A timeline of the book Soldier X by Don Wulffson.
Created by gcmsenglish7 on Nov 15, 2010
Last updated: 12/17/10 at 09:05 PM
MY NAME: Jordan Larson
MY CHAPTER NAME: “the front” and “the souvenir”
SUMMARY: Erik, Hals, Oskar, and Jakob just got to the frontlines were a group of more Hilter Youth troops where sent back and Erik and all his friends had to climb in. Feldwebel Rolf Dobelmann was giving the group of boys a lesson on throwing a stick grenade, shooting a Panzer Faust, and how to detonate a mine, and to warn them that the assault will come very soon. At night the Russians sent a huge bombardment and a horse came by pulling all of the causalities of the night. Something from the trench made Erik fly right out of the trench and then someone grabbed him and pulled headfirst right into the trench. Sitting against the wall of the trench with Hal’s right next to him. Hal’s head all of a sudden goes right onto Erik’s shoulders and Erik was wondering what he was doing when he realized that a warm, wet, stream of red was coming out of a dent in his helmet that is when Erik realized that he was dead. Dobelmann then reached down and grabbed him handed him Hals rifle and put him against the side of the trench looking down his sights and waiting for the enemy.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Mr. Long-Underwear ON PAGE 56:
“Rolf Dobelmann was a philosophy teacher and gymnastics instructor,” said Long-Underwear. “He’s married and has 3 kids. After a grenade went off almost in his face, and after months in a hospital, he had a friend write a letter home that he was dead. He was too ashamed of how he looked to go home. He reenlisted. The war took everything from him. The war, now, is all he has left.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: I predict that he is going to die and that he has nothing left to live for because the army took away everything he owns so he is probably is thinking why am I still fighting. My Proof is when Mr. Long-Underwear was saying that when a grenade almost went off right by his head and was in the hospital for months he made one of his friends write a letter home saying that he was dead and now he has nothing to live for because the army took everything away from him.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 60 :
“What are you doing?” I asked, feeling confused and irritated. He said nothing; he just continued to rest his head against me. It was then I noticed the warmth, the wetness. Blood was spilling from a gash in he deeply dented helmet. His eyes were blank, dotted with mud. I put my arms around him. I sobbed; I screamed his name, shaking him, trying to shake him back to life. A strong hand grabbed the back of my shirt. Dobelmann pulled me around to stare him in the face.
MY QUESTION: how did Hals die because he all of a sudden just dies right next to Erik like nothing happened with a huge dent in his helmet? Plus I really want to know more about what happened in the trench when Erik was propelled out and then dragged back in.
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: My proof is that he was just sitting against the wall of the trench and sitting right by Hal’s and then his head goes right on Erik’s shoulder then Erik felt very uncomfortable with that so he tried to get Hal’s attention but he didn’t answer that is when he noticed Hal was dead. Erik was very upset and crying and yelling that is when Dobelmann grabbed him, swung him around and ordered him into fighting position which really confused me because he happened really fast.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Oskar, Erik, and Dobelmann ON PAGE 61:
‘Hals is dead”
“I know.’ Replied Oskar, his voice a lifeless monotone. I realized that artillery was still being fired, but now it was coming from our side, from the heavy artillery emplacements on the hill behind us.
“We’re shelling them,’ said Oskar
“But they’re not shelling us,” I added
“That’s because they’re coming now!” hissed Dobelmann
CONNECTION: one time I was paintballing at Apocalypse and I remember that one of the pro’s was just standing there listening to my friend and I talk about how we are attacking them hard now and that we are going to win this. At the time we were also at a frontline mound of dirt fighting a couple of small attacks but after he said that they are coming for the huge assault I was really nervous. When they finally attacked it was a huge mess of paint, CO2 firing, and people yelling. After the battle that I survived the 2 guys and I fell back because we were afraid of a 2nd attack. So after a long, sweaty, hard day we left felling good about ourselves.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Oskar, Erik, and Dobelmann ON PAGE 61:
“Hals is dead
“I know.” replied Oskar, his voice a lifeless monotone. I realized that artillery was still being fired, but now it was coming from our side, from the heavy artillery emplacements on the hill behind us.
“We’re shelling them,” said Oskar
“But they’re not shelling us,” I added
“That’s because they’re coming now!” hissed Dobelmann.
INFERENCE AND PROOF: My proof is in one of the earlier chapters it said that Hals put a hole in the shrapnel from his head and tied it around his neck until the day he died. That is what Erik said when he was explaining what he was doing and at the end when Hals put it around his neck Erik said he wore it until the day he died. Then when he was in a trench on the frontline he was propelled out of the trench then quickly pulled back in and was seated right next to Hals just sitting there then finally Hals lays his head on Erik’s shoulder. Erik tried to get his attention but that’s when he noticed that there was a dent in his helmet with blood rushing down his face.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: I chose this picture because it reminded me of when Oskar was really scared and that a older looking soldier was yelling at him like he was scared and to get up and tell him to fight. I thought of this because Oskar was really scared when Dobelmann was standing there telling them that they were probably going to die and never see each other again.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: I Chose this video because I thought it took me into the action and what it would’ve been like for Erik and all of his friends to fight in a trench and see what it would look like to see people running at you who actually wants to kill you. Plus it helped me know what a battle was like for them and I all saw how young all of the German troops were
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia. I chose this website because I thought it gave me a lot of good information on what was going on over on the Eastern side of the war. This website also gives you information like Then Invasion, The Stalemate, the Counter Offensive, Battle of Kursk, Soviet initiative, Causalities, and the Historigraphy. HTTP://www.wordiq.com/definition/Eastern_front-ww11
http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/WW2/Air%20Power%20on%20the%20Eastern%20Front%20in%20World%20War%202.htm
MY NAME: James Colòn
MY CHAPTER NAME: “x”
SUMMARY: Erik is in a military hospital in Alreni, Russia. He can’t tell anyone who he is, because someone might find out
that he is with the German army, so he lies his way through by saying he doesn’t know what his name is and who he is
generally. Many people work at the hospital. But there are some common ones. Every morning he wakes up to eat the
regular, cabbage soup, tea and bread. I wonder if he will ever tell anyone his real name and who he I is? If I was Erik I would be very cautious about who I talk to, because anyone, even the nicest person, can somehow slip
those very secretive things about me to anyone. Since he has the uniform of a formal solder I think someone will think that
his name is the name on the uniform.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 92
PREDICTION AND PROOF: Right after Erik said, “Operated on me?” I thought he had no idea of what was going on with him
and what was going on around him. I think this because if he did know what was going on he wouldn’t have
said that as a question.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Nikolai ON PAGE : 94
MY QUESTION: Does Erik feel uncomfortable with where he is? Nikolai said, “Ah, so at least we know your name!”
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: Does Erik feel uncomfortable with where he is? Well, I would feel very uncomfortable
if I was Erik because I wouldn’t know anybody and I would be living a lie in a place I am going to spend a lot of time at, which would slower trend me into convincing myself into something that is not true, such as my ‘’fake’’ name and identity.
I think Erik is very uncomfortable because he doesn’t want to talk much and if he was comfortable he would be
more opened and talking to people and telling them his story but if he did he would be in major trouble.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Nikolai ON PAGE: 94
CONNECTION: When Nikolai said, “Ah, so at least we know your name!” I could tell he was glad because he knew more
about Erik, but everything he knows about him is a lie. For example, if someone new came around I would want
to known more than I already do, about the person.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY The Man behind Erik ON PAGE :94
INFERENCE AND PROOF: When the man behind Erik’s bed said, “Amnesia” I think that all of the people think that Erik
can’t remember his name because of amnesia. I infer that Erik will go on that he has amnesia because so far the people believe him. Also, he wanted no one to know his real personal identity for safety reasons, well if it’s going well then he might as well stick with his story so far.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This picture can give you an understanding of what Erik is living like in the hospital. http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/BB39E1B2-FD3C-4DEA-81B8-8E41CCE4F800/VV15082.jpg
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This video adds to my understanding of my chapter because it describes what nurses during WWII have been through and some of the things they had to overcome. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/289838-1
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia. This website helps my understanding about a Russian soldier before/during/after WWII. This website is about a Russian formal soldier who was apart of WWII and is being interviewed about his childhood and general life. http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-world-war-ii-russian-pilot-evgeny-stepanov.htm
http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-world-war-ii-russian-pilot-evgeny-stepanov.htm
SUMMARY: “Feurn!”: The chapter begins with fog, making everything hard to see. Russians run through the fog and Dobelmann tells Eric to “Feuern!”, to fire. Eric shoots his gun at the Russians, and sees the people around him are getting shot. When they are told to stop firing, Eric remembers a scene painted on a wall of a chapel in Vilsburg. An angel in the sky, above the earth, and as he remembers this he looks down and sees Hals, His friend Hals if dead and he’s wearing the piece of shrapnel around his neck.
“Tanks” At the beginning of the chapter, Eric recalls a fist-fight he as involve in back in Vilsburg. After the fight, when the adrenaline had left him, he describes being drained and could hardly move. After the attack he describes that as how he felt, except more. During the course of the attack a bullet had grazed his left arm. Eric thinks the battle is over at this point, but it had only begun, as he soon realizes. Everyone is grabbing for more ammunition when they see the tanks are coming. It’s a full, frontal assault and everyone starts to fire. A group of Germans including Eric throw grenades. The tanks finally fire and Oskar runs. Dobelmann always said to play dead, instead of run, but Oskar runs and gets killed. Eric is about to kill a Russian, but instead he runs away, not able to shoot. He slips and lands in a heap, a piece of shrapnel stuck in his knee, and gets caught under a tank.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Eric ON PAGE 67 :
“The battle was over, and we had won. Certainly no more would be expected of me.
