Milkweed

Stopthief/Misha returns to the little girl’s house, where he finds arrows leading him to a buried piece of chocolate-covered candy. Misha and the little girl talk, and Misha asks if she is a Jew. She says yes, though her family tells her to keep it secret. The girl is six, going on seven and estimates, based on his height, that Misha is eight.

She invites him to her birthday party the next day and he agrees to come. The following day, when Misha arrives at the house, the little girl tells him that he is late and that some of her friends have already left. She invites him inside, where adults light candles on a beautifully-frosted cake in the shape of a garden and house. When Misha realizes they are setting the cake on fire, he quickly blows out the candles and steals the cake, bringing it back to Uri.

When Misha tells this to Uri, the older boy laughs at him, and proceeds to explain birthday candles to him. Misha finds this amusing as well, and they both proceed to eat the cake. The next day, Misha steals the prettiest cake he can find from the bakery and sets it on Janina’s front step. After putting candles into it, he runs away. Later, he sees fires in the distance that remind Misha of the birthday candles. When Misha gets closer however, he sees that there are men holding torches in front of the bakery he’d stolen from that day. The storefront window has been vandalized with a large yellow star and the men proceed to paint the baker’s face and beard.

The men force the baker out of his clothes and continue to paint his body under the threat of violence. The men laugh at the baker and eventually allow him to return back to his house. It is only then that Misha realizes there are men with torches everywhere, and that all along the street there are Jackboots humiliating Jewish men. Misha thinks that he is glad not to be a Jew. The next day, Misha and Uri head out into the street, where they see a number of Jewish people painting the word “Jew” onto their storefronts. Uri explains that this is so some people will not purchase goods from them.

Misha asks if Uri will have to paint the word on their barber shop but Uri explains that no one knows they live there and that no one would believe that a redhead is Jewish anyway. The chapter ends with Misha saying that he is glad he isn’t Jewish. Uri says that Misha should not be too glad about that fact.

Uri and Misha are forced out of their makeshift home when Jackboots ransack the building in the middle of the night. Uri wakes Misha up and they both grab their shoes and coats before running away. They hear gunshots behind them. The boys keep moving while they search for a place to sleep. They finally sleep among piles of rubble and are constantly cold. Misha remarks that the days of sleeping in beds and sitting in chairs are over; their icebox filled with food is gone, and the boys find that stealing food has become more difficult.

Uri has to go farther out to steal pickles and though they are able to feed themselves, the days of plenty seem to be over. Uri steals candy just for Misha, and the younger boy is delighted whenever he finds one filled with hazelnut buttercream. Misha recounts stealing bread from a wealthy woman, and that she called him a “dirty Jew” (40). In retaliation, Misha screams his name in her face and tells her that he is a Gypsy. When she once again berates him, he calls her a “dirty bread lady” and stomps on the bread while she looks on (40).

The day after, Misha steals five loaves of bread and when Uri tells him that he’ll give the rest to orphans, Misha insists that he is no longer an orphan and not like the other boys. Misha has now become the boy in the story Uri once told him. Uri brings Misha and the loaves to Doctor Korczak, who thanks them for their bread for the orphans. This spurs Misha to steal an extra loaf of bread and leave it on the step of Janina’s house. When Misha returns the day after, the loaf of bread is gone from the doorstep.