The Boy From Buchenwald: Chapters 8–12

by Robbie Waisman, Susan McClelland
Born Romek Wajsman in Poland's Skarżysko-Kamienna, an eighty-nine-year-old Canadian activist remembers how he survived the Holocaust, first as an eleven-year-old slave laborer in a German-occupied factory and later as a teenage prisoner in concentration camps.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Introduction–Chapter 3, Chapters 4–7, Chapters 8–12, Chapters 13–17, Chapter 18–Epilogue
40 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. confine
    to close within bounds, limit or hold back from movement
    In the barracks where we were confined when not working, there were lice and bedbugs and rats.
  2. infirmary
    a health facility where patients receive treatment
    His lips turned white and then cracked, and he was covered in a bubbling rash. I asked one of the men in the barracks if I could take my brother to the infirmary, which was close to the factory, that we would pass when we marched.
  3. advocate
    speak, plead, or argue in favor of
    Pan Doktor had a radio program in Poland and advocated for the rights of children.
  4. corporal
    affecting the body as opposed to the mind or spirit
    Pan Doktor spoke out against corporal punishment of children, which was common not just among Polish families, Salek said.
  5. optimal
    most desirable possible under a restriction
    Madame Minc was saying that Pan Doktor believed child development was optimal when children could play, express themselves, be taken seriously, be held, and be loved.
  6. deliberation
    (usually plural) discussion of all sides of a question
    The trial, or tribunal as a few of the boys were calling it, needed to have some order, so one of the older Polish boys led our side of the deliberations, while an Intellectual led the opposition.
  7. collaborate
    cooperate as a traitor
    The Intellectual side also laid out how Gustav’s job at Buchenwald, as head of the protection unit, was to murder prisoners who were found to have collaborated with the Nazis, were Jewish police or guards in ghettos, or treated other Jews with brutality.
  8. ingrained
    deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
    Few would come forward at first, all of us having it ingrained within us not to trust anyone.
  9. tribunal
    an assembly to conduct judicial business
    Gustav said the camp held trials similar to our tribunal.
  10. allotted
    given as a task or a portion
    A few days were allotted for any new evidence to be presented in support of the prisoner.
  11. jostle
    make one's way by pushing or shoving
    The boys near the front started to jostle one another to see who would go first.
  12. shorn
    having the hair, fur, or wool cut short
    My hair was shorn. I was bald in a few places, either from malnutrition or from having my head shaved by the Nazis so many times that I lost count.
  13. smug
    marked by excessive complacency or self-satisfaction
    “Not really. I’m a quick learner,” he replied with a smug look.
  14. irrelevant
    having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    “Besides, for Communists, language is irrelevant,” he continued in Yiddish. “Language is just something else that divides people, like religion. There are lots of Communists in Paris,” he then added in Polish.
  15. infallible
    incapable of failure or error
    I could tell my siblings didn’t trust the words of Papa, and I felt heartbroken because until that moment, he was infallible, our rock we all leaned on.
  16. lapel
    a fold of fabric below the collar of a coat or jacket
    There were ribbons sewn onto the lapel, indicating the rank of the soldier who had worn it last.
  17. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    I scoffed. “Who would believe I was a French soldier?”
  18. atonement
    the act of making amends for sin or wrongdoing
    During Yom Kippur, Mama told me, Jews pray for atonement from God for their sins.
  19. presume
    take to be the case or to be true
    The entire family except for her and the child were still missing, presumed dead.
  20. relic
    an antiquity that has survived from the distant past
    As the train moved inland, the landscape darkened, in part because of the thickening forests, in part also because of the burned-out army tanks and the relics of villages we passed, some with houses that were now just stone frames.
  21. haggard
    showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
    Most stared as I walked past, stared with haggard, sad eyes.
  22. misshapen
    so badly formed or distorted as to be ugly
    An old, bald man with a misshapen hand and bowed legs from rickets directed me to a building that he said was an office.
  23. somber
    serious and gloomy in character
    He was just a toddler and wanted to play, to giggle, to cry. He wasn’t like the other toddlers who lived in our apartment building in the ghetto, who somehow knew what was going on and were little adults in tiny bodies, always somber, like their voices had left.
  24. inquisitive
    showing curiosity
    If Nathan, who was outgoing, talkative, inquisitive, but also stubborn, had been sent to a farm, he would never have made it.
  25. outcropping
    part of a rock formation that juts above surrounding land
    A hollow, cool, and dark place, like the outcropping of rocks on the Kamienna River where I’d hide during games of seek-and-find—hide along with the worms that burrow in the mud of the embankment and the snails.
  26. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    I felt bile move up the back of my throat.
  27. ruse
    a deceptive maneuver, especially to avoid capture
    I took a gamble that the SS man would send me where I didn’t want to go. My ruse worked.
  28. chateau
    an impressive country house (or castle) in France
    If I had thought the home in Écouis was the largest I’d ever seen, the château was a French Masada, large, grand, a castle with manicured lawns, tailored trees, bursting rosebushes, and statues.
  29. mantra
    a commonly repeated word or phrase
    All the while, the room pulsed with boys’ voices shouting the mantra: “Stalin! Stalin! For our Father!”
  30. intricate
    having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate
    Like a parade of ghosts, we twisted through the property, trailing along paths of intricate stonework.
  31. gilded
    rich and superior in quality
    Behind us loomed the castle of diamonds and pearls, like a gilded, angry giant glaring its wrath down on us.
  32. futility
    uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result
    I overheard Elie say to one of his friends: “I feel sorry for them. They think they can educate us, and yet the youngest of us knows more than the oldest among them about what exists in the world, of the futility of life, the brutal triumph of death.”
  33. clamber
    climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
    A few days later, Abe, Salek, Marek, Joe, and I clambered up the stairs of the sprawling Le Vésinet château that was now our new home and selected a bedroom on the second floor for our own.
  34. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    A few days later, Abe, Salek, Marek, Joe, and I clambered up the stairs of the sprawling Le Vésinet château that was now our new home and selected a bedroom on the second floor for our own.
  35. wainscoting
    wooden panels that can be used to line the walls of a room
    Red-stained wainscoting gave the place a stuffy feel, like an old man who, when the heavy curtains were drawn back in the mornings, seemed like he was opening his tired eyes.
  36. foreman
    a person who exercises control over workers
    He was a machinist and at age thirteen was even promoted to foreman.
  37. nimble
    moving quickly and lightly
    His first job was as an electrician’s helper. But like me, his fingers were nimble. He was tiny but strong, and he worked quickly.
  38. placard
    a sign posted in a public place
    We then had to write our team name on a large placard that the boy from Warsaw carried as we paraded onto a nearby soccer field for the opening ceremonies of the games.
  39. camaraderie
    the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
    An OSE staff person officially started the games by outlining the rules of fairness, camaraderie, and sportsmanship that we were all to follow. The games were not about winning but about supporting one another.
  40. toil
    productive work, especially physical work done for wages
    When the day awakens,
    Ere the sun smiles,
    The gangs march out to the day’s toils
    Into the breaking dawn.
Created on Mon Dec 11 11:40:03 EST 2023 (updated Tue Dec 12 13:30:24 EST 2023)

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