PREDICTION AND PROOF: You know that Eric is wrong because, first of all, the chapter is called Tanks and we haven’t seen any tanks yet. Second, because of the line, “Certainly no more would be expected of me.” That’s like saying, “Well, this couldn’t get any worse.” Saying that is like asking a plane to land on you. You know it’s going to get much worse, and much more is going to be expected of Eric. Despite what he wants, you know the fight’s not over yet.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Eric ON PAGE 70 :
“Like children throwing rocks.”
MY QUESTION:
I wonder why Eric thinks of it like children throwing rocks. I mean, these are grenades that blow up and kill people. So I don’t understand what he’s saying when he means he’s throwing rocks. Why would he put it like that?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF:
I think he says that to set an air of desperation over the battle. Tanks are really big and grenades, in comparison, are small. On top of that, Eric and the rest of the boys who came with him have little experience with real grenades and guns because they didn’t actually use them when they were getting trained. They haven’t actually been really trained yet, so they don’t know what to do. They seem confused, because first, they are like children, and rocks meaning they have about as much effectiveness against the Russian men’s tanks.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Eric ON PAGE 67 :
“That is how I felt after the attack—only incredibly more so. I was rubbery-legged, shaky, and struggling to catch my breath. My ears rang; my jaw and head ached…”
CONNECTION:
I can connect to feeling just like that: so sure that everyone could hear my heart. Especially yesterday, at the spelling bee, the kid in front of me is spelling his word, all I’m thinking is “holy crap, holy crap, oh my gosh, holy crap,” ect. I literally felt like I was going to fall off the stage and my heart is going to explode. If that really had happened, except I had caught on fire, it would have been easier to take then getting eliminated. I think this is how Eric feels, like, after the attack is like when I’m waiting to spell my word, and when he realizes that there’s more battle yet to come in “Tanks” then it would have been easier to take if he had fallen off a stage, had his heart explode, and caught fire.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Oskar ON PAGE 70 :
“My God!” screamed Oskar. “Mein Gott!”
CONNECTION:
I can just imagine the feeling of hopelessness that Oskar is having wash over him right now. Despite the fact Dobelmann told them to never run, to play dead, Oskar is just hopeless, scared, and ready to scurry away from the awaiting death that’s coming towards him. And in the end, Oskar got killed. The feeling of true hopelessness that just kills everything in your mind and you just have to run away. I read a book once, about this feeling and it told you to just try to get away from it, but Oskar tried to get away from it and he got killed, ironically. The circumstance that he’s going through, that Eric is going through, the things that must be circulating through them is just awful. You can’t run, you can’t sit down, you can’t even breathe, but they still have to keep fighting, which is just amazing. These are 16 or 17 year old boys that are the age of my, like, sister, scared out of their wits, hopeless, and shooting people is impossible to imagine.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Eric ON PAGE 71 :
“I was looking at his face. I couldn’t shoot him.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF:
Eric can’t shoot the Russian for multiple reasons. Eric is as much Russian as he is German. The Soldier is begging Eric not to kill him; Eric even said he didn’t want to kill people, and it didn’t make a difference if it was German or Russian who he would be saving or killing. He knows what the Russian Soldier is saying because he understands Russian and instead, he runs the other way, having pity on the Soldier.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/844/medium/00-Jap_Tank_Tracks-2.jpg
It adds to my understanding because I don’t know what a tank looks like outside of a box on wheels with a big gun attached to it. On top of that, the tank is brown in comparison to the German’s green, so brown would be the color of the Russians. This picture shows the color of the Russians and what a tank actually looks like.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
Because I don’t know what actual battle looks like, in my mind, it’s just a bunch of guys running at each other with guns. Or the stick figure model Mrs. Franklin drew me. I don’t know what anything looks like or what actually happens. So, by looking at a video of the actual kind of battle happening, it adds to my understanding of what Eric went through in the war.
1:05 – 1:33 (mute sound)
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675034866_German-troops_troops-relax-prior-to-offensive_load-and-fire-artillery_dig-foxholes
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii This adds to my understanding because it explains how WWII started in comparison to Eric’s explanation of being sent out to join the German army in Russia, he had to. How WWII begins to blurry for me because Eric doesn’t tell me how or why, only that Russia and Germany have been fighting for some time and how he’s feeling at the moment. And, you can see what happens from a narrator’s view, like Poland attacked this place, instead of reading four chapters about actually fighting in that battle.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
SUMMARY: Erik Brandt, a German soldier, gets wounded during battle and goes unconscious. When he wakes up the battle is over, and the only sound he hears is Russian soldiers finishing off their wounded enemies. As his general had told him many times before, he played dead, and the Russians didn’t notice him. Yet, he couldn’t stay there forever and he would get noticed eventually, so he traded clothes with a dead Russian soldier next to him and went back into the Russian camp. When he arrives at the camp, a wounded German soldier pulls himself out of the rubble. Not wanting to hurt one of his own soldiers, he did nothing. The German soldier, seeing his uniform, thought Erik was one of the Russians and shot him, the bullet wounding his stomach.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 76: “If discovered, I would be killed. Even playing dead would not save me; even dead, once found, I would be skewered on the end of a bayonet.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: The Russian officers are so close and are stabbing the Germans that even are dead, I thought he would’ve either been noticed and captured, (because he can’t be killed it’s only about a third through the book!) or they would’ve left and he would’ve snuck back to his side. I never would’ve thought that he went to Russian lines.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 77 : “Hals had been killed, and before that, Willi had lost an arm, Fassnacht a foot. Oskar had been shot in the back, running away.”
MY QUESTION: How would it feel to have no arm, or no foot, and have people be staring at you all the time?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF:
You could be proud, to think, that you have lost this in the war, while risking your life to save your country. You could also feel ashamed and useless. Like this one loss had ruined your entire life. You couldn’t work. You couldn’t even go outside without being stared at. In the chapter, Loss, Erik’s friend, Nicholai, loses his legs. He is yelling at the doctor that he can’t cut off his legs. He needed to work and he had a wife and children that he needed money to care for.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 80: “…Then I did an even stranger thing: I waved at the Russians, as I had so many years ago at the Wehrmacht troops.”
CONNECTION: When I was little and at a parade, I would wave at the army veterans. This quote reminded me so much of when I was little, how they looked so big and powerful, like they could defeat anything.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik PAGE 80: “He looked up at me, and at first I didn’t realize that what he was seeing was the enemy- and perhaps his executioner.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: Erik must’ve felt like a coward and a traitor. To see a man of your own get shot down because he wounded you. And that only had happened because he had deserted his lines in fear of losing his life. When Erik saw those other men being killed by the Russians, he probably felt like one of them. Like a murderer.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This soviet soldier’s uniform was what he had changed into under the tank. He also tells about how he looks like someone totally different, like he was looking in a window with another person on the other side, rather than a mirror.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This is a WWII Russian tank, what he was trapped under in the first part of the chapter. He had swapped his clothes with the soviet boy’s and had crawled out with major wounds in that small of space underneath it.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: As it says in the first paragraph, Germany had 19 spies in Russia at this time. This makes me think about how they probably feel the same way, with living in a new country, and if you would be discovered you would be killed – but the spies are doing it for a very different reason.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/1942.html
MY NAME: Stephanie
MY CHAPTER NAME: Sounds of the past.
SUMMARY:
Tamara and Erick talk about each other’s lives outside the hospital which used to be Tamara’s school. They talk about how Tamara’s papa died and how she hates the communists while Erick still pretends to have amnesia. Also in the old house that Erick lives in Rubin got the antique radio and record player to work which filled the hospital with smiles and happy to hear music again until Tamara finds out her “boyfriend” died in battle, Erick tries his best to comfort Tamara and finds out that her “boyfriend” was actually her brother and was her last family member.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY: Tamara ON PAGE : 126-129 & 131-132
“I went to this school.” “Papa was in prison when I was born” “Do you ever wish you were a little kid again?” “I hate the Communists-just as much as I hate the Nazis,”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: I predict that Tamara loves Erick because she seems comfortable telling Erick everything about her and she doesn’t really talk to any other guy.
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I think he didn’t because he wants Tamara for himself and probably somewhat didn’t think of telling them in the first place because he already said her liked her and the patients never talk about how Isaak was actually her brother .
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Tamara: “No, Isaak wasn’t my boyfriend,” “He was my brother!” ON PAGE : 132
MY QUESTION: Did Erick tell the other patients at the hospital who are also in love with Tamara that her “boyfriend” was actually her brother and was dead now?
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Tamara: “I went to this school,” “Yes, when it was a school and not a place the war turned into.” ON PAGE : 126 & 127
CONNECTION: I remember when I was in 3rd grade I went to a school that used to be a hospital until half the hospital burned down and was bought and turned into a school. I remember it felt awkward going to school at a place that once saved peoples lives including my grandmas but I was also kind of scared to go this school sense I remember seeing people die here too. So I can somewhat relate to Tamara and how she has past memories of this building and is
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erick “ ON PAGE :132
INFERENCE AND PROOF: I think people saw Tamara hugging and weeping with Erick and might have felt jealous the way Erick did when he saw Tamara with Isaak.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: It helps me understand the way Erick felt in the new environment that he was living in.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: It helps me understand what happened in Hitler Youth and how at first he thought it would be fun and now he hates the war just like Tamara.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia.
This website helps me understand how the war started and ended and everything in between because at first I knew nothing about the war.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
MY NAME: Tony Wuesthofen
MY CHAPTER NAME: “My countrymen, my enemy”
SUMMARY: X ,Sergo and Tamera are continuing there walk through the woods they come along a farmer who tells them that they are in the Ukraine. They keep moving and find evidence of battle. They take some leftover backpacks and rifles and go to an empty house were they spend the night. The next morning they have to hide from german soljers . later that day a german soldier had his rifle pointed at Sergo. X shot him and then shot another german soldier that was coming after him. He heard many more german soldiers coming and he decited to yell in german “it’s a trap stay back”. Tamera was suprized the got away and ran into two other german soldiers they were so close that they could have seen and X was surprised that they didn’t. X realized that they left the backpack and the rifle far behind
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY X ON PAGE : 160
“Tamara was staring at me, terror and confusion in her eyes
PREDICTION AND PROOF:
I think that X knowing German will make their relationship split apart.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY X ON PAGE 156 :
“my own countrymen had become my enemy.
