The Cage - Softcover

Sender, Ruth Minsky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068981321X ISBN 13: 9780689813214

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1997

Synopsis

A testament to the enduring strength of the human spirit, family, and, above all, hope, this “vivid memoir of a woman who lost her youth and family to the Nazis” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) is a Holocaust survival story that will be remembered for generations.

As long as there is life, there is hope...

After Riva’s mother was taken away by the Nazis, Riva and her younger brothers were left to cling to their mother’s brave words to help them endure life in the Lodz ghetto. Then the family is rounded up, deported to Auschwitz, and separated. Now Riva is alone.

At Auschwitz, and later in the work camps at Mittlesteine and Grafenort, Riva vows to live, and to hope—for Mama, for her brothers, for the millions of other victims of the nightmare of the Holocaust. And through determination and courage, and unexpected small acts of kindness, she does live. And this unforgettable memoir of love, strength, and survival is her story.

About this title

About the Author:

Ruth Minsky Sender was a teacher of Jewish culture and history, specializing in the Holocaust. She lives with her husband in Commack, New York. She is the mother of three grown sons and a daughter, and has several grandchildren. The Cage was her first book; she is also the author of To Life, and The Holocaust Lady.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up This reflective Holocaust memoir presents a series of brief scenes from 1939, when the author was 12 and Hitler invaded Poland, through the Russian liberation of the Mitelsteine labor camp in 1945. Like many other survivors of the Holocaust who have written accounts, Sender presents harrowing descriptions of life and death in the ghetto and concentration camps, and gives fervent testimonials to the love, strength, and dignity that helped make her survival possible. However, this telling stands out in other, equally important respects. Riva's widowed mother is arrested early on, and much of the first part of the book concerns the then 16-year-old's courageous efforts to preserve a family with her younger brothers. Later, after a brief ordeal in Auschwitz, Riva is transported to a slave labor camp, where she becomes seriously ill. Remarkably, a camp doctor is able to convince the S.S. commandante that Riva should be treated in a hospital outside the camp. This extraordinary situation allows Riva, and readers, rare glimpses of wartime German civilian life, and of the small sparks of compassion and humanity still present in her Nazi captors. Older students with previous knowledge of the subject will find Sender's narrative moving and thought provoking. But because of the book's sparse, impressionistic writing style, and its highly selective content, The Cage should be purchased only as a supplement to well developed and much used Holocaust collections. Ruth Horowitz, Notre Dame Academy Girls High School, Los Angeles
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 068981321X
• ISBN 13: 9780689813214
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256