Daniel's Story

Through her characters, Carol Matas explains the basic historical context of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. Uncle Peter says, “[Hitler’s] party, the National Socialist party—they are called Nazis—has lots of seats in Parliament” (9). Though the Nazis called themselves socialists, they weren’t socialists: They had no coherent ideology. Hitler, a frustrated painter and soldier in World War I, gained control of the Nazi party. In The Rise of the Third Reich (2005), the contemporary historian Richard J. Evans says Hitler achieved success “by telling his audiences what they wanted to hear” (Evans 171). As Uncle Peter says in Daniel’s Story, “[The Germans] think [Hitler] can solve all their problems of unemployment and that he can stop the fighting” (9).

The humiliating World War I defeat and the Great Depression made Germany a turbulent place, and the Germans voted for the Nazis in fair elections, and their popularity lifted Hitler to the position of chancellor.

Uncle Peter tells Daniel, “Hitler changed the constitution so that he now rules us” (9). After a 1933 fire burned down the Reichstag (the building for the German parliament), Hitler accused Germany’s enemies of starting the fire, and he replaced democracy with totalitarianism. Uncle Peter adds, “Hitler wants someone to blame all of Germany’s troubles on, and he’s decided it will be the Jew” (10). In The Rise of the Third Reich (2005) Evans echoes Uncle Peter’s words when he says Hitler “reduced Germany’s complex social, political, and economic problems to a simple common denominator: The evil machinations of the Jews” (Evans 172).

Hatred of Jews—antisemitism—existed before the Nazis, but many European Jews managed to excel in the face of prejudice. Daniel’s dad owned a flourishing hardware shop, and Rosa’s dad had three fur shops. Through bigoted laws and violence, the Nazis gradually segregated Jews from everyday life. They took their jobs, assets, and freedom and put them in ghettos and concentration camps.

With the other European countries depleted by World War I, the hyper-militarized Nazis quickly invaded and occupied other European countries. The Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, marking the start of World War II. The Axis countries (mainly Nazi Germany, Japan, and Fascist Italy) fought the Allies (primarily the United States, England, France, and Russia).

For part of the war, Daniel and his family are in Poland’s Lodz Ghetto. Jewish Councils ran the ghettos for the Nazis. Rosa’s dad was a member of the Jewish Council, and Matas doesn’t delve into their significance, but the Jewish Council picked people to transport to the concentration camps. When members of Daniel’s family get selected, it’s due to the Jewish Council working on behalf of the Nazis. The existence of Jewish Councils is a fraught part of Holocaust history, and it links to the theme of survival and resistance, with members claiming they worked with the Nazis in a desperate attempt to mitigate the lethal policies. Chaim Rumkowski, the polarizing leader of the Lodz Jewish Council, claimed, “I must amputate limbs in order to save the body (Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich at War. Penguin, 2009.).

In Lodz, Daniel hears rumors that the people “are taken to a place called Chelmno, where they’re killed” (47). The rumors are true. The Nazis killed Jews in gas vans at Chelmno, a village in Poland. They killed them with death squads that routinely made Jewish people dig their own graves before their execution. The Nazis also built gas chambers, and Daniel’s dad tells him about the gas chambers at Auschwitz: “I found out from a guard that the smoke is from bodies burning. But first, they are taken into a huge room and then gas is thrown in and they choke to death” (76).

Adam and the resistance blew up Crematorium IV, and, in fact, in October 1944, prisoners at Auschwitz revolted and blew up Crematorium IV. Similarly, in Buchenwald, Daniel and his dad join the resistance and take charge of the camp; on April 11, 1945, prisoners seized Buchenwald shortly before the Americans arrived.

Over one million Jews died at Auschwitz, and approximately six million Jews died due to the Nazis’ genocidal policies. The Nazis also gassed and systematically killed political opponents, gay people, Romani people, people with intellectual disabilities, people with physical disabilities, and almost anyone that didn’t conform to the bellicose Nazi policies and Hitler’s idea of a supreme human. Daniel doesn’t witness one genocide, but several.