Paintings

Paintings are used throughout the book to symbolize different things. In the camps, the paintings serve two purposes. The brighter paintings are done to inspire the prisoners and try to remind them that there’s beauty in the world. The darker, grim paintings represent resistance. The Jews are capturing the reality of their lives, something that the Germans forbid because they don’t want the rest of the world to know how they are really being treated.

Letter to New York

When Amalia is telling Josef her story, she mentions how she was rescued because she found a letter addressed to someone in New York. Amalia got in touch with them, and they ended up getting her papers and bringing her over to America. Amalia was initially touched by the letter because to her it represented her hope for life in the world outside of the...