MY QUESTION:
At this point do you think X feels more like a Russian or a German?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF:
A Russian because he is part Russian and he is dressed like a Russian so the Germans are after him
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY X ON PAGE 157 :
“Amidst the flowers, sticking out from a grassy mound, were two skeletonized arms”
CONNECTION: In the book flowers somthing peaceful had something horrifying lying on it.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY X ON PAGE :156
Several large areas of the slope were covered with colorful sweeps of wild flowers in bloom.
INFERENCE AND PROOF:
That it is summer.
X said that it was very hot
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: What X means when he talks about mortar shells
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kue34wFn5iI
UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/wwiistarts.htm
SUMMARY:
Sixteen-year-old German soldier Erik Brandt is wounded in the abdomen, head, and leg and is in a schoolhouse, transformed into a hospital, in Alreni, Russia. He is disguised as a Russian soldier. A kind man named Nikolai is lying in the bed next to him. Erik admires Tamara Imanov, a pretty nurse who had the love and courage to stand up to a general for a paralyzed man; when she came to take Erik’s temperature and pulse, his pulse was racing. One day, Tamara went outside to meet a handsome, young soldier. They embraced, he gave her a blue scarf, and they kissed. This gave Erik a sinking feeling. Now, Erik is healing nicely and getting better. The Germans cut off Russian transport to Alreni, so the hospital was running short on supplies, and Erik’s bandage hadn’t been changed in a while. Now that patients stop coming in constantly, and the doctors and nurses are freed from performing constant surgery, they have time to take care of Erik. Erik is feeling nauseous, but doesn’t tell Dr. Swaroff so, because Tamara arrives. When a nurse takes Erik’s stitches out of his head she must pull hard to get them out, since they were left in too long. But, Erik holds himself together, despite the pain, since Tamara is watching. Without anesthetics, removing the tube in his abdomen, also left in too long, is very painful. Erik sweats while his abdomen is being stitched, and Tamara wipes his forehead and tells him he is brave. The cast on his leg is taken off and Erik’s knee is doing well. When Erik is rolled onto his back to take out stitches, he feels embarrassed that his rear is exposed. When the doctor is done, Erik is rolled back and the nurses leave. Next, Dr. Rostovick and Katerina turn their attention to Nikolai. Nikolai has a fever and suffers from headaches and night sweats. He has gone four days without antibiotics. Rostovick presses hard in different spots on Nikolai’s leg cast. It hurts a little in one place, but in all the other places it doesn’t hurt. The cast on his legs in taken off and his legs let off a terrible fetid smell. They are swollen and streaked with black. Nikolai does not feel a safety pin being poked into his leg. Rostovick announces that they will have to take off his legs to save his life. Nikolai is shocked and panics a little. The operation is done that night and he doesn’t talk the next day. In the afternoon, Erik walked around the ward, leaning on Tamara and another orderly. Nikolai’s eyes were on him, making Erik feel horrid. When back in bed, Erik stares at the ceiling, feeling bad. Later that night, Nikolai held Erik’s hand and said, “It’s all right son, I’ll make it.”
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Dr. Swaroff ON PAGE 114:
“Bed rest today,” he told Tamara. “Then I want him walking with support.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF:
As I was reading, I thought that since Erik is getting better, he will be sent back to the war, this time as a Russian soldier, as the Russian soldier Aleksandr Dukhanov. He is able to walk and is regaining his strength, so he will soon be needed as an orderly. At the inspection on page 106, the orderlies that were well enough were sent back to the war. Even though they didn’t want to, there was no way they could escape it, as in the case of Yuri. Yuri and seven other orderlies were marched off like prisoners. I thought that the same thing was going to happen to Erik at the next inspection. Erik is doing very well after more than two weeks in the hospital, so he should be well enough by the next inspection. Also, I learned in from the prologue that Erik would be wounded in the cheek and lose his arm. This hadn’t happened yet at this point, so I thought he would be wounded in a future battle. My prediction did not come true because right before the next inspection, Erik burned his arm with boiling water, so he was not fit to go to war. Later, the hospital had to be evacuated and Erik and Tamara traveled through the forest, and they were no longer part of the military. Erik was not wounded in the cheek and arm in a battle. Rather, this happened when he and Tamara were walking down a street.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 111:
“I looked to where Tamara and her boyfriend had kissed. A sinking feeling inside, I frowned and looked away.”
MY QUESTION:
What is Erik thinking that gives him a sinking feeling inside? Is he disappointed that Tamara already has a boyfriend and he wishes he could be her boyfriend? Were his motives purely selfish? Or, does it make him miss his loving family back home? Does he worry about what will happen to the young soldier, who is probably headed for the war?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF:
Erik definitely has a crush on Tamara. After she stood up to the general at the inspection, Erik saw a loving, strong, and good human being. On page 110, he said, “Nothing is more alluring than a girl like that.” He was drawn to her, and openly told her his pulse raced because of her. I think Erik’s motives when he saw Tamara kiss the young man were selfish because when he was walking around the ward leaning on Tamara, on page 117, it gave him the pleasant illusion that she was his girl. Erik wanted Tamara for himself. Later, on page 132, when the young man died, Erik admits that he had been so jealous, but now, he changes his attitude and wishes him back because he wants to take away Tamara’s pain. This shows that Erik’s motives were not totally selfish. He really cares about Tamara and the young man who, he discovers, is Tamara’s brother.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 117:
“In the morning I awoke to hear him crying softly to himself. He would not speak to me, Mikhos, or Boris- not to anyone.” “But in another way, I felt horrid. As I walked, Nikolai’s eyes were on me. I knew what he must be thinking, and I felt sick with guilt.”
CONNECTION:
The day after he lost his legs, Nikolai did not talk to anyone. He needed time alone to accept his situation and sort through his feelings. He also needed to think about what he would do now that he had no legs. He expressed his feelings by crying to himself. When Erik was in the same situation, after he lost his arm, he also needed time to accept his situation. He said little and didn’t want Tamara to be with him. He didn’t want to hear Tamara’s voice. He didn’t want her pity, and he didn’t want her to see him. He expressed his feelings differently than Nikolai. He got angry. He cursed, threw food, and yelled. Erik was thinking mostly about himself, whereas Nikolai was thinking mostly about his family. Nikolai said, on page 117, “What will I do without my legs? I have a wife and children. I must take care of my family!” Thinking about himself made Erik more miserable than Nikolai, whose main concern was his family. When he walked around the ward, back in the schoolhouse in Alreni, he thought he understood what Nikolai was going through, but on page 218, when it happened to him, Erik said, “I had seen so many others with missing limbs, and I’d thought I’d understood what they had been feeling, what they were going through. But I had understood nothing- not until it had happened to me.” Erik felt horrid walking in front of Nikolai. He must have understood that Nikolai was going through something terrible. But, it was worse than he thought it was. Only after losing a limb himself could he sympathize with Nikolai. This made me think that you and I know nothing about what it’s like to lose a limb. It is more horrible than we can imagine.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Rostovick ON PAGE 116 and Nikolai and Erik ON PAGE 118:
“We’ll have to take them off. In order to save your life.” “ ‘It’s all right, son,’ he said in a faint voice. ‘I’ll make it.’ I blinked at the tears in my eyes. We did not look at each other. We simply lay there in the dark. He clasped my hand tightly and said good night.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF:
What Dr. Rostovick says highlights the value and importance of life. The doctors and nurses work hard and do whatever is necessary to save the soldiers’ lives. It is better to lose a part of your body than to lose life. Nikolai also had the right attitude toward life. He said, “I’ll make it.” He would be strong and keep living. He wants Erik to make it too. Nikolai is older than Erik and has a lot more experience in life. Nikolai clasped Erik’s hand, infusing the little strength that he had to Erik. He spoke in a faint voice, showing that he had a little strength, but he had enough to share with Erik to strengthen him. He wants to help young Erik to have the right attitude towards life too. Nikolai also called Erik son. Nikolai treated Erik like a son to whom he had given life. He really cared for him and wanted what was best for him as a loving father would. A father also gives his son a name. Nikolai gave Erik the name “X.” Erik felt that Nikolai was like a father to him. He said, on page 101, that Nikolai was like the father he had never known. In the hospital, life is very valuable, but, paradoxically, there is a war going on, where people slaughter each other. Does that make any sense?
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
Seeing this picture gave me a knot in the stomach. It helped me to better understand the horror and shock that Nikolai felt when he saw his own legs looked like this. But, I cannot fully understand, since I only saw a picture of it. I did not smell the putrid stench and hear the doctor tell me that my legs were going to be cut off. I am mortified at the amount of suffering Nikolai and other soldiers like him would have gone through. I now know why all the color drained out of Nikolai’s face and he lay back heavily.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
This video gives me an idea of what the schoolhouse hospital that Erik was in looked like. This one is on a train, but it is probably similar to the place Erik was in. I can imagine what it looked like in the hospital the Erik was in. Patients were coming in constantly and he was surrounded by wounded soldiers lying in cots all around him. It also gives me an idea of what a nurse like Tamara would be doing. She probably had to feed patients, like the nurse in this video.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
This website is the story of the World War II soldier Basil Cotton, who was injured and brought to a German hospital. His leg had gangrene. This happened to Nikolai and probably a lot of other soldiers. The doctors and nurses must have amputated many limbs in the schoolhouse hospital in Alreni. He describes what life in the hospital was like. He was British and knew French and was stuck in a hospital with only French people. Erik was in a similar situation. From this, I concluded that situations like this were not uncommon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/30/a4072330.shtml
SUMMARY: Erik wakes up in a hospital after a bad dream only to find a bandage on his face and English nurses all around him. Erik soon looks at his left arm and nothing is there. He learns he had been shot in the left arm by a machine gun blast and was also shot through his open mouth out his cheek. He is staying at the American Red Cross Hospital in Strasfurt, Germany. Erik has no recollection of the shooting or if anyone was with him until he hears Tamara’s voice and begins to cry. X, (Erik) learns that Tamara was grazed in the head by a bullet and was asking to see X for a while. Tamara came to see him everyday until Erik screamed at her and told her to get out. He asked the nurses not to let Tamara enter his room anymore. The next day an American soldier died in the bed next to Erik’s and he envied him. Erik then receives a letter from home and finds out his grandmother had passed but they are all overjoyed that he is alive. Tamara told Erik she loved him and kissed him and he began to cry.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 220
“Clean it up!” I yelled. “Then get out”
PREDICTION AND PROOF:
Erik feels self pity for all that he has had to go trough and doesn’t want people to feel grief because of him he just wants people happy even though he feels he wont be again.
