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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the statement, "he has gone to the wire" refer to?

2. What was Sonderbehandlung?

3. Why were the SS men so concerned when they saw the bodies in the pit in the daylight?

4. Who was the dead girl that Filip had to undress from his hometown?

5. What was Vacek's first victim's handicap?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were the newly arrived prisoners standing outside the crematorium told by the SS men in order to get them to undress calmly?

2. What did Filip wonder about Stark as he thought of the man's actions at the camp?

3. What did the lawyer in Chapter 1 do that cost him his life?

4. Besides the gas chamber, what other means of mass murder were used at Auschwitz?

5. Describe the cell that Filip and the others were taken to after they had put the corpses into the pit.

6. Whose dead body did Filip realize he was taking cheese and matches from in the crematorium in Chapter 2?

7. What were Filip's thoughts after he and Maurice were caught drinking tea and awaited punishment?

8. What was "sport" at Auschwitz?

9. What did Vacek do when the men got in line behind the wooden tea vats?

10. What dream did Filip have the night he and the others finished the burial of the corpses in the pit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think Filip Muller's reasons are for writing this book? How might his reasons for writing the book relate to his suicide attempt in the gas chamber? Do you believe those reasons to be valid? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

The prisoners in the Family Camp refuse to defend themselves when they twice learn that they will be gassed.

1) Why would these people not want to fight for their lives if they knew they were going to die anyway?

2) Explain the thinking amongst the people in the camp.

3) Include some history as to what brought them to this point.

Essay Topic 3

During the morning drill of "Caps on! Caps off!", Vacek has the men repeat the drill dozens of times. What is the meaning behind this seemingly senseless drill for Vacek? Explain why Vacek has the men continually repeat the drill.

(see the answer keys)

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