Summary

Kasia takes over the narration of Chapter 16 as she tries to make life at camp more normal. Together, she and the other girls come up with a game called “Beauty Road,” a nickname for the tree-lined path that prisoners are forced to walk on their way to the shooting wall. The girls try to imagine what luxuries they would bring down the walk if given the chance. Some imagine chocolates, down comforters, calfskin boots: but when Matka is asked to play, she quietly tells the girls “I’d walk with my head high and on the way hand this bouquet to the guards and tell them not to blame themselves for what they did” (195). The heartbreaking purity of Matka’s answer seems to spoil the lightheartedness of the game and silence falls over the girls.

A week later, Kasia, Zuzanna and...