Erik said that he had envied the American that had died next to him and doesn’t want to see Tamara because she is sad for him and just wants to be alone.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 221
“An American soldier in the bed next to mine died that day envy-that’s all I felt.”
MY QUESTION: Why is Erik so down and sad when he could still be happy and live a great life?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF:
He feels he is nothing without his arm and he is sad that everyone is happy and can live a normal life but he has no arm and had to go through all of this because of the war. Erik says that he hates the war for all it has done to him and people around him and he just wants it to be over so everything can go back to normal.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 219: “your dead”
CONNECTION: Erik thought that Tamara had died and once when I was around 6 years old my mother went on a trip and I didn’t know so I thought she had died. Therefore it was like the story where he thinks she’s dead and he finds out she’s alive.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 218: In drugged sleep, I often dreamed that it was still there, always to awaken to the awful truth that it was not.
INFERENCE AND PROOF: That Erik just wants to go back in time to when he wasn’t in war and he hadn’t been shot and he still had his arm. Of course everyone would but Erik is angry that he has to have this happen to him no one else that I think is why he is so angry at everyone and wants to be alone. But Erik’s arm symbolizes war because you always lose something not always physically but people in war get hurt. It symbolizes war because his arm was like axis vs. allies in the way that he is fighting for what he believes a good cause but both have reasoning and both are neither right nor wrong.
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq87-3e.htm
MY NAME: Kyle S.
MY CHAPTER NAME: “Dead”
SUMMARY: Tamara and Erik’s plan is to move southwest, towards the advancing allies. They tried staying in the woods and using the trees as cover, but soon to forest stopped and they were forced to walk on the paths. As they walked down the paths, they met other refugees, with wounds they didn’t deserve and diseases they didn’t want. After a walking a few hours, they stumbled onto the wonderful smell of cooking meat. After thanking the other refugees for the horse they had eaten, they walked on. The next day, for food, they found apples and potatoes, and kept walking to their destination. At night the came upon a town, they made for it and found it was abandoned! They went to seek cover from the rain in a bombed out hotel. Unfortunately, there they found a dead German SS officer Erik took the jacket from the officer and gave it to Tamara as they walked down the streets. Erik, knowing something wasn’t right, looked around as they kept walking. When they got around the corner of the street they were on, Erik saw troops behind a MG. “Ach, Nein!” – He yelled too late. The MG opened fire, Tamara was knocked to the ground and Erik was wounded badly. “Cease fire!” yelled one of the troops. “They are just kids!” one of the others yelled. One of the other soldiers ran up to Tamara and felt her pulse. “Dead”.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 213
“Something’s wrong.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: It shows that SOMETHING, has happened to the town. Maybe a battle was fought there, or the civilians heard war coming and abandoned it! But since no one was at the town, Erik was on FULL alert.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Tamara ON PAGE :213
“Look”
MY QUESTION: Why was a light in the window of a building if the town is deserted?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: Later in the book (a page or two later.) I found out it’s an American spotter/ scout. Since they get shot later in the book, and it the book says: “A soldier with an American flag insignia on one shoulder frowned at me.” So I think it was a scout in the window and when the light turned off, he went to tell the garrisoned troops below.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY U.S soldier ON PAGE : 214
CONNECTION: This guy obviously didn’t want to shoot at them. I can imagine his voice when he said “They’re just kids- civilians,” A connection might be if a person said a bad word or did something they didn’t know was wrong!
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT By Erick ON PAGE :214
“Dead”
If I was Erick 1st of all, I wouldn’t make the mistake of having a girlfriend. I don’t even like girls! But since im not, and he had a girl friend that was just SHOT, I guess I would be shocked. My “girlfriend”, (I only use that word in education.) has been shot, he really likes her and was planning the marry her. And a BAR round hit her, its not as deadly as they describe it, though it can kill easily. I know it’s a BAR since that is the US primary MG.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: It shows that there are lots of refugees in war, and towns were abandoned completely sometimes.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: it shows me ALL casualties of WWII not just the Military casualties!
http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html
MY NAME: Corinne Marie Phillips
MY CHAPTER NAME: “Grdnov” and “Berlin”
SUMMARY: In the chapter “Grdnov”, Erik and Tamara arrive at the Grdnov train station right as a train is leaving; they decide they can’t wait for the next train as the sound of battle is coming closer to the town. As they start to leave the station they see a German officer, Captain Gebhardt, yelling for medical help for his wounded soldiers. Having worked in a medical station Erik and Tamara tell him they will help, and as a way of saying thanks he tells them they will get food after they help the injured soldiers. Erik tells Captain Gebhardt that Tamara speaks only Slovak so they won’t be killed for being Russian. After Erik helps bury the dead, and thinks he sees his old friend from war, Jakob, they get word that a train will be coming to the station so they moved the injured near the train’s depot and waited for the train. When the train arrives Erik and Tamara started loading the injured with the other doctors. The town’s people started worrying that they would be left to die in the battle. A German lieutenant told them there would be room for them but they had to load the soldiers first. As soon as all the German soldiers were on the train it started up and left the people on the station.
In “Berlin”, Erik and Tamara are taken back into the country they tried so hard to escape; Germany. At each stop the train took on more injured soldiers so Erik and Tamara have to work nonstop. The Germans had started sending everyone out to fight; women, children as young as seven, and elderly men. They ended up in a small village, hidden from battle. Every home had been turned into a medical station. After unloading the wounded Erik and Tamara just calmly walked into the woods and ran away.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID BY Erik ON PAGE 206: “…Tamara and I lifted a young woman onto a stretcher. Her face and head wrapped in bloody bandaging, the woman kept begging us to tell her what had happened to her children. After laying her down on a sofa, Tamara patted the woman’s hand. I told her that we would go and try to find out about her children.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: I don’t think the woman will find her children; they probably have already died or will, as the place the woman was taking from was being attacked. She might not survive either, and if she does I think she will try as hard as she can to find her missing children. There is a chance that the children survived and were taken on the train to but it is not very likely because so many people got left behind and I don’t think the Natzis would give up the space for their soldiers for some young children. Earlier in the book a women was carrying a dead girl in her arms. I think there would have been many children who died in the war.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID BY Erik ON PAGE 202: “I heard a commotion outside, on the depot platform. More soldiers climb into our car, and into cars all up and down the line; at the same time, I heard the chug of the locomotive. The train rocked forward. ‘They are going to leave them,’ I muttered aloud. From outside, a German soldier rolled the heavy door of our car closed with a bang. Through the slatted sides of the car I could see the civilians on the depot platform…”
MY QUESTION: How can soldiers leave so many people to die? Do they realize that these people are all Germans who have been faithful to Hitler? Do other people realize that the Nazis are doing this to their people, maybe even their families?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I don’t think the Nazis care about the people. The war is advancing on the very quickly and the train was their last hope. The only people who will survive were the people who did not think they could wait for the train and left earlier…and even they might not be able to make it. The soldiers don’t care if most if not all the people on the station will probably die, even if they support Hitler; they probably don’t think they are important enough to save. Most German civilians would not know about the people who were left to die, Hitler might have told them about the deaths in Grdnov, but he would not tell them that the Nazis were the ones who did it. He wanted people to trust the Nazis not know they were the people to kill their families. The quote is talking about the soldiers lying to the people that they were going to take the people on the train too, and then just leaving them at the place where almost all of them will die.
CONNECTION QUOTE THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 205: “Our destination turned out to be a small village, a neat little hamlet tucked away in a wooded area. There, an aid station and a curious sort of hospital had been set up.”
CONNECTION: I have been to little towns like that and I can’t imagine them without all the people chatting and walking down the streets. It would be kind of depressing to see such a small little town be emptied and refilled with hurt patients and soldiers.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 202: “More soldiers climbed into our car, and into cars all up and down the line; at the same time, I heard the chug of the locomotive. The train rocked forward.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: I think that Erik is sad being back on the train that is taking him back to the place he spent so long escaping. He probably remembers the last time he rode a train and where it took him. If I was him I would feel very depressed remembering everything that train took him away from. He probably does not want to think about it and he doesn’t have much time to, because he’s helping all the patients. He might be trying to keep busy so he doesn’t have to think about it.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This picture helps me understand my chapter better because I can see how crowded the station is. I can see all the soldiers trying to jump on the train before it leaves and I can understand why people would get worried they would not be able to get on the train. It would have been a lot more scary with the war advancing on the townspeople too, so I can see why they would be anxious and afraid.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This video showed me that not all medical war trains were as bad as the one Erik rode on. The American trains looked better than the German train.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: The website I found helps me understand all the burials in world war II. Most people could not be identified and I am wondering if anyone found out who the soldiers Erik buried before the were buried.
