In this Chapter Irene finds out all the Jews will be wiped out by the 22nd of the month. This is also when she realizes that the house that she planned to hide her friends in will not be ready by the 22nd of the month. She needs to think of a place to keep them until the house is ready. To make matters worse she now only has six days left to think of a plan to help her friends. Irene ponders what to do desperately until she comes up with a new plan and a way to help other people then her friends also. She tells her friend Helen to spread the word about the Germans killing all the Jews and try to keep some other Jews safe also. She wants to save as many people as possible..... Soon the day comes when the soldiers arrive at the hotel to take all of the Jews. Irene prays that her plan will work. What she decided on was hiding her friends in a secret compartment they built in the laundry room until the soldiers leave. Irene comes very close to being caught when one solider ask to see the laundry room to make sure all of the Jews were taken. Luckily, he doesn't think to check in the little compartment. Although her friends are safe for the time, she knows she can't keep them there until morning because people would find them. She needs to pick another place to hide them. This is when she realizes she can hide them in the Major's bathroom behind a wall grate. Although, she will have to wait for darkness before she can sneak them in.
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In this Chapter Irene finds out the Germans are planning to eliminate all the Jews in the city by the end of the month. Irene is panicked and tells the news immediately to her friends in the laundry room. She has no idea how she is going to help them. That is until the Major decides he is going to rent a villa outside the hotel and picks Irene to be his maid. Irene and the Major go looking for villas until the Major and Irene decide on a villa that is perfect... Not only for the Major, but for Irene's plan to help her friends escape. In the villa they are renting there is a large basement and coal chute, a great place for her friends to live in and stay hidden.
In this Chapter Irene reunites with her old friend Helen. Helen and Irene agree to stay in touch this time around because Helen has moved close to the hotel Irene lives in. In this Chapter Irene also becomes aware that the Germans aren't winning the war in the east. This means that the Germans are trying to eliminate the Jews faster because they might not win the war. Irene's friends in the laundry room know this is happening and some of them decide they are going to try to escape into the woods. They ask Irene for help and she knows that she must help them. The only question on her mind is how is she going to help them? After thinking she decides she can sneak her friends out using a wheelbarrow Helen will lend to her. When the night finally arrives Irene successfully gets her friends out of the hotel and into the forest... A few days after this happens Irene visits a Church. Inside she hears a priest preaching about how everyone should help the Jews. Irene suddenly has the urge to confide her life to him. After mass is over she discusses her issues with him. After the heartfelt talk, the priest tells her to visit him whenever she gets the chance.
In this Chapter the weather starts getting colder and Irene's friends working in the laundry room look cold in their summer clothes. Irene goes to Schulz and lies about being cold. She asks for blankets for herself, but instead intends to give them to the Jews in the laundry room. Irene is sure she has fooled Schulz, but instead she realizes something.... Schulz wants to help her. He knows she is going to give these blankets to the Jewish people. He can tell she is lying to him and yet, he still wants to help her. She is now confused. She wants to hate all Germans, but she knows she can't after this experience. Soon, it is Christmas time and it is getting busier in the hotel. Irene gets two new helpers named Sozia and Roman. They were just married and are happy even though they are still prisoners. Although this all changes on Christmas. There is a big party and Roman meets someone he knew before the war who is now dating Rokita. She hates Roman and his wife. When Roman and Sozia don't show up for work the next day Irene knows Rokita must have killed them. She is crushed, but she knows there was only so much she could do to help them. Another thing that has happened since Christmas is Rokita keeps trying to get Irene's sister Janina to become his girlfriend. Irene can't have this keep happening to her younger sister so she asks Schulz if Janina can be sent home. Schulz agrees, but says Irene has to stay. Irene is sad, but she knows she has to protect her sister.
In the beginning of this Chapter Irene explains that although she tries to spy on Rokita she can't always tell when something terrible might happen. Unfortunately, something bad happened in this Chapter before Irene became aware of it... One morning one of Irene's Jewish friends in the laundry room, Fanka, doesn't show up for work. Everyone thinks she could have been taken and killed by the Germans. Irene thinks this might be true also, but she still wants to try to save her. Irene comes up with a plan to get into the Jewish ghetto and look for Fanka. When she finds Fanka she is hiding because her parents were killed the night before. Fanka is devastated, but Irene insists that she carry on her life and job for the sake of her parents.
