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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The Sachsenhausen concentration camp's gates display the same motto as which other concentration camp in which Yanek has lived?
(a) Bergen-Belsen.
(b) Auschwitz.
(c) Wieliczka.
(d) Plaszow.

2. During the long train journey Yanek experiences in Chapter 15, he wakes up to discover that what event has taken place?
(a) He can no longer feel his own feet.
(b) The man standing next to him has died.
(c) The cattle car has begun to fill up with smoke.
(d) The cattle car has begun to fill up with water.

3. When Yanek has the urge to strike the prisoner he has just helped, what does he do instead?
(a) He remains quiet.
(b) He yells aloud.
(c) He pounds his fists on the ground.
(d) He strikes his own legs.

4. When Yanek arrives at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Chapter 24, it is his seventh concentration camp in "less than" how many "years" (196)?
(a) 2.
(b) 3.
(c) 4.
(d) 5.

5. What food item do the Nazis provide to each prisoner that they say must last for the entirety of the journey from Auschwitz to Sachsenhausen?
(a) A packet of gruel.
(b) One loaf of bread.
(c) One biscuit.
(d) Half a loaf of bread.

Short Answer Questions

1. What location does every prisoner at Auschwitz do their best to avoid?

2. Whose advice is Yanek ignoring when he forms a close friendship with Fred?

3. Once Yanek finds out where his train is headed in Chapter 15, a man nearby gives Yanek advice about what topic?

4. In what year is Yanek moved to the Trzebinia concentration camp?

5. For how many hours does Yanek remain inside the motionless cattle car while the other cars are loaded with Jewish people?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the novel's title?

2. What scent does Yanek detect in the air when he is brought to the Birkenau death camp?

3. What small moment of triumph does Yanek experience during the transition from Auschwitz to another concentration camp?

4. On which two occasions does Yanek vow to take every step he can "never to forget" (161) the atrocities committed during the Holocaust?

5. How does the theme of collectivism arise within Yanek's arrival at Auschwitz?

6. Discuss an instance in the novel when Yanek's determination to survive is apparent.

7. What ominous warning does an SS guard give to Yanek as he enters Auschwitz?

8. Which qualities of new prisoners help Yanek to qualify certain individuals as such?

9. How does the theme of altruism arise within the journey from Auschwitz to Sachsenhausen?

10. What distinction does Yanek make between the Trzebinia concentration camp and the other camps in which he has been imprisoned?

(see the answer keys)

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