http://www.deathreference.com/Ce-Da/Cemeteries-War.html
SUMMARY: they had dug Zoyas grave and they keep moving. It is very hot and they have barely any supplies, other than Sergo’s rifle and knife. As they keep moving they begin to get thirsty. And the heat starts to play tricks with they’re minds it is so bad that Sergo almost drank poison. They eventually find a dead deer to eat and they find a waterfall close by. They don’t know where they are going all that they know is that they are headed southwest, at the end they agree to go to America. But how would they make it to America when they are surviving by dumb luck.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY everyone ON PAGE 147
PREDICTION AND PROOF: My prediction is that they are going to get into a fight with other people. PROOF In the near distance we heard artillery nervous on the look out for danger. He also sounds a little paranoid. So it shows that they might have to fight, and soon if they he the artillery.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY ON PAGE 149
MY QUESTION: Is Erik starting to use memories of his childhood to comfort himself?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: Feeling better we got underway… What are you doing I looked at Tamera and was suddenly embarrassed, without realizing it I had been stepping over spots of sun. “Blushing I explained about the boyhood game I didn’t even realize what I was doing. I forgot myself for a second.” I think that he is using memories to comfort himself or else why would he be stepping over spots of sun.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Tamera ON PAGE 148
CONNECTION: No, Sergo had dropped to his knees and was about to drink the wrenched stuff. “No” Tamera said again. “That water is like poison.” There are times that I have wanted to drink water so bad but couldn’t like when we are in class and I used up all my passports and I needed a drink so bad but couldn’t.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Sergo ON PAGE 150
“Perhaps somehow we can make it to Switzerland or some neutral country.” “I want to go to America Sergo suddenly exclaimed.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: I think he might ditch them to go to America, because he jumped in awfully excited about going to America. Maybe he wants to see someone or he just wants to get out of the forest.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/66307570_21a4797327.jpg
its shows what Erik was trying to avoid when he was thinking of his childhood
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
It shows how much supplies that they need and what they don't have.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia. http://www.nce.co.uk/hidden-dangers-in-the-woods/793397.article
Its shows all the dangers they could have came across in the woods.
http://www.nce.co.uk/hidden-dangers-in-the-woods/793397.article
MY NAME: Michael Kjentvet
MY CHAPTER NAME: “Strangers”
SUMMARY: Tamara and Erik are on the run, trying to get to America, away from the war. They were just attacked by German soldiers, but got away and are now in the woods, trying not to be seen. Then, Erik starts telling Tamara all about him, everything that he kept a secret for many months. He tells her how he is really a German soldier, who was injured and behind enemy lines, and had to change into a Russian uniform so he wouldn’t be killed or taken prisoner. Then he tells Tamara about his childhood, his family, where he lives, and about the real him, not Aleksandr Dukhanov, the Russian soldier who’s identity he had taken. He had fought so hard as a German soldier, killing Russians. Now he is, to everyone but himself and Tamara, a Russian soldier.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Tamara ON PAGE : 168
“Yesterday you killed a German”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: I think that Erik will be fighting, and possibly even killing more German soldiers soon, because he is wearing a Russian uniform, traveling with a Russian, and he doesn’t even like the Nazis, who control Germany’s government. It seems like he has changed sides just like that. Not just because he is wearing a Russian uniform, but because he has had a change of heart. He is helping Tamara, became a medical orderly in the ward helping Russians, and even killed a fellow German. I just can’t see him going back to the German army, especially considering he would probably get in trouble for deserting the German army, so there’s really no point in going back.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik/ Tamara ON PAGE : 164
“When I woke up and didn’t find you,” I said, “I was afraid you’d left. I thought you’d headed home, or something.”
“What home?” Tamara said flatly.
MY QUESTION: Will Erik and Tamara be on the run for the rest of the war, or will they find a place to settle? Will they continue to travel through the forest? Or will Erik maybe even try to fight in the war?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I think that they will get to a neutral country and be able to stay there until the war is over, then return to their homes, if they’re still there by the end of the war. I think so because, they have been traveling for a long time, so they should reach a neutral country soon, and then find someone who will be nice enough to let them stay there. Besides, they don’t want to keep traveling. Tamara and Erik would much rather stay with somebody and wait out the war there.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 164
“- a series of small ponds, really, connected by a snaking, little waterway”
CONNECTION: This reminds me of Myop from The Flowers. For her the snake symbolized evil. For Erik I think the snaking little waterway symbolizes the evil that was able to sneak into his life, through the war.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 168
“So they were Russians. Russians, Germans – what’s the difference!”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: Erik no longer cares about what side is winning, or which side he is fighting on. He just wants the fighting to stop, so nobody gets killed. I think so because otherwise he would still be fighting for the Germans and wanting to kill the Russians, and going out to do so. Instead, he is helping a Russian, and himself, escape and run away from the war, trying not to kill anyone, Russian or German.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: It helps me because now I know what Erik might have looked like in the war.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: It helped me because Erik told Tamara about being in the Hitler Jugend, but not the reader. I was wondering what it might have looked like to be in the Hitler Jugend (Hitler youth, and this video gave me a visual of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfYXY21a9f0
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia. It helps me see what was going on in the war during my chapter.
http://www.world-war-2.info/timeline/
http://www.world-war-2.info/timeline/
MY NAME: Eric Schmidt
MY CHAPTER NAME: exclamation, flight
SUMMARY: In exclamation, Tamara is moping about her brother and father dying. Zoya then gets mad at her and try’s to make her forget it. The inspection crew comes and Erik is scared that they will figure out that he is germen. He is also afraid that they will send him back to fighting because he is getting better. While Erik is telling Tamara that he is worried about the inspection crew coming, he dropped hot water on his arm and swore in germen. Tamara then figured out that he is germen, not Russian. At the end of the chapter, Erik makes it through inspection. In the chapter flight, a fight starts to break out in the town with a ward. Erik is helping people board busses to get out alive. A mortar round hits their bus and everyone is dead except Erik, Tamara and Zoya. They are running through the woods and then they realize that Zoya was gone. She got killed by the mortar.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 144
“… The cut in my hand was bleeding; our eyes were red and burning. But still we could see that something was wrong. There were only three of us. Zoya was gone.
PREDICTION AND PROOF: My prediction is that now Zoya is dead, Tamara will be in a sulky and bad mood again. She was in a bad mood when her brother and father died, but now the person who made her feel better is dead. My proof for this is on page 134. “The two young women helped Tamara greatly. But I think it was Zoya, the grouchy, ugly head nurse, who helped her the most.” This is proof because it says that Zoya helped Tamara the most.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY inspection lady ON PAGE :138
“All except these two,” she said tonelessly. She pointed at MIkhos and me. I hung my head, sick with shame, as Boris, Konstantine, and the others were herded away.
MY QUESTION: Why was he ashamed about staying at the ward and not going back to war?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I think Erik was ashamed because since he and Mikhos were the only kids who got to stay at the ward. Everyone else who had to leave hated them because Erik and MIkhos were the lucky ones who got to stay. My proof for this is on page
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 136
“ Get everything in top shape.” Zoya had come into the operating room. “There is going to be an inspection today.” Fear swept over me. “ Oh,” I said, the word a hard knot in my throat.
CONNECTION: My connection is realated to when there was an inspection earlier in the book. Erik had the exact same feeling then as he did here. He is afraid that someone will find out that he is German.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY ON PAGE : 135
“You have suffered a great deal-as we all have. We all have reasons to go around feeling sorry for ourselves. But we can’t,” said Zoya. “We have to keep going. We have patients, and they need our help.”
“Yes, I understand, but-“
“No! You don’t understand!” Zoya exclaimed. “You’ve lost your father and now your brother. The two of you were very close, and his death has hit you hard. But it is time to get over it. And the only way to get over it is to stop thinking about yourself, Tamara. Start thinking about the patients.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: My inference is that Zoya is really a caring nice person and not a grouchy old lady. I think this because she is trying to cheer up Tamara. She cares about how Tamara is feeling and wants her to forget the past and that her dad and brother died. Also with Tamara’s sad mood, she might be making the patients more depressed.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
This picture adds to my understanding of the chapter because now I know what a morter looks like and how they launch one.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.chakoten.dk/images/unginf_704.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.chakoten.dk/cgi-bin/fm.cgi%3Fn%3D277&usg=__tnCZa01w0agHGDrF1rLM3qcAcIs=&h=297&w=400&sz=40&hl=en&start=38&zoom=1&tbnid=5qlxZ3BaiERu0M:&tbnh=144&tbnw=183&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmorter%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1279%26bih%3D617%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C1211&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=440&ei=TbYDTfenAsK_nAeO_czlDQ&oei=NrYDTY3TGdOhnQfW6qDoDQ&esq=4&page=3&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:38&tx=15&ty=20&biw=1279&bih=617
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This video helps me understand how powerful and destructive mortars can be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc-wE6RdRVI
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This website helps my understanding of the chapter because it says a lot of information about ww2 hospitals and hospital trains.
http://med-dept.com/hosp_trains.php
http://med-dept.com/hosp_trains.php
MY NAME: Chase Cunniff
MY CHAPTER NAME: “Sanctuary”
SUMMARY: Erik begins talking about Elena Novak who is the lady that is helping him and Tamara. Over the next few days Elena had been talking about her past life. Her son was the mayor of Klatovy, Czechoslovakia. He made it so citizens would have to house German Soldiers. But then Gunter had to identify all Jewish citizens who were eventually executed. Gunter protested against what they did and got executed. After his death they took most of Elena’s money and possessions. She was even forced to house German Soldiers. Elena told them that before they get help they would have to get cleaned up so she led them through a sanctuary looking place and then they went into the bathroom. When it was Erik’s turn he dozed off and when he got out he didn’t see the face of the boy he once was, he saw a man. When he got out Elena led him to his room which was once Gunter’s and had the most wonderful sleep of his life. Days passed and it seemed as if Erik and Tamara filled a spot in Elena’s empty life. They never thought of leaving. August faded, and soon September arrived. By then the house had been destroyed by German Soldiers. Erik and Tamara were in the sunlit room and there they kissed.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 186
“We kissed, softly at first, tenderly.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: I began to think that Tamara has fallen in love with Erik and Erik has fallen in love with her because when they were in the hospital and Erik spoke in German Tamara didn’t expose him because she cared about him and loved him. At the beginning of the chapter of Sounds of the Past Tamara opened up to him and girls don’t usually open up to guys unless they like them and care for them. When they kissed on page 186 she let him kiss her and didn’t try to pull him away. Plus, throughout the book she was giving him signs that she liked him. For example, on page 125, when Erik was upset about the letter that he got from the Soldier he was now, she said, “You’re not nobody, not to me, you aren’t,” while putting her hand on his arm.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 179
“After killing her son they took most of her money and possessions, leaving her with only her strange little car and her large house which had been used as headquarters for officers.”
