Part 1

1. In the Spring of 1942, where are all Jews in Gerda's town forced to go?
2. Where do the Weissmanns live in the Jewish Ghetto?
3. Why does the “drunken, jubilant mob” in Bielitz believe it has been liberated?
4. Where does Gerda spend most of her time before she is sent away?
5. How are Erika's mother and little brothers treated by the soldiers, and why?
6. Why did Gerda’s city Bielitz, which was a textile center, have a higher standard of living than almost anywhere else in Poland does?
7. Describe Gerda’s home and yard.
8. What type of job is Gerda given in the work camp? Does she enjoy the work?
9. What are Gerda's mother's last words to her?

Part 2

1. What offer is made to Gerda, and what makes her rethink rejecting it?
2. “Now I have to live,” Gerda reflects on the train.  What reasons does she give for wanting to live?
3. Bolkenhain is Gerda’s first view of the “homeland of Nazism."  How do the Germans there seem different from those she observed in Poland?
4. What is “propoganda,” and what effect has it had on the German people’s preconceptions about Jews?
5. What name does Gerda give her bunks?
6. What kind of hope does Frau Kugler give Gerda?
7. Why do the in mates of Bolkenhain have to wear three stars?
8. Why is it necessary that they be identified as Jews from every angle?
9. Why does Mrs Berger slap one of the girls?
10. To Gerda's surprise and joy, who is at the new camp?
11. What message does Gerda communicated in the play she writes and performs for her fellow prisoners? What does Gerda get out of the experience of putting on the play, and why does she count it as the “greatest thing I have done in my life”?
12. How does Abek look when Gerda is finally allowed to see him?
13. Why is Abek hurt by Gerda's hug?
14. In Grunberg, for what does Gerda trade her mother's pendant?
15. Explain the terms Betriebsleiter and Spinnerei? 
16. What turn in the war causes the march to Czechoslovakia?
17. What does Gerda remember about the woman who dies on top of her in her sleep?

Part 3 and Epilogue

1. What is the significance of the white flag hanging from the church steeple in Volary?What does Gerda receive for her birthday, and from whom?
2. Why does Gerda begin to convulse in the hospital?
3. How long has it been since Gerda was allowed to take a bath?
4. What does Gerda have to completely relearn?
5. Gerda writes, “Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden."  What does she mean by this?

Some questions appropriated from Darryle Clott's review of this memoir from this site: Museum Fellowship Teaching Resources for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum