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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. In what block is the school that Alfred Hirsch establishes in at Auschwitz?

2. When was Hirsch deported to the Terezin ghetto?

3. How many children arrived at Terezin on August 24, 1943?

4. What day did Dita lose her childhood?

5. In Chapter 5, what does Dita have to pay to have pockets put inside her smock?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Dita see Professor Morgenstern doing at the end of Chapter 9?

2. What are Viktor Pestek's intentions toward Renee?

3. At the end of Chapter 12, what chance did Hirsch have to leave Prague?

4. What did Fredy find solace in after his father's death?

5. What is Block 31?

6. In Chapter 11, how is the food the children are served contrasted with the food served in the officers' dining room?

7. How did life change for Dita and other Jews after the Germans took over Prague?

8. Why does Fredy Hirsch choose Dita to be the librarian at Auschwitz?

9. What was Mengele's background?

10. What did Hirsch tell a defender who lost a soccer match because he allowed a Nazi to get past him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Dita is nine when the Nazis take over Prague and 16 when the war ends. What does Dita have to endure during the war? What losses does she experience? How does her outlook on life change? How does her growing maturity help her deal with the difficulties in her life? How does she come of age in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Richard and Ota Keller came to Auschwitz from Prague. What did Richard do in Prague? How are his circumstances very different in the concentration camp? What do his actions reveal about his attitude in Auschwitz? How does Ota have a positive attitude in spite of his circumstances? What is revealed about optimism through the two men?

Essay Topic 3

The novel is told from a third-person limited point of view. How does the author’s choice to use that point of view affect the story and what readers know about characters and events?

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