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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. How many people were usually taken from each barrack during a selection?

2. How many women worked in the kitchen staff?

3. What did Olga have to give to the blocova in order to keep her escape from the gas chamber a secret?

4. Why did the author and her colleagues dread taking contagious cases to the hospital?

5. Why did Tadek, the blue-eyed man, stop bringing gifts for Olga?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why did Olga blame herself for the deaths of her parents and children?

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

4. How were the people on the train cars affected by the trip and the inhumane conditions?

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

6. How did Olga's life in the infirmary compare to the life she was previously leading in the camp?

7. Who was the "Lageraelteste" and why was she chosen for this position?

8. Why did Olga and her colleagues in the infirmary proceed with their work even though they did not have the proper resources?

9. What struck Olga about the treatment of the young girls in the camp?

10. How did the conditions in the "koias" affect the prisoners?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What methods did the Nazis use to control their victims at different stages of their deportation, imprisonment, and extermination? How did the reactions of the deportees and prisoners enable the Nazis to succeed in their work?

Essay Topic 2

Why did some prisoners survive while others did not? What qualities seemed to enable some prisoners to survive? To what extremes did some inmates resort, and how did these actions affect them?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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