoners to write postcards to their loved ones outside of the camps?

2. Why did the German guards intentionally assign prisoners to work for which they were unsuited?

3. How did Olga and her husband react to meeting each other within the camp?

4. At what point did the deportees realize the true horror of their situation?

5. Describe the conditions of the work in the infirmary.

6. What did the barrack chief, Irka, explain after Olga suggested that she had hope for survival?

7. In what ways was Birkenau different from Auschwitz?

8. What were the conditions like in Olga's barracks?

9. Describe the hierarchy of the prisoners in the camp.

10. What dilemma did Olga face whenever her companions argued about the existence of the crematories?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the role of choice versus luck in the author's ability to survive her ordeal. How much of her survival was a result of the choices that she made, and how much of her survival was the result of luck?

Essay Topic 2

The author repeatedly talks about the "efficiency" of the Nazis in "liquidating" their prisoners. Describe the industrialization of extermination by the Nazis. What does such efficiency suggest about the people who were responsible for such decisions?

Essay Topic 3

How did the idea of medical care (in particular, the oath to "do no harm") become subverted in the Nazi concentration camps?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,355 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample