September 15, 1935: Nuremberg Laws
History:
Nuremberg Laws are created to protect German blood and citizenship. They were racial theories based on Nazi ideology. They are separated into two categories: Reich Citizenship Law and Protection of German Blood and German Honour. The first half includes laws for whether someone is identified as Jewish or German. One must have at least three Jewish grandparents to be Jewish. As for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, it includes laws that protect German blood to avoid mixing blood. This includes no intimate relationships between Jews and non-Jews (existing marriages were disregarded) to avoid “race defilement”. It also stated that Jews must carry identifying cards and wear a Star of David somewhere visible on their clothing at all times.
Image:
(A chart of how the Germans decided if someone was considered Jewish or German)
Source:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-nurem-laws.htm
Application:
The novel illustrates the application of the Nuremberg Laws very well. The Laws can be seen in the novel when Mrs Gruber, Olga and Harry completely abandoned their old lives of speaking Yiddish, celebrating all Jewish traditions and spending all his time with Jews for becoming a Nazi, because they found a drop of German blood in their ancestry. Once finding out they were safe from Nazis, they cut off all connection to their old lives to avoid being punished for race defilement. It shows how people would dig deep into their family tree to find the two German grandparents necessary to be safe from being considered fully Jewish. These laws created a sense of internal conflict for the Jews, about whether or not they were still human. The laws separated the Jews from the rest of humanity and made the Jews feel as though they should no longer be a part of society.
September 1st, 1939: Beginning of World War II: The Invasion of Poland
History:
As World War II began and Germany started to invade multiple countries its neighbouring country, Poland, was one of them. Within weeks of the beginning of the invasion, Poland was defeated. Germany’s army had over 2000 tanks and 1000 planes. Once they got through the defences on the border they made their way to Warsaw in an encirclement attack. Warsaw surrendered to Germany on September 27, 1939. By October of the same year, Germany had control of Polish territories along Germany’s eastern border. The remainder of Poland was invaded in June of 1945
Image:
(Germans invading Poland)
Source : https://sites.google.com/site/intheirownwordsproject/germany-invades-poland
Application:
The beginning of the second chapter of The Cage takes place in Lodz, Poland. The novel goes through their life before the Holocaust began, happy and cheerful, and becomes depressing and angry as Poland is invaded by Germany. Both important points of this historical event and the beginning of this novel are the same. Sender creates a gradual transition from the happy feel of the book to slowly talking about Hitler and war to the horrible life in the ghetto as the Germans take over. This historical event pushed this entire novel into motion into the main event. With Poland defeated, Germany had total control over it. They could establish ghettos, enforce laws on Jews and eventually send them to concentration camps to die. Everything which happened in history created the plot line of this story. Before World War II served as an exposition, as Hitler took over it created multiple points of rising action, when different camps are being liberated, specifically Grafenort the camp Riva was in, made the climax, the falling action was when Riva returns to Lodz, and finally the denouement is when we return to when Riva is talking to her children.
November 23, 1939: Yellow Star of David
History:
During the Holocaust, Jews were legally forced to wear a yellow Star of David in order to distinguish them from non-Jews. It was meant to degrade and dehumanise them and separate them from society. It marked them as different from everyone else, therefore, making it not only an easy way to identify Jews but I would also have a psychological impact on the wearer. Anyone (Jews) who did not wear this star would be severely punished including death by shooting.
Image:
(A star of David Jews would have to wear at all times in public)
Source:
http://kosherdelight.com/Holocaust_Yellow_Star.shtml
Application:
These Yellow Stars of David have now become something to remember the Holocaust and the loss of rights the Jews went through. As mentioned before, these Yellow Stars were a way to identify Jews as well as dehumanise them, however, did not always work. Some people would refuse to wear the stars in an attempt to rebel (although this resulted in death). We can also see in the novel as Riva and her cousin, Saba, spoke about how the Stars they had to wear. Riva asked Saba if she felt as though she was embarrassed by having to wear the Star. She responded by saying that she was instead proud of it as it was a symbol of being Jewish. This was ironic as the Star was meant to degrade them as Jews and seemed like a good way to do so, but instead, they were proud to wear it.
