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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 does Friedrich find when he comes back to his apartment?

2. What has Friedrich lost?

3. What does Herr Schneider learn?

4. What does an usherette say to him as he is escorted out?

5. What does Resch pick up?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Friedrich's family celebrate his Bar Mitzvah?

2. What is rather ironic in this chapter and why?

3. Do you think Resch is more motivated by patriotism or greed when he turns in the Schneiders?

4. What is ironic about the prayer that Scholoime is reciting at his death?

5. How are these chants a perversion of Jewish historical events?

6. What is foreshadowed in the first part of this chapter?

7. What do you think Resch means when he says, "his luck that he died this way"?

8. What happens when a Storm Trooper takes over the physical education of the German school boys during his spare time?

9. What does Friedrich speak about and what does he ask of the narrator's family? What do you think is the reason for his request?

10. What happens and what is the significance of it when Friedrich and the narrator are leaving the pool?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

1. The book Friedrich does not go into the horror of concentration camps or the wholesale murder of millions of Jews (and other unacceptable people), yet there are plenty of tragic events that point the way to the larger event that is the Holocaust. Why do you think the author chose to address the issue of the Holocaust in this way? (Keep in mind of the intended audience). Is the author's approach effective? Does it reveal enough of the tragedy of the events of Nazi Germany to convince a reader of the extent of Germany's genocide of a group of people?

2. Research pre-WWII Germany and write an essay about the reasons that Germany is vulnerable to the extent that it is willing to go down the path of mass murder. Does anything justify the German people's actions?

3. Research the aftermath of Germany's actions in pre-WWII and WWII in its concentration camps. Do you think Germany received just retribution? Why or why not? What do you think should have happened to Germany?

Essay Topic 2

In the chapter "Friday Evening," the narrator shares the Sabbath dinner with Friedrich's family. Choose one of the following questions in a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. The Friday evening Sabbath service is a rite or ceremony within the Jewish faith. Many other religions have rites and ceremonies also. Identify several rites/ceremonies either religious or secular and explain the reason for each.

2. What is the purpose of rites or ceremonies? Are they necessary for human culture? For individuals?

3. Some say that part of the reason the modern culture is declining is a lack of tradition, which would include rites and ceremonies. Take a stand either to affirm or refute this idea using specific examples.

Essay Topic 3

The chapter "Reasons" is very important in understanding much of what happens later in the book and also in understanding why so many Jewish people did not flee Nazi Germany when they had the chance. Answer the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What are the reasons Herr Schnider gives for not leaving Germany? Are they valid?

2. Do you think, given the things that have already happened to the Schneiders, that Herr Schneider is being rationale in thinking that because it's the 20th century, things like genocide do not occur anymore?

3. Are modern governments (those in the 20th and 21st centuries) any less prone to wholesale genocide than any other era? Give specific examples and details to support your stance.

4. Is it fair for Herr Schneider to expect his teenage son to be as philosophical about persecution as Herr Schneider?

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