Chapters 1-8

Reading Check

1. His own slide projector (Chapter 1)

2. Books about America, doctors, and medicine (Chapter 2)

3. Uncle Abraham’s bakery (Chapter 4)

4. The pigeon coop on the apartment’s roof (Chapter 5)

5. The “ceremony in which a Jewish boy becomes a man—the first time he reads aloud from the Torah” (Chapter 6)

6. 7000 Jews (Chapters 6-7)

Short Answer

1. Poles and Germans stopped buying from Yanek’s father’s store, food became more expensive, and the Polish boys stopped playing with Yanek at school. Eventually, school is cancelled for all Jewish boys. (Chapter 2)

2. Yanek’s father believes that the period of hardship for Jews will pass and the best thing for the family to do is “keep [their] heads down.” On the contrary, Uncle Moshe believes the problems are long lasting and he is concerned for their future. (Chapter 2)

3. A ghetto is a neighborhood in which only Jews are allowed to live. Yanek’s neighborhood of Podgórze becomes the Jewish ghetto of Kraków, meaning that all Jews must move there, and all non-Jews must leave.