In this Chapter Irene continues to work for the Germans in their hotel kitchen. Irene is kept busy not only in the kitchen, but in the laundry room, a new part of her job. In the laundry room she meets some Jews who are under her control. At first, they are weary of her, but then they realize she is going to try to help them. She asks them about their lives and they tell her about how they are living in horrible conditions under a heartless general named Rokita. One day she meets Rokita in the dining room and is astounded by how handsome he is. Immediately, she knows she can use this to her advantage... She learns that she can hover around him for a longer time and listen to his conversations without him becoming skeptical of her. She knows he will just think she is interested in him. Even though Irene is only a girl she knows that she can help out. She pretends she is struggling with the work load and asks for more Jews to help her around the hotel. She wants to get as many people out of the terrible conditions of the ghetto. Another way she uses her age and looks to her advantage is by staying around longer when cleaning Rokita's table. One day she overhears Rokita talking about something like a rebellion. Irene realizes she can do this because she is only a girl and no one will suspect of her of anything.
In this Chapter Irene moves with her sister. There she continues her work at the restaurant, but becomes more and more angry over the war every day. Irene decides the only thing she can do is go to Church. So, one day at Church Irene and her sister meet two women named Helen and Pani. They quickly become friends and Helen tells them her husband is in a prison camp for Jews. As time goes on and the four women grow closer they decide they should try and visit Helen's husband. Although, when the get to the prison camp a terrible surprise awaits them. Jewish people of all ages are being tortured and shot right before their eyes. Children, women, men, the elderly are all being killed if the don't move fast enough. After watching this, Irene and her friends are horrified and head for home. They can't believe how terrible the Jewish people are being treated.
In this part of the book Irene decides to do something very dangerous. She walks outside behind the kitchen where she works and digs a tiny hole on her side of the fence. This hole connects to the place where the Jewish people were being kept. After she digs the hole she places food underneath it to feed the Jews... She does this despite the fact that she knows if people catch her doing this she will be killed. Two other important things that happened were that her sister starts working with her and also their business is now being moved to Ternopol. After Irene and her sister find out they are moving they get a letter from their mother saying her she and Irene's sisters are being forced to work in coal mines. She is afraid their family won't reunite until after the war. The final thing that happens in this chapter is all the Jewish in Irene's town are gone. Irene wakes up one day to see that they have all disappeared....
At the start of this Chapter Irene is forced to work hard in an ammunition factory. The only positive thing about her job is that she still is in her hometown of Radom. One day as the head of the factory is walking past, Irene faints. When she wakes up she is in his office. When the head of the factory finds out Irene can speak German he offers her a job in a restaurant nearby. Irene is also allowed to go home to her sister and aunt. The first day Irene shows up to the restaurant she is nervous, but it turns out the head chef is kind. He offers her food everyday and even lets her bring the remainders back to her sister and aunt. Irene is almost happy again. That is until one day Irene looks out the window. She sees into the place where all the Jews are being kept in and witnesses a horrible killing of some of the Jews. Irene screams, but the head chef finds her and tells her to be quiet. He tells her bad things happen to those who support Jews. Irene is astonished... She can't believe what just happened.
In the beginning of this Chapter Irene learns how everything in "Poland" has changed. She learns how unfairly the Polish people are being treated and how may rules they have to follow. Many of them have been killed and taken away, but her family is lucky. Irene also finds out that all the Jews have been taken into one fenced in part of town. No one why they are there and what is going on in there. Although, Irene's reunion with her family doesn't last long. Soon, her father is taken away by the Germans to help them in war because he is an engineer. Irene and her family are devastated and her mother decides they need to visit him. Irene wants to go, but her mother tells her only her three youngest sisters can go because the older two look German, which could get her mother in trouble. Irene and her other sister Janina are upset, but they know it is for the best. For the next month her and her sister are constantly worrying and looking for places to get food. One day at Church, when Irene is alone, soldiers burst in and force Irene and the other people in the Church into the town square. There, they select people to get on their trucks and be taken to work for them. Unfortunately, Irene is one of those people. At the end of this Chapter Irene looks back at her home as the truck is pulling away and wonders if this is the last time she will see it and her sister again.
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September 2016
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