Special Sub-Topic: "The Cage" by Ruth Minsky Sender Click Here To Play: "The Cage" by Ruth Minsky Sender

The first chapter takes place in the present time(around when the book was written). What is the name of the author's daughter?

Nancy. Ruth and her husband have four children, Laibele (Louis), Avromele, Chaim (Harvey), and Nacha (Nancy).

What is the last name of the Minskys' landlady?

Gruber. Mrs. Gruber, the landlady, lives in the same building as the Minskys before the war, along with her daughter, Olga, and Olga's son, Harry.

Riva's older sisters, Mala and Chana, and her older brother, Yankele, escape to what country?

Russia. Mala and Chana later move to the USA, after the war. Yankele moves to Canada.

Which Polish ghetto do Riva and her family live in?

Lodz. A city in central Poland, it had the second largest Jewish population before the war.

While in the ghetto, one of Riva's younger brothers, Laibele, died. What disease did he succumb to?

Tuberculosis. Laibele spent many months in bed, unable to walk. He died about six months after the children's mother was taken away.

Laibish and Rifkele Boruchowich are friends of the Minskys. What was the name of their sister, Riva's best friend, who died around the same time as her brother?

Chanele. Like Laibele, Chanele died of TB. Mrs. Boruchowich considers Riva one of her own children.

Rifkele Boruchowich finds an old friend when she, Riva, and Karola arrive at Auschwitz. What is the friend's name?

Tola. Tola lost her children to the ovens in Auschwitz. She quickly becomes friends with Riva and Karola.

When Riva is in the work camp at Mittelsteine, she injures her hand. She is taken to a hospital in the town of Glatz by an overseer. What is the overseer's name?

Lotta. Riva had a bad infection in her hand. To get to Glatz, she had to go on a train, where she stood in the corner, and then she had to walk in the gutter. It took Lotta a ling time to find a hospital that would treat her.

What is the name of the camp that Riva is in when she is finally liberated?

Grafenort. The date was May 5, 1945. The guards had been planning to kill the girls from Grafenort in the woods but the Russians arrived and the guards ran away.

Riva's mother's favorite saying "As long as there is life, there is ______."

hope. Riva always remembered that saying through everything she went through.