For my book review, I chose to read “Your Name is Renee,” by Stacy Cretzmeyer, forwarded by Beate Klarsfeld. The memoir takes you through the chilling events of a 7 year old girl, Ruth Kapp Hartz, and the story of her family trying to survive a Nazi occupied France in the early 1940’s. Through constant moving, separation from her family, and the struggle not only to survive, but also understand all of what is happening around her, Ruth takes us through a first hand account of her journey to survive. The memoir starts off by illustrating the life of this girl, Ruth. She is a young, Jewish girl living in France during the second World War. the author, all throughout the memoir, but specifically during this section, does a brilliant job at explaining …show more content…
It, for now, will be safer there. They eventually find an apartment, similar to their first one in Toulouse, for the family to live in. Her father is able to earn some money working at a factory, but, just as Renee must stay home from school, he too must stay home from work due to Nazi raids of certain places. One day, coming home from school, it is not her mother, but rather a family friend that is waiting for her on the steps. She brings her to the Valats home, a christian family that is taking care of the Kapp’s along with other Jewish people. The apartment they are living in is getting unsafe, and they must live in this house in hiding. While here, it is stressed that they stay quiet. One Sunday, after Renees mom joints Mrs. Valat to church, the priest comes by to talk to the men in the other secret room in the house. After a long conversation, although not then knowing what was discussed, Renee explains that the conversation would have a large impact on her childhood. Soon after this, they are able to go home. Things however have gotten much more unsafe for jews, mainly men by this point, and her father explains that me must leave the family. He is to go to the hills in hiding. R Times by this point are very tough for the family. Most of the money they had went to the town crier in return for him not turning them in, and without her …show more content…
She is met there by Mrs. Khan who is to bring her to her parents back in St. Juery. When she returns, she walks into the apartment and is greeted with the hugs and tears of her parents. It is such a joyous moment. The streets are crowded with celebration. Her and her parents go and enjoy the fun. It was June 6th, 1944, D Day. Later though, they connect with her cousin Jeanette. She explains to them that her father was killed auschwitz and her other was killed on the train ride from auschwitz to see her. This obviously devastates them all. They urge her to come with them but she insists on staying with her new fires. They are lucky to have their family of three still intact, even if the struggle to regain a normal life will be nothing short of
On their way to the village they are stopped by Nazi soldiers who says they must come with them to be relocated. Hannah is the only one who knows what is actually about to happen. She tries to explain why they must not go with the soldiers but the adults explain that they have no choice. They are loaded in trucks and drove off to a train station where they are gathered into cars with barely any room to breathe. The ride on the train lasts for days and several children and infants do not live
They stayed here during the winter while Alicia still searched for food, in the process, making many friends. News came one day that the Germans were beginning to fall back from the Russian fronts and Germany’s grip on the Jews in Poland was weakening. This news made Alicia and her mother move away from the old man who helped them.
Growing up, Ruth had a rough childhood growing up in a very strict jewish household. Her family was poor, her mother was physically handicapped, her father was verbally and physically abusive, and she faced prejudice and discrimination from her neighbors and classmates because she
Ruth led a life broken in two. Her later life consists of the large family she creates with the two men she marries, and her awkwardness of living between two racial cultures. She kept her earlier life a secret from her children, for she did not wish to revisit her past by explaining her precedent years. Once he uncovered Ruth's earlier life, James could define his identity by the truth of Ruth's pain, through the relations she left behind and then by the experiences James endured within the family she created. As her son, James could not truly understand himself until he uncovered the truth within the halves of his mother's life, thus completing the mold of his own identity.
During WWII, when Jakob Beer is seven, his parents are murdered by Nazi soldiers who invade their Polish village, and his beloved, musically talented 15-year-old sister, Bella, is abducted. Fleeing from the blood-drenched scene, he is magically saved by Greek geologist Athos Roussos, who secretly transports the traumatized boy to his home on the island of Zakynthos, where they live through the Nazi occupation, suffering privations but escaping the atrocities that decimate Greece's Jewish community. Jakob is haunted by the moment of his parents' death the burst door, buttons spilling out of a saucer onto the floor, darkness and his spirit remains sorrowfully linked with that of his lost sister, whose fate anguishes him. But he travels in his imagination to the places that Athos describes and the books that this kindly scholar provides. At war's end, Athos accepts a university post in Toronto, and Jakob begins a new life.
Elli talks about daily life in her neighborhood. Her mother does not show any compassion for her. When Elli complains of this, her mother brings up excuses that are unconvincing. Elli believes her mother does not care for her and that her brother is the favorite. Hilter’s reoccurring radio broadcast give nightmares to Elli, whos family is Jewish. The nights when the Hungarian military police would come and stir trouble did not provide anymore comfort for Elli. One night, her brother, Bubi, comes home with news that Germany invaded Budapest, the town where he goes to school. But the next morning, there is no news in the headlines. The father sends him back to school. He learns the next day that a neighbor’s son who goes to school with Bubi has said the same. The day after, the newspapers scream the news of the invasion. Bubi arrives home, and the terror begins.
In conclusion, the fact that Ruth lived through so much trauma from her father most likely brought out the strength in her heart, and caused her to realize that she wants a good life for her children instead of the trauamtic life that she lived through in her own childhood. Ruth’s overall identity could be explicity explained as a mother who is strong, has a lot of faith in God, and a woman with a lot of value and love for all of her twelve children. Ruth Mcbride’s strength and confidence helps herself through the hardships of her childhood, her relationships with Dennis and Hunter, as well as James Mcbride and the rest of her children. She developed the identity of a strong-willed mother, lover, and a woman of God.
Schwartz, Leslie. Surviving the hell of Auschwitz and Dachau: a teenage struggle toward freedom from hatred.. S.l.: Lit Verlag, 2013. Print.
Summary: "The Cage" by Ruth Minsky Sender is a book about a teenage girl who was separated from her mother and brothers when the nazis captured them and sent them to a concentration camp. While she was in the concentration camp, she got sick and one of the Nazi guards took her to a hospital, but they had to go througgh several hospitals because they didn't take jews. After her operation, the doctor had to teach her how to write with her left hand because she couldn't write with her right hand. A russian commander helped her out by giving her food and baths, and she gave her a job that wasn't as hard as the other "prisoners" had. She lived off her mother's quote, "When there is life, there is hope." She believed that and she got through the
The story follows three girls- Jeanette, the oldest in the pack, Claudette, the narrator and middle child, and the youngest, Mirabella- as they go through the various stages of becoming civilized people. Each girl is an example of the different reactions to being placed in an unfamiliar environment and retrained. Jeanette adapts quickly, becoming the first in the pack to assimilate to the new way of life. She accepts her education and rejects her previous life with few relapses. Claudette understands the education being presented to her but resists adapting fully, her hatred turning into apathy as she quietly accepts her fate. Mirabella either does not comprehend her education, or fully ignores it, as she continually breaks the rules and boundaries set around her, eventually resulting in her removal from the school.
Miriam Wattenberg is one of the hundreds of children who wrote about their life story during the time of the Holocaust (“Children’s Diaries”). She was born October 10, 1924 (“Children’s Diaries”). Miriam started writing her diary in October 1939, after Poland surrendered to the German forces (“Children’s Diaries”). The Wattenberg family fled to Warsaw in November 1940 (“Children’s Diaries”). At that time she was with her parents and younger sister (“Children’s Diaries”).
Cecilia was diagnosed with cancer while Ruth was in high school and the day before her daughter’s graduation, she passed away (Salokar & Volcansek, 1996). One of the greatest influences on Ruth’s life was her mother and the values she instilled in her from a young age. Two of the greatest lessons that Ruth learned from her mother was to be independent and to be a lady, and by that she meant not to respond in anger but to remain calm in situations (Reynolds, 2009).... ... middle of paper ... ...
The first character the book introduces to the reader to is Rorschach, Walter Joseph Kovacs, one of the main characters. Rorschach reveals his past and why he wears a mask on page eleven. Walter’s past is revealed in chapter six when he is examined by a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist gives Walter ink blots and his first vision is of his mother and a man. Also on chapter six, the reader, see that his mother was a prostitute who worked out of her home. Her reasons for practicing prostitution appear when she interacts with Walter. On page four of chapter six, Walter walked into his mother’s bedroom while she was entertaining a man. As soon as his mother realizes he is watching she hits him across the face. "You little shit! You know what you cost me, you ugly little shit. I shoulda listened to everybody else! I shoulda had the abortion." (Pg.4, chap.6, panel 6-7) Walter’s mother did’nt hesitate to physically or verbally abuse him. Her first reaction was to punch him in the face. This reflects the issue of a chain of a abuse. Walter’s mother was probably abused in more ways than one by her parents. Through her behavior of name calling and the rage she portrays it is most likely she was subjected to the same as a child. She basically told Walter that she didn’t want him and regretted having him. She neglects Walter of attention and love, just as she was by her parents. Both Walter and his mother are dealing with issues of neglect and a craving for attention. As a prostitute, we see on page three in chapter six Walter’s mother substitutes sex for love, attention, beauty, and care. She begs her male friend to stay, "Oh baby, please, listen. he’s kinda backwards. Please don’t get mad." She begs the man to stay because having sex makes her feel beautiful because the men want her and touch her. In chapter 6 on page three she says, "Oh you’re hurting me." She says this to her male customer, she did not make him ...
The beginning of the novel introduces the reader to Esther O'Malley Robertson as the last of a family of extreme women. She is sitting in her home, remembering a story that her grandmother told her a long time ago. Esther is the first character that the reader is introduced to, but we do not really understand who she is until the end of the story. Esther's main struggle is dealing with her home on Loughbreeze Beach being torn down, and trying to figure out the mysteries of her family's past.
On June 12, 1929, at 7:30 AM, a baby girl was born in Frankfort, Germany. No one realized that this infant, who was Jewish, was destined to become one of the worlds most famous victims of World War II. Her name was Anne Frank. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank and B.M. Mooyaart, was actually the real diary of Anne Frank. Anne was a girl who lived with her family during the time while the Nazis took power over Germany. Because they were Jewish, Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne Frank immigrated to Holland in 1933. Hitler invaded Holland on May 10, 1940, a month before Anne?s eleventh birthday. In July 1942, Anne's family went into hiding in the Prinsengracht building. Anne and her family called it the 'Secret Annex'. Life there was not easy at all. They had to wake up at 6:45 every morning. Nobody could go outside, nor turn on lights at night. Anne mostly spent her time reading books, writing stories, and of course, making daily entries in her diary. She only kept her diary while hiding from the Nazis. This diary told the story of the excitement and horror in this young girl's life during the Holocaust. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl reveals the life of a young innocent girl who is forced into hiding from the Nazis because of her religion, Judaism. This book is very informing and enlightening. It introduces a time period of discrimination, unfair judgment, and power-crazed individuals, and with this, it shows the effect on the defenseless.