September 1, 1939 – Jews in Germany are forbidden to be outdoors after 8 p.m. in winter and 9 p.m. in summer.
History: A German military commander of the city reported that Jews many not leave their homes between 8pm and 7am, Nazis claim that Jews have abused their rights to be out past curfew. Germans have deprived Jewish citizens of their freedom by taking away their privileges one at a time, many laws the Germans introduced did not impact the Jewish lives greatly alone, but all together they took a great amount of their rights away. Eventually The Germans reached their goal of completely dehumanizing Jews.
(Germans moved the Jewish into the ghetto Lodz)
Source: https://historyimages.blogspot.ca/2012/02/poland-german-occupation-warsaw-ghetto-pictures.html
Application: In the story the “Cage” the Jewish were enforced by the Nazis to close their shops by 6pm, the Germans had the privilege of keeping their shops open until later in the night. In the cage this effected their lives from the loss of customers, and money due to less time working. Without working the maximum amount of hours the Jews would make a percentage of what Germans would make, which resulted in Rivas mother working extremely hard in her factory to support 7 children, and send them all to private school. Rivas mother put endless amounts of effort into giving her children the love and support they deserve during this time of difficulty. While reading this story, the imagery used was so upsetting it felt as if the reader was in the story experiencing it all as well.
April 30, 1940 – The Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland is sealed off from the outside world with 230,000 Jews locked inside.
History: Lodz had the largest Jewish community in Europe second to Warsaw, On December 10, 1939, Friedrich Ubelhor. The Nazis created ghettos to segregate and confine the Jewish populations, Lodz ghetto was only intended to be a temporary holding facility for Jewish members. Lodz got many people involved and became over populated and was made into a permanent housing space, those who remained in Lodz were transported to the largest ghetto “Auschwitz”. In Auschwitz they would be worked until death and fed brutally small portions a day, leaving them looking like skeletons from the low calorie intake.
(This picture shoes how secluded the Jewish were from people in the streets)
Source: https://fi.pinterest.com/pin/565624034421548596/
Application: The Ghetto in the story was described like a jail, making the people who lived in the ghetto feel trapped and secluded. The diction Ruth Minsky Slender used while writing this story created so much depth and emotion made all the tragedy inside the Ghetto very vivid. Within the ghetto there were very few doctors, however they could not treat any of the patients without medicine from outside of the ghetto. Live in the ghetto was rather tragic and depressing in most cases, there were many family members being ripped out of the arms of helpless mothers, not knowing if they will ever see each other again and unable to save their children from the devastating loss of others.
November 23: Jews in German-occupied Poland forced to wear an arm band or yellow star
History: Jewish citizens were obligated to wear yellow stars in order to separate the Jewish from the non-Jewish, they did this to eliminate the contact between the two because they did not want the Germans to have any intimate relationships with the Jews. The badges were printed on a small piece of yellow cloth shaped as a star, printed with black pen “Jew”. In the Warsaw ghetto Jews wore a white armband with a blue Star of David on their left arm. In some ghettos, babies had to wear the armbands or stars.
(This picture represents a boy having to wear a Jewish armband.)
Source: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/02/article-2485251-1927FC1200000578-8_634x795.jpg
Application: The Nazis made all Jewish people wear the yellow star of David in “The Cage” Riva asked if Saba was ashamed of wearing the Jewish star, assuming it was a disgrace but Saba wore the six-pointed yellow piece of cloth with pride. In this novel the readers did not know much about Saba leaving her to be known as a “flat character”, German leaders made Jewish people distinct from all others because they intended for people who follow Judaism to be ashamed of their culture and heritage they’ve practiced as kids, although everyone looked at the yellow star of David to be negative, Saba felt pleasure in wearing the star and kept her head up with a positive attitude towards all the cruel manner at this time.
November 15: “Nuremberg Laws “Germany defines a “Jew
“: anyone with three Jewish grandparents; someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies as a Jew. No longer a German citizen.
History: The Nuremberg Laws where brought up on September 15, 1935. These laws consisted of the German blood and honor laws, and the Reich citizenship laws. Only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens, these laws forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans, disobeying this law was called “race defilement”. The employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households was not acceptable during this time of laws, many assumed that Jewish men would force them into committing “race defilement”.
(This photo explains the Nuremburg laws and how the system operated.)
Source: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/nurem-laws-chart.jpg
Application: The main way the Nuremburg laws are portrayed in the story is when Mrs. Gruber’s family grew up with Riva and celebrated all Jewish holidays, spoke Yiddish and participated in all the Jewish traditions. It all changed when they found the slightest bit of German ancestry for protection. Once Harry and Olga had safety from the Germans, Harry joined Hitler Youth and they all got in touch with their German side, all contact was lost with Rivas family and they completely excluded them from their lives. After many Jewish people were found to have German blood in them, the true Jewish citizens felt extremely betrayed from who they knew as family, because protection from the Germans over ruled all friendships.
January 6, 1940 : Shivering Jews in Warsaw, Poland, are forced to burn Jewish books for fuel.
History: The Nazi book burnings was a campaign that was conducted by the German student union to ceremonially burn books in Germany as well as Austria. The Nazis would target book that involved ideologies of the holocaust and Nazism, the amount of irreplaceable books they burned created a severe loss of cultural heritage from the Jewish. Artists, doctors and writers were prompted by these barbaric actions, the Nazis took absolutely everything away from the Jews leaving them feeling lost and alone without being in touch with their heritage.
(Germans would throw books in a pile to burn.)
Application:
In the story, after the book burnings, during the cold winter nights, the Jewish in the ghettos would use the fire from the burning books to keep warm at night. They would also use this method to heat their home for the night when they suffered from extreme weather conditions. Nazis took away all the winter coats the family had to keep warm, for them to make other clothing that was more important, often hey would take anything the Jewish had, to make uniforms and other necessities used by the German military.
January, 1941: The population of the Warsaw Ghetto swells to 400,000. Jewish residents are limited to 183 calories a day (Germans are allowed 2310 a day; foreigners 1790; Poles 934) and are denied fuel, causing many to freeze to death.
History: Many people who lived in the ghetto were very poor, but for some who kept their wealth were able to trade and buy food from others who had jobs in the ghetto. It was very difficult for citizens of the ghetto to maintain a job and make money, often they ended up smuggling food through the guards or underground cannels, or sending their children to the other side to steal what they could. The average caloric intake was around 200 calories a day for the ghetto, which was 10 percent of the ration for Germans.
(this picture represents a Jewish boy who only has enough food to survive.)
Source: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/32/images/historic_b6.jpg
Application:
The people who lived in the ghetto had very little money, the food portions they were given only barley kept them standing. Many members would starve to death or suffer from a disease running through the ghetto due to the mal-nutrition, if they got a better variety of food they would be stronger from the minerals and antioxidants and would be able to fight diseases and hunger. Other deaths in “The Cage” were caused by Jewish people freezing, due to the lack of blankets, coats and insolation within their housing. In this story Rivas brothers were willing to give up their weeks’ worth of food to earn 1 orange for Riva to gain strength and get back on her feet.