MY QUESTION: Since they took all of her money and possessions, why did they leave her house and car?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I think that they let her keep her house so then she could house the German soldiers. Her house is so big that it is the perfect size to house hundreds of soldiers. They left her, her car so that she could go and get supplies and food so the soldiers could stay alive during the housing. “when asked to do so; had to open their homes to German troops.” “Leaving her with her strange little car and house, which had been used as headquarters for the officers.” “The house had been damaged by the troops and officers previously garrisoned there.” If they would’ve taken her house too then it wouldn’t be taken care of and there would be no supplies to the troops so they wouldn’t stay alive if she wasn’t there and didn’t have the house. In conclusion, they left her, her house in order to house troops so that they could win the war.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 183
“She treated me as though I were the son she had lost and Tamara as the daughter she had never had.”
CONNECTION: I can connect with this quote because when me and my sister go to my aunt’s house during spring break she spoils us and is really nice to us. She had two sons who are out of college and never had a daughter. Every spring break we go to her house and she makes us special treats and takes us to special places. My aunt treats me and my sister as if we are special to her like Elena treats Erik and Tamara.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/ THOUGHT BY ERIK
“I put on the pajamas.”
CONNECTION: As in chapter one he was wearing dead mans clothes. He was wearing dead mans clothes when he switched with a Russian. Now he is wearing Gunter’s clothes and he is dead. He once again has worn dead mans clothes.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 185
“Mostly we stayed inside, content to sit on a sofa it that warm, sunlit room and gaze out at the garden and at the town of Klatovy in the valley below.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: I think that the sunlit room represents Erik and Tamara’s hope in life. I think that it means that they are on the top of the world when they are able to see the whole town and that nothing bad will happen along the way. The beauty of the view represents the good in life they’ll have. The room gives them hope in life. When they come into Elena’s life they are dying but then she takes care of them and the sunlit room gives them light, and the sun represents life. Things can’t live without the sun so that gives them hope and life.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
This picture shows what Elena’s house might look like and it helps me visualize where they are in the chapter.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
When Gunter was given orders to line up all the Jewish people they were taken and things like this were done to them. This video shows why Gunter was guilty and why he did what he did and stood up for them and got executed.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia.
This helps my understanding because it describes the risks that Elena was taking to take care of Erik and Tamara.
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&TMID=111&LNGID=1&FID=388&PID=0&IID=1671
MY NAME: Aleksandar Bursac
MY CHAPTER NAME: A Letter from Home
SUMMARY: Erik is in the Russian school-hospital pretending to be a wounded Russian soldier pretending he has amnesia and he is helping out in the kitchen. While helping Erik says that working in the kitchen reminds him of home so everybody starts bugging him about his amnesia. Then on mail day, Erik receives a letter from the family of the man whose uniform he took. It describes the families’ joy that their boy is alive and will be home soon. Erik feels so guilty that he has put faith in this family their child has survived when really they are being led to a giant upset. Erik tells about how he has fallen for Tamera as well. He describes how he always follows her around, “like her little puppy dog”. He also tells about the night when he stormed off and Tamara told him that he wasn’t nothing to her.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Tamara ON PAGE : 125
“X” “You’re not nobody—not to me you aren’t.” “Nyet. No. Not to me you aren’t.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: My prediction is that Tamara is in love with Erik.
“’Why is your pulse racing?’ ‘Because of you’ I said nervously afraid I had come on to strong. Our eyes met. She smiled, patted my hand and the she was gone.” This is important because it shows that Tamara has some feelings for him and that she understands he likes her.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 124 “The letter also overwhelmed me with guilt. No, I hadn’t killed the woman’s son but I had taken his clothes and papers I had filled his family with false hope and joyful anticipation of a homecoming that would never be.”
MY QUESTION: Why does Erik feel guilty about getting the letter from the dead Russian boy’s parents?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I think the answer is Erik doesn’t like the feeling of knowing this family is going to be let down when their son does not return home from the war. My proof is before the earlier quote Erik Thinks, “Reading this letter made me terribly home sick. I had felt like it was a letter from my own mother.” This proves that Erik wants to undo everything and not go to war.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE :119 “ If Nikolai could be strong, I decided, then so could I.”
CONNECTION: The feeling of fortitude is coming to Erik because he sees Nikolai doing things to suck up his pain and move on so Erik wants to as well.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 124
Reading the letter made me terribly homesick. It felt like a letter from my own mother. The letter also overwhelmed me with guilt. No, I hadn’t killed the woman’s son, but by taking his uniform and papers I had filled his family with false joy of the homecoming that would never be.
INFERENCE AND PROOF: My inference is Erik is feeling homesick and he can’t wait to get out of the war and how he never realized that he wouldn’t be fighting for anything besides a lot of stupid old Nazis.
My proof is: “Mikhos and Boris were content working in the kitchen full-time. But more and more, I started working in the wards. I mixed plaster casts: I emptied bed pans; I took out dirty, blood-encrusted bandages and burned them in oil drums in a field near the hospital. The work was grueling—and hard on my back and knee--but at least I was helping people instead of shooting them.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This image helps me understand what Russian hospital people looked like in WW2.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This website gives me an idea about what hospitals in WW2 were like and how they operated. http://www.50thfeildhospital.co.uk/50thhistory.htm
http://www.50thfeildhospital.co.uk/50thhistory.htm
MY NAME: Bailey Kalscheur
MY CHAPTER NAME: “The Visit”
SUMMARY: Erik is telling about an injured man across the hall from him in the hospital. He had suffered severe head and leg wounds, and was never conscious while in the hospital. He had passed. Another man had taken his spot in the same room. He looked very healthy and fit but was paralyzed from the neck down. He didn’t reply to Erik’s, “Hello” and rarely replied to anyone. He wanted to always be alone. One morning Erik found out that there were going to people coming in and inspecting to see if there were any imposters, or people who are well enough, or faking it, to send them back to the war. This worried Erik because he fits in a category in which they are looking for. He was actually a German solider in a Russian hospital because he stole a dead Russian man’s uniform to save his life. He is now pretending to be a man named Aleksandr Dukhanov. So far nobody knows that he is a German because he speaks Russian.
The staff, including the doctors, are very nervous about the visit. One even asked if he could pretend to be a sick patient. They are scared because “If they are found wanting, they might be sent to the front-to traige stations”
The general was giving soldiers medals and saying, “You have served the people of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics well.” Then when he got to the paralyzed man he said the same thing. He put the medal on the paralyzed man. The paralyzed man stared at the ceiling and said, “Take it off me, please.” The general stopped for a moment, then just kept walking because he didn’t believe what the paralyzed man had said. Then the paralyzed man yelled it again. The general ignored him and kept putting medals on other soldiers. Then he yelled once more to the general saying he didn’t want the medal. Then the general turned in embarrassment and it was silent. The man begged to have it off. Quietly Tamara made her way over to the man and took it off of him. He thanked her and the general made his way out of the room. It remained silent.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Nikolai ON PAGE 106 :
“The idiots have finally arrived.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF:
I think that Nikolia is going to get busted for making fun of these people. I think this because he said,” They are a bunch of…communist bigwigs-stupid, self-important bureaucrats.” Out loud and he also said the quote I put above out loud so I think he will say another thing out loud and not know that they are standing right behind him and get kicked out. Although they were whispers…these people are very good.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 104 :
“They also look for impostors.’
Certainly, I fit the description!”
MY QUESTION:
Is Erik ever going to be caught by these people coming in to inspect? Will it be this time? Will he be in there so long that he will see these people again?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF:
I think Erik will get caught because, I guess, a lot of people are kicked out because everyone is very scared that they are coming. Which means they are good at their job and good at finding people who don’t belong or can be put back to war.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 104 :
“They also look for imposters.”
CONNECTION:
He is an imposter because he is wearing dead man’s cloths and this goes back to the first chapter of the book, In Dead Man’s Cloths, when he was wearing dead man’s cloths. He was wondering, when he dies…if he dies, who will be wearing his cloths next. Now he is wearing a dead Russian’s cloths and pretending to be a Russian.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY the paralyzed man ON PAGE 108 :
“I don’t want it, you stupid fool!”...“Get it off me!”
INFERENCE AND PROOF:
This man does not want the medal. He does not want to be reminded about what happened to him. The medal represents honor or doing well. The government sent them there and then rewarding him for what they sent him to do and he did it and now he is permanently injured and can’t move anything under his neck. He doesn’t want to the medal, at least not for that reason.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
http://www.mmog.asia/games/war2/images/info_ghistory/gowar/08/img10.jpg
I chose this picture because it brings a picture to my head of what it looked like every time I read my chapter.
