Chapters 1 - 6, Alienation, Exchange, New Arrivals, Without Pity, Death of the Zugang, Salvation Summary and Analysis

The book opens with Sara lying on her mattress in a three-decker bed in Stutthof, a World War II concentration camp located three hundred miles north of Auschwitz that opened in 1939. She hoped to survive the war there, which consoled her after having been brought to camp through a terrible three day trip without food or water. The first drop of water she had was wonderful.

Sara's group was the first Jewish transport to arrive in Stutthof and they received little sympathy from the other prisoners. They felt alienated and it was the isolation that hurt Sara most of all. When Sara was in the Bialystok prison prior to Stutthof, she had the same experience. A block...