Had her mother not left her with the important words of faith, "As long as there is life, there is hope," Ruth Minsky Sender may not have lived to enjoy a family of her own and share her poignant memories of the Holocaust with others.
a Nazi concentration camp for Jews in southwestern Poland during World War II
I would recommend this book for any student in grades 6-12 who wants some examples of the hardships that Jews faced in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and labor camps.
a juvenile between the onset of puberty and maturity
In this split second, 16-year-old Riva is transformed from an adolescent girl into a mother to her three younger siblings, Moishele, Motele, and Laibele.
In Mittelsteine she is miraculously saved from a life-threatening illness by a compassionate Nazi commandant who claimed she "was sure [the Nazis] killed all [her] emotions, that all [she] can feel is hunger, all [she] can think of is bread" (234).
a penal institution for political prisoners who are used as forced labor
I would recommend this book for any student in grades 6-12 who wants some examples of the hardships that Jews faced in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and labor camps.
By sharing her personal experiences with adolescent readers, Sender successfully gets them thinking about the devastating results of hate and prejudice.
Ruth Minsky Sender's autobiographical memoir successfully grabs the attention of its readers, and her literary style suits the intended young adolescent audience well.
But this legacy played an integral role in Ruth's will to fight against the odds of survival in Nazi-dominated Poland in 1939 and the years of turmoil that would follow in The Cage.
Although not as detailed as some other personal accounts, I like the book because it helps the reader see the systematic breakdown of social values and the gradual elimination of Jewish rights during the Holocaust years.
unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice
The Cage clearly reminds its adolescent readers that the past must never be forgotten, and that intolerance and discrimination are harmful and must be replaced by cultural understanding and the promotion of personal differences.
controlled or ruled by superior authority or power
But this legacy played an integral role in Ruth's will to fight against the odds of survival in Nazi-dominated Poland in 1939 and the years of turmoil that would follow in The Cage.
adolescent