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675056336_German-military-invasion_Adolf-Hitler_Hermann-Goering_Goebbels_Nazi-Generals_World-War-II
This video is not the best because Hitler never came to the hospital…and Erik was in a Russian hospital…so that would NEVER happen. But I was trying to put the picture in my head about what the hospital might have looked like and some of the people in the hospital without getting to graphic.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/hitler_russia_invasion_01.shtml
This is actually a website about a book but it still provides information that can help me. This website tells me more about details on the war that the book didn’t tell me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/hitler_russia_invasion_01.shtml
MY NAME: James Colòn MY CHAPTER NAME: “x” SUMMARY: Erik is in a military hospital in Alreni, Russia. He can’t tell anyone who he is, because someone might find out that he is with the German army, so he lies his way through by saying he doesn’t know what his name is and who he is generally. Many people work at the hospital. But there are some common ones. Every morning he wakes up to eat the regular, cabbage soup, tea and bread. I wonder if he will ever tell anyone his real name and who he I is? If I was Erik I would be very cautious about who I talk to, because anyone, even the nicest person, can somehow slip those very secretive things about me to anyone. Since he has the uniform of a formal solder I think someone will think that his name is the name on the uniform. PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 92 PREDICTION AND PROOF: Right after Erik said, “Operated on me?” I thought he had no idea of what was going on with him and what was going on around him. I think this because if he did know what was going on he wouldn’t have said that as a question. QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Nikolai ON PAGE : 94 MY QUESTION: Does Erik feel uncomfortable with where he is? Nikolai said, “Ah, so at least we know your name!” QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: Does Erik feel uncomfortable with where he is? Well, I would feel very uncomfortable if I was Erik because I wouldn’t know anybody and I would be living a lie in a place I am going to spend a lot of time at, which would slower trend me into convincing myself into something that is not true, such as my ‘’fake’’ name and identity. I think Erik is very uncomfortable because he doesn’t want to talk much and if he was comfortable he would be more opened and talking to people and telling them his story but if he did he would be in major trouble. CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Nikolai ON PAGE: 94 CONNECTION: When Nikolai said, “Ah, so at least we know your name!” I could tell he was glad because he knew more about Erik, but everything he knows about him is a lie. For example, if someone new came around I would want to known more than I already do, about the person. INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY The Man behind Erik ON PAGE :94 INFERENCE AND PROOF: When the man behind Erik’s bed said, “Amnesia” I think that all of the people think that Erik can’t remember his name because of amnesia. I infer that Erik will go on that he has amnesia because so far the people believe him. Also, he wanted no one to know his real personal identity for safety reasons, well if it’s going well then he might as well stick with his story so far. HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This picture can give you an understanding of what Erik is living like in the hospital. http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/BB39E1B2-FD3C-4DEA-81B8-8E41CCE4F800/VV15082.jpg HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: This video adds to my understanding of my chapter because it describes what nurses during WWII have been through and some of the things they had to overcome. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/289838-1 HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia. This website helps my understanding about a Russian soldier before/during/after WWII. This website is about a Russian formal soldier who was apart of WWII and is being interviewed about his childhood and general life. http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-world-war-ii-russian-pilot-evgeny-stepanov.htm
MY NAME: Andy Lewis MY CHAPTER NAME: “Mules” SUMMARY: The German soldier Erik must march supplies to the Nazi base in Russia. First they march through the city of Vinnitsa full of other German soldiers who set up outposts in the ruins of the destroyed city. When they get out of the city it begins to pour sheets of rain. Erik compares it to like being a mule with a dead man on his back. Erik get so tired he stops to rest. Then the Feldwebel gets mad at him and tells him to get moving. Then when they finally make it to the base and all of the veterans get mad at the army for sending them rookie children. PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY underwear man ON PAGE 37 : “all the men are dead, now they are sending us boys” PREDICTION AND PROOF: I think under wear man (the guy with long under wear) will mistreat the rookies and get really angry at them. But I can see why he might be mad. All of the veterans are dying and risking everything for there country and all the army does is keep sending them rookies! I think he will use the new soldiers as a way to take out his anger by messing with them. The way the author describes the man is enough to tell you he is angry. After he is done saying the quote the book says “He spat a gob of tobacco juice, and then shaking his head, wandered away” anyone who acts like that must have something on his mind. QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 35 : “Danke (thank you) Feldwebel” MY QUESTION: My question is why is Erik thanking him for telling him to get moving? QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I think it is because Erik is scared of the Feldwebel. The Feldwebel can get Erik killed. He can have things done to Erik that are just horrible. Erik seems freaked out the second Dobleman walks up to him. It does not really say that but anyone would be scared when a beat up thug who can get you killed tells you to get moving. CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 34 : “Heads lowered to heavy drifting sheets of rain, we trudged on” CONNECTION: I know this is not as severe as there case but last summer we went to the Madison Mallards’ stadium to get Robin Yount’s autograph. When we got there it was just drizzling but all of a sudden it began to pour rain. People were giving up and leaving and we discussed doing the same many times. We waited in line for about 4 hours or more (I lost track) to get that signature. When it finally stopped raining there was a double rainbow all the way across the sky. It was dark by the time we got the autograph and the game had already started we just wanted to go home so we ate dinner from sonic and went home. INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE 33 : “German soldiers watched at us with blank gazes” INFERENCE AND PROOF: I believe the soldiers are giving them blank looks because, as Erik learns, Being a soldier on any side of this war is a horrible thing. The soldiers are giving them blank gazes because they are most likely depressed, in pain, and hate life because of the war. My proof for this is that later in the story when Erik is in the hospital he looks at his face and like Dobleman and Nikoli he is utterly ashamed of how the war has made him. The soldiers in the out posts probably are scared like him (at that point) that they will become like Dobleman. HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: HYPERLINK : This image helps me understand the landscape of world war 2 and what Erik may have seen on the march
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: It helps me visualize the ruined city of Vinnitsa HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia. This website helped me picture the city of Vinnitsa very well because of all the detailed pictures.
Find this document on the English website under Wed,, November 24th. Type right in this document and save it to your directory!
SOLDIER X PROJECT DIPITY TIMELINE ENTRY TEMPLATE
SKILL: I can summarize a piece of fiction, using main ideas and important details. Adv Pro Bas BBas SKILL: I can make predictions and use evidence from the reading to support it. Adv Pro Bas BBas SKILL: I can ask questions about what I read and answer them using logical proof from the reading. Adv Pro Bas BBas SKILL: I can make connections with what I read. Adv Pro Bas BBas SKILL: I can draw inferences from the reading using proof from the reading to support my idea. Adv Pro Bas BBas SKILL: I can visualize what I read and explain how images add to my understanding of the reading. Adv Pro Bas BBas
http://ukrainetrek.com/Vinnitsa_city.shtml#history
SUMMARY:
Eric is on the train; it's his sixteenth birthday. He is leaving from Nuremberg, Germany on a German troop train. He begins to tell about the Hitler Youth. He also tells about his family. He tells about his Russian grandparents who live in Germany; he tells that if they are discovered, they will be killed. In the HJ (Hitler Jugend), he excelled in languages, so he was in Die Sprache. He described how Germany suffered more and more losses as the war went on. Germany used young troops, and so Erik went to war before he was even sixteen.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY ERIK ON PAGE 5 :
“My mother and grandparents were Russian; with forged papers, they had emigrated illegally to Germany in the late 1920’s. They ad learned to speak German fluently and without accent…”
PREDICTION AND PROOF:
I predict that Erik will have to lie to protect his grandparents and mother. I think that later in the book, he will get in a situation where his German officers find out his family is Russian and there will be a suspenseful scene. I think Erik will lie for them, because he loves them so much. He says on page 5, “… they paid taxes. In every way that really mattered, they had become good German citizens.” Of course a grandson loves his grandparents, and if the German government finds out they are illegal Russians, Erik will possibly risk his own life to save them.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY ERIK ON PAGE 9 :
"I kept thinking there must be some mistake, that this could not really be happening. I wanted to get off. I wanted to go home. The train thundered onward."
MY QUESTION:
Will Erik share his fears with a fellow soldier soon?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF:
I don’t think Erik will share his fears very soon. He barely knows these strange kids on the train. Though they are all in the same situation, I don’t think he feels comfortable sharing much with everyone. I think this for two reasons. One, on page 3, he says “Fear, uncertainty, and homesickness—these were the only real bonds that united us.” If he is afraid and uncertain, I don’t think he’ll share those fears. And, if he’s homesick, I don’t think he’ll share that, either. Young boys are “supposed” to be tough, and that might prevent him from sharing his feelings. Second, on page 5, he tells the reader about his illegal grandparents. He might be fearful that if he shares any personal emotions, his secrets might come out.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY ERIK ON PAGE 10 :
“Jakob plucked his undersized booklet from the breast pocket of his jacket. In its pages, filled with maps and tourist information, he seemed to find a refuge from reality. Shortly, he began reading aloud from it as we traveled eastward, across Germany and into Czechoslovakia. The train slowed as it passed through Prague…I wished my self-appointed tour guide would be quiet.”
CONNECTION:
I remember when I was the same age as Erik, I spent many hours on trains and busses taking tours through the German countryside. Just after my junior year of high school, the summer I turned seventeen, I spent a month in Germany on an exchange program. I went to school and lived with a host family most of the time, but we spent a great deal of time traveling, too. Our travels were almost always by bus, and sometimes by train. I remember looking out the windows as Erik did. I remember having brochures and pamphlets and maps as Oskar did. I remember looking them over and over, making sure I knew where I was going. What I was seeing. What the history was of the place I was going to. My friends and I, all the same age, looked these brochures over and over. I still have countless of these maps and pamphlets saved in a memory box up in my attic.
I was the same age as Erik, and in the same country as Erik, and I was full of life like Erik. Neither of us knew exactly where we were going, or what it would look like when we got there. We were both full of strong emotion, but of a vastly different kind. I was excited and eager to arrive—to just “get there” after endless hours of travel. I was comfortable, eating snacks and joking with friends. We had our cameras out, snapping pictures to document our laughs and never-ending grins. I didn’t have a care in the world. I wasn’t thinking about my future or my past. I was living in my sixteen-year old moment.
