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Chapter 1
Riva is a mother. She explains about her nightmares from the past. She is brought back to 1939, when the Nazi's were in control. -
Chapter 2-4
We are in Lodz, Poland. They have a big pretty tree and close friends they love. The Germans invade Poland, their close friends are now against them. Their house is raided, things are taken from them. The oak tree is cut down. 1940 & a Nazi kicks Riva on the ground so he can get through. A pregnant woman falls and someone tries to help her. He got hit by a Nazi. The Nazi's take more people. -
Chapter 5-6
May of 1940. People are locked in the ghetto of Lodz. Everyone is going hungry. They are no longer aloud to learn anyhting. The Nazi's have taken everything they can. Riva and her mother work at a shop sewing German coats. Laibele has tuberculosis and the house has no more wood. They hide him from the Nazi's, in hopes he gets better. Mama gets put on the left, which means she is deported. Riva's legs swell up and she can't walk. She has to take care of the three boys now. -
Chapter 7-9
Motele brings her a tangerine. He traded his bread for it. They take her to the doctor, and he says he can not do anythign for her. Riva makes braid rugs now, since she is bedrest. They trade their bread for vitamins. Riva starts to get better. -
Chapter 10-14
Riva now has legal custody of the kids after a long fight with a judge. Their neighbor Shmulek comes home and tells them about the labor camp. He stays with a friend of Riva's because it's wrong of him to stay there. Riva has started writing letters, in case her family comes home. Jewish Police tear apart the house searching for Shmulek. Motele steals wood to keep the house warm. -
Chapter 15- 20
It's spring now, and Laibele dies in Riva's arms. Yulek is sent to their house to help them out. Riva has to vacate her home now and find somewhere else. They move to another building and have a secret library. Riva gets a new job cutting fabric. Riva's name is on the teen list, her boss puts a different name to save her family. Yulek and Faygele are on the list, Riva helps them pack. -
Chapter 21-25
Deportation orders speed up, they keep hiding from the Nazi's. They decide to go to the railroad station and volunteer to leave. They go with a family they consider their own. They are stuck in cattle cars and put to the labor camp. Their heads are shaved, they are stripped, and they are all separated and put into cots with one another, crammed and surrounded by dead bodies. -
Chapter 26-29
They have multiple head counts, some women jump to quickly for food and get it dumped on them. They burn badly. They are to stand over holes and pee, then are rushed out. More peopel die in the barracks, and more peopel arrive. Someone calls a bomb attack, but it is really people trying to bomb the Nazi's. They are moved to a different location. -
Chaoter 30-35
The girls are sent to a camp that has no gas chambers, no ovens, but the commander is a woman. The girls get new clothes and are no longer in rags. They march to a factory and dig tunnels to save Germans from bombs. The lady commander made a girl whip her sister for stealing food. Riva gets a pencil her friend stole, and writes a poem on a brown bag. -
Chapter 36-42
Rive has a cut and has blood poisoning. She gets taken to a hospital and is refused medical attention. She has it cleaned and a wrap put on and taken back to the camp. She gets bettter and the camp doctor teaches her to wrote left handed. A guard gave Riva a notebook for her poetry. -
Chapter 43-47
It's 1945 now. Riva goes back to work, rolling up bandags for the workers that get hurt. The girl named Katia gives RIva a warm bath, and brings her food to work. The girls are moved to different camps, they dig trenches now. The Nazi's flee the pack of marching girls, they are free. A russian solider comes and gets them at their camp. -
Chapter 48
Riva is back in her time, done telling her story.