Vranov

Vranov is the Slovokian town where the Meller sisters, Cibi, Magda, and Livi spend their childhood. The idyllic village, pre-Nazi occupation, symbolizes the girls’ innocence. When Cibi and Livi walk away from the Meller’s home, they are proverbially walking away from the protection of their childhood. After they leave Vranov, the sisters are forced to mature quickly in order to survive the brutality of the concentration camps. In the same way that Magda stays in Vranov longer, she is allowed to stay in her youth longer. Outside of the death camps, living with her mother, she is able to experience a more linear coming of age.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the Nazi concentration camp where Cibi and Livi are imprisoned throughout the majority of the novel. The gruesome prison is the setting for the extermination of the European Jewish community through forced labor, gas chambers, and starvation. Throughout...