Erik and his fellow soldiers, on the other hand, were terrified. They were hungry and uncomfortable. They were wary of their fellow travelers. They were full of mixed emotions and memories of their past and what brought them to that decrepit train car. They were full of dread over the future and what unknowns awaited them.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY ERIK ON PAGE 7:
“One kept quiet abou the torture and murder of Jews, foreigners, Communists—and everyone else the Nazis considered ‘undesirables.’ The inevitable consequence of criticizing the government was simply to become just one more undesirable…”
INFERENCE AND PROOF:
In order to gain and maintain total and complete power, the German government had to severely punish or kill anyone who spoke out against them, in addition to the Jews, Communists, gypsies, etc. The Wehrmacht could not have a person/group of people exposing their evil acts. Criticism of the government by a small group could lead to larger groups hearing it, believing it, and banding together to try to put a stop to it. For example, he describes the killing of the Lutheran minister who publicly protested Nazi killings on page 7. Undesirables were in fear of the Nazis, but deep down, the Nazis had their own kind of paralyzing fear of people who knew too much.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING:
This is a picture of a German troop train, one that might be like the one Erik rode on. The other may have been
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING; This is a video of German soldiers marching-- it helps me see the parade Erik watched as a young man where he was mesmerized by the powerful German soldiers.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING: This further explains the Hitler Youth, how they joined, and what they did. It helps me get a feel for what Erik went through before he got on the troop train.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/index.html
MY NAME: Zach Whritenour
MY CHAPTER NAME: “Charade”
SUMMARY: Erik is wounded pretending to be a Russian soldier. He is loaded into a cart with other injured soldiers. After what felt like a long time to him he was moved to a bus. The bus took him to a school that had been turned into a Russian hospital. When Eric woke up in the hospital he did not know where he was, and he did not want to give him or his family away. So he decided to pretend like he had amnesia. Eric talked to his neighbor in the hospital, Nikolia. He asked Eric a lot of Questions that he couldn’t answer like what his name was. Then a nurse came by and had the papers in his pocket so then they new his name, or rather the Russian soldiers name. Aleksander Dukhanov.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Eric ON PAGE : 89
“But how long and how well could I pull it off for?”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: I predict that Erik will be able to pull off that he is Russian for a long time, as long as he doesn’t speak German. On page 87 he says “ I don’t know who I am.” No body is suspicious at all so I think that that shows that he can communicate fine without people finding out.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Eric ON PAGE :86
“It’s best not to remember anything. And say as little as possible.
MY QUESTION: Why does he pretend to have amnesia, he knows Russian so why doesn’t he just pretend he is Russian? He knows the culture of Odessa where his grandparents were born. Why does he not say he from there?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: I think he pretends to have amnesia so he doesn’t give himself away. I think this because on page 89 he is talking about how he doesn’t know Russian culture. And that his accent might give him away. I think that he doesn’t say that he is from Odessa because he doesn’t know everything about it.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Eric ON PAGE : 93
“Then lay back down feeling weak and tired.”
CONNECTION: This reminds me of when my granny was in the hospital with cancer. She couldn’t really stand up without having to lie down again right away. It also reminded me of how weak and tired she looked. It sounds like that is how Erik feels and looks.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 93
“I don’t have any idea who I am.”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: My inference is that he isn’t just faking that he doesn’t know who he is. I think that he remembers everything, but I think that the war has changed him so much that he doesn’t think that he is himself anymore. That he is a totally different person. Like on page 85 he is talking about how he doesn’t really care anymore. This is an example of how much the war has changed him.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: http://www.grantsmilitaria.com/militariaphotos/militaria_images.asp2?key= It shows me what a Russian uniform looks like, how much they had to carry, and what kind of supplies they had
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Vt74BZfJk I helps me understand what little hospitals had in ww2.
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia.
http://www.athealth.com/Consumer/disorders/Amnesia.html This is a web site about what amnesia is. It helps me understand what some of the soldiers were going through with amnesia.
http://www.sovietarmystuff.com/Product_155_Complete_Soviet_Russian_Army_Soldier_Uniform_Suit_WW2.html
MY NAME: Modesty Spinks
MY CHAPTER NAME: Loss
SUMMARY: Well this chapter is about how nikolai losses his legs and how erik is lost about what he is doing he’s in a hospital and doesn’t know what to do he’s probably thinking about what he did to get into this difficult situation he regrets it maybe. He’s in the hospital for wounds. Abdominal wounds for his knee and head. He met a girl named tamara he really like’s her except for one thing she has a boyfriend that he’s not so happy about his friend nikolai was very hurt to his leg was very swollen and streaked with black the doctor told him that he had gaseous gangrene he pushed himself up in a sitting position and stared at his infected leg with horror and disbelief but they hardly hurt at all! In this case rostovick to a safety pin and jabbed at nikolai’s leg first soft then harder nikolai just sat there and said “I don’t feel it at all” what is wrong with my legs nikolai demanded? They are badly infected, comrade nikolai’s face grew dull erik said he was sure that they were getting batter mikhos looked around from his bed at nikolai his forehead wrinkled up into a tight frown. we’ll have to take then off in order to save your life “both of my legs”? he said I’m afraid so said the doctor NO! nikolai responded what will I do without them? I have a wife and I have children I have to work.! Im an very sorry comrade said the doctor. He was depressed not speaking to any one just in his bed quietly crying to himself.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID BY:ERIK THOUGHT BY ON PAGE 117 : “the operation was done that night. When nikolai returned to his bed there were only stumps beneath the blanket in the morning I awoke to hear him crying softly to himself. He wouldn’t speak to me, mikhos or boris not to anyone”.
PREDICTION AND PROOF: page 117 2nd paragraph.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID:ERIK THOUGHT BY ON PAGE 117 :”when I returned to bed I averted my gaze from my legless friend. I just lay there, staring up at the ceiling an ugly parade of thoughts going around in my head. The sun went down; the room began to darken. Around the ward kerosene lamps were lit, turning the place to a soft mix of yellows, grays, and blacks. Surprising me I felt a hand… Nikolai’s touch mine”
MY QUESTION: by the way he was feeling and by the way he described the room did he feel like he was wanted there and between the time he met Nikolai and by the time Nikolai touched his hand did was he scared of losing him did he feel when he left that hospital would he ever see Nikolai again?
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: Nikolai died so no he didn’t see him again
CONNECTION: my connection with this chapter is my cousin he had to get his fingers amputated two of them I cannot imagine getting one of my limbs amputated.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID:ERIK THOUGHT BY ON PAGE 116/117 : ”we will have to take them off,” said rostovick. In order to save your life. And then we may not be able to stop the----“both my legs?” Nikolai stared wide-eyed at the ceiling “yes im afraid so.” No. doctor!” cried Nikolai. “what will I do without my legs? I have I wife and children I must take care of my family I must work “I’m sorry comrade,” said the doctor
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY ON PAGE118 :”its alright son he said in a faint voice. “ill make it”
INFERENCE AND PROOF: my inference is that erik new that Nikolai was going to die because of the quote “I blinked a tear in my eyes” and the quote when the said they were going to amputate Nikolai’s legs “we have to cut them off in order to save your life and even then we may not be able to stop the--- and I finished the sentence and I think he was going to say bleeding.
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: its showing injured soldiers
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: soldiers in hospitals
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: it shows injured soldiers and pictures of the hospitals
www.nps.gov/yose/historyculture/navy-hospital.htm
SUMMARY: In this chapter “X” and Tamara start to get lost in the forest. They have not seen any sign of civilization in days and weeks. They are battered and beat by the rugged terrain, their only food is wild berries, mushrooms, and dandelion roots. They sleep wherever there is shelter from the environment. Once they had come upon a valley where skeletons were littered every where. They take the last remaining supplies they carried. Jokingly “X” say to one of the skeletons, “Mein Freund! Or are you Russian, Karoshi druk? Thank you, Ivan! Or is it Heinrik? Good German boots, I see, Heinrik! Jackboots – hobnailed! The finest boots in the world!” Also that night Tamera develops a horrible cough.
The next day they come to a – what seems to be a “new world” like in a fantasy. They come to house and knock on the door. A man answers and asks what they want. Erik replies that they need food and medicine. The man says he thinks they’re Jews or X is a deserter. So they leave. As they’re leaving the girl gives them an apple and a half a loaf of bread. A couple nights later they sleep by the road unknowing that a military covoy drove by. The next morning they head into the town of and an old lady takes them to her house.
PREDICTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 174
“Later that night we saw a large convoy of military vehicles.”
PREDICTION AND PROOF: My prediction is that the war is near where they are. The reason for my thinking is because when their was some sign of war ever in the book soon followed actual fighting. For instance in “My Countrymen, my Enemy” after they found supplies they were attacked by German soldiers.
QUESTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 171
Mein Freund! Or are you Rusian? Karoshi druk!
MY QUESTION: Why does he call him his friend? Even if he’s German or Russian.
QUESTION ANSWER AND PROOF: One possible reason is he is trying to brighten their spirits since they are so down. Another possibilty is that he is really out of it because they hardly have had much to eat and they been in the woods for day, weeks, or even months. The final reason for this may be that he is both German and Russian and does not care who they are.
CONNECTION QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Tamara ON PAGE : 171
“I think we're going to end up as just two more piles of bones in the forest.”
CONNECTION: My connection is that Tamara and Erik ,as well as many people in the war, is kinda of like the starvation and poorness in Africa. Also many Africans die each day as well as the great amount of people who die in the war.
INFERENCE QUOTE SAID/THOUGHT BY Erik ON PAGE : 174
Tamara's cough had all but went away for a time.
INFERENCE AND PROOF: My inference is that this is like “A Christmas Carol”. Tamara is like Tiny Tim (because she's sick), Erik is like her father (because he's taking care of Tamara and was working for the nazis – Scrooge?, and the war is like Ebeneezer Scrooge (because the war is taking away from everyone like how Scrooge takes unfair taxes)
HOW THIS PICTURE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/images/photodb/23-0475a.gif
This adds to my understanding because it shows what happened to the dead and how many died
HOW THIS VIDEO ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675071159_dead-German-soldiers_half-buried-in-snow_snow-covered-land_World-War-II
This shows what it looked like after the battles and how the dead was scattered
HOW THIS WEBSITE ADDS TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAPTER: You may not use Wikipedia. http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/frame5.html
http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/frame5.html
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