Genre
Memoir; Children's History; Holocaust History
Setting and Context
Auschwitz death camp, during World War Two, and after liberation in post-war Poland
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator is also one of the authors. He speaks from his own point of view as a child survivor of Auschwitz.
Tone and Mood
Somber, horrific and terrifying.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The author, and other children, are the protagonists. The Nazi Party and anti-Polish people are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the book is World War II. There was also post-war conflict between the Polish Jews who returned to their homes after the camps were liberated, only to find that they were now occupied by anti-Semitic Poles who had no intention of moving out.
Climax
Liberation of the camps is really the climax of the memoir.
Foreshadowing
The way in which the people of the town where Bornstein came from looked the other way when their Jewish neighbors were being rounded up and taken to death camps foreshadows the way in which they are unwilling to accept the Jewish people back into their community after liberation.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The memoir alludes to the Hebrew traditions of Bornstein's family.
Imagery
The imagery is very stark and troubling, enabling the reader to imagine the fear and horror experienced by Bornstein and his family, and by other children at the camps. We are able to not only picture the scene visually, but are also able to imagine the sounds and the smell of the camps too.
Paradox
Liberation from the camps was supposed to also mean liberation from hate and anti-Semitism but in reality it did not, because the town that Bornstein and his peers went home to was just as anti-Semitic as it had been before the war.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the way in which the Germans hated the Jews and the way in which the Poles did the same.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The camp is the way in which the individuals taken there are referred to.
Personification
N/A