May 7, 1940: Lodz Ghetto (Litzmannstadt) sealed
History:
The Lodz Ghetto was established in early February 1940 in the northeastern area of the city of Lodz. With a population of around 165,000 Jews in 1.6 square miles it was considered the second largest Jewish community in pre-war Poland and was a third of the city population. This ghetto was sealed in barbed-wire fencing with special police units guarding the perimeter. Inside the ghetto, there was very low amounts of money and very poor living conditions. Everything was governed by Jewish ghetto police with Germans watching over it all.
Image:
(A map of Lodz)
Source:
http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/ghettos-case-studies/lodz-ghetto/#.WBkmbforLic
Application:
Lodz is the ghetto where everything started to build up in the novel. Described very accurately as a “cage” gave the novel its name. Lodz is one point to the physical setting of Part One of the novel. When it was sealed, it locked Sender’s family of five (a widowed mother with four children) in with the low amounts of income and the terrible living conditions. Diseases easily spread because of the lack of medicine available, the dirty living areas and the dense population. Food was hard to come by and the feeling of starvation and thirst became a permanent part of living. The constant fear of being killed and seeing what lies in the future did not make anything better. The young aged beyond recognition and the old contracted diseases and were the first to die. Sender lived like this for years, it’s unbelievable how anyone could survive such a place, let alone in labour camps.
1942-Jews losing rights to life
History:
As mentioned before, Jews would be separated from society and were treated as though they were not human. Only the minimum would be spent on them, just enough to keep them alive. Anything like entertainment, knowledge and public transportation would be considered completely unnecessary for them. Any books would be burnt in massive book burnings and the few that survived would have to be hidden very carefully to avoid being found out. Nazis especially wanted to avoid spreading the knowledge of what they were doing to other places and also wanted to stay in control. This made a way for them to avoid spreading knowledge and also threaten the Jews.
Image:
(Book burnings held to avoid spreading knowledge)
Source :
http://www.dw.com/en/cultural-incineration-80-years-since-nazi-book-burnings/a-16798958
Application:
At this point in history, Jews were being treated like complete animals. It is seen in “The Cage” that children did not have anything to do during the day as they no longer went to school. Riva had to be carried to the doctor because they had no access to transportation and their entire family hid a “library” of books that had not been found by the Nazis in their home. Jews had completely lost all basic human rights and were treated as animals. They worked until they could not do anymore and would then be killed or sent to labour camps only to die. The fact that Jews were put in a cage meant to barely keep them alive added suspense to the novel. One would be constantly on their toes wondering, who is going to survive, who is being sent off to the unknown next, and what will happen next.
May 7, 1945, *: Liberation of Grafenort
*possibly May 8th
History: A concentration camp operational from March 1st 1945-May 8th 1945 and originally built in March of 1944. It housed only women of Jewish religion and those who were deported from Poland. Around 250-300 Jews were transferred from Mittelsteine to Grafenort in April 1945 by Nazis because of enemy attackers from the war. All of those who were transferred were originally deported from Lodz. Grafenort was liberated by the Red Army of the Soviet Union.
Image:
(Grafenort as of 2012)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafenort_concentration_camp
Application:
Grafenort is the physical setting of the climax to the story of “The Cage”. It is the camp Riva was sent to from Mittelsteine and the camp she was eventually liberated from. This was the point in which the novel’s tone became hopeful, after all, Riva was finally released from the trap she was meant to die in. However, this did not last for long as she finds out that all that was found were dead bodies and ashes in the other camps. This novel has three big turning points when the Holocaust started when the remaining citizens of Lodz were sent to Auschwitz, and when Grafenort was liberated. It changed the entire course of the story.