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Georgia HunterA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapters 1-3
Part 1, Chapters 4-8
Part 1, Chapters 9-11
Part 1, Chapters 12-14
Part 2, Chapters 15-17
Part 2, Chapters 18-21
Part 2, Chapters 22-25
Part 2, Chapters 26-30
Part 2, Chapters 31-34
Part 2, Chapters 35-38
Part 2, Chapters 39-43
Part 2, Chapters 44-47
Part 2, Chapters 48-49 and 51
Part 2, Chapters 50 and 52-53
Part 3, Chapters 54-57
Part 3, Chapters 58-60
Part 3, Chapter 61-Epilogue
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
Bella and Jakob are married in a secret ceremony in the basement of an abandoned building. Bella’s sister Anna is with her as she prepares for the ceremony and helps Bella feel better about the fact that their parents cannot be there.
Adam has become active in the resistance Underground and knew the building was a safe house, suitable for the wedding. He also found a rabbi to perform the ceremony, which was difficult because the Soviets have banned rabbis from practicing. Bella is grateful to Adam for all his help and is surprised at how Halina’s quiet boyfriend has become a master document counterfeiter: “By now, hundreds of Jews have pocketed his IDs, which he produces with such a meticulous hand, Bella would swear they are real” (66).
Wearing the wedding gown their mother had made for Anna’s wedding, Bella goes out to the foyer where the others are waiting. Quietly, the rabbi leads them through the wedding ceremony. Instead of a glass, he puts a burnt-out lightbulb into a handkerchief for Jakob to break; even a lightbulb is now too precious to waste.
At the modest dinner, Genek toasts the new couple, joking that it only took nine years for the nuptials. Jakob regrets having waited, thinking how if he had proposed a year ago, they could have had a proper wedding with all their parents and other family members in attendance. Jakob wishes he could have given Bella the wedding she deserves, but then he tells himself to let it go. He and Bella tell each other that they have never been happier.
Soldiers order the Kurcs to vacate their home by the end of the day. Nechuma and Sol have been preparing for this since two other Jewish families in their building faced eviction the week before. Their apartment is large and on one of Radom’s most desirable streets, so they knew it was inevitable. They had organized their valuables and put in an allocation request with the committee that handled housing for evicted Jews: “Still, nothing could truly prepare Nechuma for how it would feel to leave her home of over thirty years at 14 Warszawska” (74).
Nechuma and Mila pack while Sol and Halina carry their possessions to their new two-bedroom flat in the Old Quarter. With so little room in the new place, they must leave all their furniture and many prized heirlooms behind. Nechuma picks through boxes of mementoes, allowing herself to take a few pieces.
Nechuma wraps up their silver and porcelain to take with them. She shows Mila how she took two gold coins and covered them with fabric, to look like buttons, and placed them with the zloty bills they were able to withdraw, a fraction of their savings, before their bank accounts were frozen. Nechuma also packs her amethyst necklace, an extravagant piece she bought years ago in Vienna.
The German soldiers return to turn them out of the apartment. Nechuma looks over the apartment one last time, touching the piano that her children had practiced on for decades, straightening bedsheets and curtains: “It’s just temporary, she tells herself” (78). Nechuma glances at the portrait of her father-in-law on the living room walls and asks him to keep watch over their home, before walking to the door.
Six months have passed since Addy reported for duty in the Polish rifle division of the French Army. Since he has an engineering degree and is fluent in French and Polish, he is an officer in charge of a small squad. Addy finds that he has a talent for delegating tasks according to the men’s strengths. The platoon has been ordered to march to Poitiers, where they’ll join a military convoy headed to the border with Germany.
Addy thinks about the last letter he had from his mother, detailing all the changes that have occurred to the family: “He loathes the unease of feeling so far away, so helplessly removed from his family in Poland” (80). To try and counteract the helplessness he feels, Addy remembers the many good times the family shared in Radom.
As the men march, one of the soldiers whistles a song that Addy himself composed. The song was popular for a time in Poland, though the man does not know that Addy is its composer. Addy smiles and thinks about telling his mother about this in his next letter.
In these chapters, themes of family and home continue to emerge as the Kurc family struggles to adapt to the changes brought on by their new circumstances. Although their lives are in turmoil due to the war, they show a sense of denial that things will continue to worsen for them. These events lay the foundation for the theme of survival, which becomes prevalent throughout the narrative.
Bella and Jakob wed, but it is far from the kind of wedding they imagined before the war. Their parents cannot be there, and they are forced to have the ceremony in the basement of an abandoned building. Despite this, Bella reminds herself she should be happy: “She and Jakob had decided to marry here. […] She should focus on what she has, not what she doesn’t—on this night especially” (67). Jakob thinks about how he should have proposed to Bella sooner, to give her the kind of wedding she deserved. He promises her that he will someday give her the ring he has for her in Radom.
Back in Radom, the Kurcs there go through major and traumatic changes, as they are forced to vacate their home. Nechuma and Sol have tried to prepare for this eventuality, but it still is heartbreaking for Nechuma to give up the home where her children grew up. Just before leaving, she moves from room to room: “She tidies as if she is expecting company” (77). Nechuma hopes in her heart that this change is temporary and that they will someday return. Her extravagant amethyst necklace emerges as a symbol of the family’s once prosperous times. Nechuma packs this impractical item, holding onto the delusion that the family will eventually return to its happy, former status.
Addy, in very different circumstances now that he is part of the Polish contingent of the French Army, suffers from being so far away and out of touch with his family. Because it is so unbearable to think about what might be happening to them, Addy forces himself to stay positive: “And so, rather than imagine his parents and sisters evicted from their home and slaving away in some kitchen or factory under the Wehrmacht’s watch, he thinks of Radom—the old Radom, the one he remembers” (80). Since the uncertain present for his family is too frightening to think about, Addy tries to keep it from his mind.
On the march to Poitiers, Addy overhears a solider whistling a tune Addy composed in what he now sees as his previous life. Music is a recurring motif that reminds the Kurcs of the family’s better times, prior to the war. Music is integral to the Kurcs, and as a composer, music is a source of comfort to Addy during the war and its subsequent devastation.