The Light in Hidden Places

Sharon Cameron is the best-selling author of The Light in Hidden Places, a YA historical fiction published in 2020. The protagonist, Stefania Podgórska, was a real-life person who hid 13 Jews during the Holocaust. Cameron spent years researching Stefania’s life, speaking to those close to her, including her son and sister, and reading her unpublished memoir. Thus, Cameron is uniquely qualified to turn Stefania’s life into a literary work. Stefania’s narrative centers on themes of bravery, determination, sacrifice, and choosing kindness over cruelty.

The page numbers in the study guide refer to an eBook version of the 2020 Scholastic Press edition.

Content Warning: The source material contains violence, antisemitism, and countless traumas that inevitably correspond to Holocaust narratives.

Plot Summary

Stefania Podgórska hates her idyllic childhood on her farm in Poland. At 13, she moves to a big city, Przemyśl, and lives with two of her older sisters. She works at the Diamants’ shop. They’re Jewish, and Stefania is Catholic, but the family welcomes her warmly, and Stefania grows close to Mrs. Diamant. She moves in with them and starts a romantic relationship with one of the sons, Izio. They plan to marry.

World War II begins, and Nazi Germany invades Poland. The Nazis make a pact with Russia, and Russia takes over Stefania’s side of Przemyśl. There’s surreal destruction, and Stefania and the Diamants must hide in a cellar. When Nazi Germany declares war on Russia, the bombing starts again. Nazis occupy Stefania’s side, and they spread virulent antisemitism. People vandalize the Diamants’ shop, and Nazis stop Mrs. Diamant while she’s walking outside and take her boots.

The Diamants, along with the rest of the Jews, move to a ghetto. With the building empty, Stefania makes friends with Emilika, who works at a photo studio. Stefania sneaks into the ghetto to bring the Diamants food. The Nazis send Izio to a work camp, and Emilika helps Stefania forge papers so she can take a train to see him. After she kisses the camp guard’s cheek, she speaks to Izio, and they form an escape plan. Due to train delays, the plan fails, and the Nazis torture and kill Izio. Stefania is traumatized.

Stefania goes to her farmhouse and finds her little sister, Helena, bruised and alone. She yells at a neighbor for hitting her and then brings her to Przemyśl. Helena is sick and malnourished, but a doctor treats her, and the sisters become a team. Stefania regularly sees and hears horrible violence and does not hide what’s happening from Helena.

The Nazis send Mr. and Mrs. Diamant to a concentration camp. They also send two of the Diamant sons, Max and Chaim, to a concentration camp, but Max jumps off the train and returns to Stefania’s apartment. Also arriving at the apartment is Danuta—the girlfriend of Max’s brother, Henek. Emilika sees Danuta, who is Jewish, so Stefania lies to Emilika and says she’s run away because she’s pregnant. Danuta and Max return to the ghetto to be with Henek.

Stefania gets a job making screws at a factory, and she continues to sneak into the ghetto and bring food to the Diamant brothers and the other Jews. A handsome Polish policeman, Markus Berdecki, catches her sneaking out but lets her get away. He likes her and comes to her apartment.

Max returns to the apartment and asks Stefania to hide him and some other Jews, suggesting that Emilika might help. Stefania carefully brings up the topic, but Emilika thinks the idea is ridiculously dangerous. She also suspects Stefania might be a Nazi spy and is trying to trap her.

In church, Stefania realizes she has to hide the Jews. She finds a bigger apartment, and Max digs a bunker. Later, he turns the larger attic space into a hideout. Berdecki tells Stefania he knows her secret, and Stefania thinks he’s alluding to her plan to hide Jews. She sees him at his apartment. He prepares a nice meal, and they kiss. Stefania likes it, but when Berdecki says her secret has to do with kissing and not her life-or-death situation, she curses Berdecki and storms out.

The Jews leave the ghetto in ones and twos to avoid attracting attention. En route, they face difficulties—someone robs one of the Jews—and must improvise, but they all manage to make it out. Soon, Stefania and Helena are caring for 13 Jews, and the stress and drama are constant. Lubek, a young man at the factory, visits often. He wants to marry Stefania, and Max is jealous. To fool Lubek and others, Emilika gives Stefania a picture of a man from the SS (Schutzstaffel, the Nazis’ elite security force)—people think she’s dating a Nazi, not hiding Jews.

A new hospital opens across the street, and two selfish German nurses move into the apartment by order of the Germans. Their presence makes it almost impossible to help the increasingly malnourished Jews in the attic. One of the nurses hits Helena, and they bring an SS man over because they think there are rats in the attic. The SS man is scared of rats, and Stefania tells the SS man about the nurses’ brutal behavior. The SS man takes her side.

Stefania’s factory is moving to Berlin, and, to avoid going, she needs to get a doctor’s note and a medical card. The doctor experiments on her during her medical exam, but she gets her medical card. The doctors try to take Stefania back to Berlin to study her case, but she evades them. The Russians then conquer Poland, and Russian soldiers call Stefania a hero. She realizes she belongs with Max, and they kiss.