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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 supply is said to be scarce and often withheld from the people in the camp?

2. In which country is the ghetto that Kovály and her family are taken located?

3. What is the apartment like that Kovály is assigned?

4. What happens to the people who are staying in Auschwitz as the allied forces advance?

5. What are the living conditions in the ghetto?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Kovály keep up to date with Margolius' trial when she is in the hospital?

2. What is said to have been the main topic of discussion for out of work Czechs after the war?

3. Following her meeting with the Party committee in 1963, what does Kovály make efforts to have done?

4. What is Kovály's last meeting with Margolius like?

5. How does the Margolius' lives change after Rudolf accepts a high-ranking government job?

6. How is Kovály treated differently at the hospital when it became known that her husband had been arrested?

7. How are Kovály and Margolius able to communicate after his arrest?

8. Why is Kovály summoned before a Party committee in 1963?

9. How does Kovály describe the feeling in Prague by the middle of 1951?

10. Why do Kovály and her friends decide to try to escape the camp guards?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the Holocaust. How is it portrayed in "Under A Cruel Star"? What is the Holocaust and why does it occur? What is Hitler's role in this horrific chapter in human history?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. When does it occur and how does it affect Kovály? Why does the Soviet Bloc feel compelled to occupy Czechoslovakia?

Essay Topic 3

What is the historical relevance of this story? Why is Kovály's story important to read about? What elements of this story are relevant and why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 785 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample