Michael Bornstein
Bornstein is the title character and first-person narrator of the book. As the title indicates, this is the true story Bornstein’s experiences surviving the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II as a young Jewish boy sent to the notorious concentration camp that has become most synonymous with Germany atrocities and war crimes.
Israel Bornstein
More familiarly referred to in the book as Papa, Israel is Michael’s father. Papa Bornstein is revealed as a true hero of the times; a smaller scale Oscar Schindler. In his position as head of his hometown’s Jewish Council, Israel Bornstein paid bribes to a member of the Nazi’s secret police—the Gestapo—which allowed an unknown number of fellow townspeople to make their escape before the trains running to Auschwitz began. Tragically, however, both Michael’s father and brother would not be so fortunate.
Kristina
Kristina is first described as an angelic five-year-old whom the nuns have never seen behave so irrationally as when being told a vibrant young woman wanted to take her home and give her a proper family. She was born precisely one month before the commencement of World War II with Germany’s invasion of Poland as a baby girl named Ruth. This young girl became a foundling left outside a Catholic orphanage who was raised by nuns before being taken in by the family that rechristened her Kristina. After the war, Ruth/Kristina would finally be reunited with her parent and meet her cousin: Michael Bornstein.
Sophie Bornstein (Mamishu)
Sophie is Israel’s wife and David’s mother. The children always called her—and the narration refers to—as Mamishu. Her maternal instincts prove of exception significance in protecting Michael throughout the experience so that both she and he would prove capable of surviving the war years, unlike her husband and other son Samuel (David’s brother.)
Officer Schmitt
Schmitt is the head of the local Gestapo stationed in the small Polish town in which the Bornsteins lived. He would subsequently appoint Israel to the position of police chief of the Jewish Council. This appointment created the political beneficial relationship on both sides which led to the organized bribery scheme that helped save the lives of hundreds of other residents of the town.
