No Pretty Pictures

At night, Anita and her brother arrive at a concentration camp. She thinks it’s the Plaszow camp, but she’s not sure. The Nazis put the Jews into two groups and take one group away. Soon, Anita hears a shooting. A mother whose son is in the second group screams at a guard. She wants to know why they shot her son instead of Anita’s little brother. The distraught mom scares Anita and her brother more than the Nazis.

Anita and her brother are separated too. Her brother is with Uncle Samuel, and Anita stays in a women’s barrack with Aunt Bella and Cousin Raisa. Anita settles into a bunk with a hay-filled burlap sack. Raisa returns with tea and bread. Anita falls asleep and wakes up to a loud alarm. It’s still dark, but it’s morning, and the prisoners line up outside for roll call. Anita tells herself not to stand out and not to go to the bathroom, and she wonders what happened to the distraught mom.

The women go to food, but Raisa pulls Anita away and toward a warm, stone house, where Anita gets to use an indoor bathroom and eat bread, bacon, and kielbasa.