The Cage

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapter 1

Reading Check

1. Riva refers to what as “the new link in an old chain”?

2. Who is Nancy, in relation to Riva?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In the opening poem of Chapter 1, the narrator writes that “yesterdays” can come “back again,” and that “they become today” each night (3). What does the narrator mean by this?

Paired Resource

“Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica”

• Camp Mittelsteine was the all-female subcamp of Gross-Rosen, where Riva was transferred after a brief stint in Auschwitz. Gross-Rosen was a network of roughly 100 concentration camps built and operated by Nazis in World War II.
• The grounds of Gross-Rosen, located in Poland, have been transformed into a Holocaust museum and memorial site. You can explore their collection and general offerings at the link above.
• As mentioned on the homepage of their website, one of Gross-Rosen’s main goals is to remember the horrors of the Holocaust and ensure that it is seared into the “collective memory.” Memory is of the utmost importance in both Chapter 1 of The Cage and on the Gross-Rosen Museum’s homepage.
• What did the Gross-Rosen Museum’s website teach you about what life might have been like in the camp for Riva? Why do you think the museum emphasizes the importance of memory/collective memory, as one of the first things viewers see on their website’s homepage?

Chapters 2-4

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 2, the narrator expresses excitement over what springtime Jewish holiday?

2. Riva and her family are betrayed by a family in their neighborhood in Lodz in Chapter 3. What is the name of this family?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Riva’s connection to her mother—her love for her mother, her admiration—is highlighted in Chapters 2-4. What is at least one moment in the text that evidences this closeness?

Chapters 5-7

Reading Check

1. What is the name of the Jewish governmental body appointed by the Nazis, after the ghettos are established in Lodz?

2. After they lose their mother, Riva gets a job in Chapter 7 doing what type of manufacturing work?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 6, why does Riva call a certain group of Nazis “messengers of death”? What is this group of Nazis tasked with doing?

Paired Resource

“Children During the Holocaust”

• In this online article, the Holocaust Encyclopedia gives facts and statistics regarding how children were especially vulnerable to persecution by the Nazis. Children were targeted not only for being Jewish but also due to physical and/or mental disability, as well as because of their alleged political affiliation.
• The plight of children during World War II touches upon themes in The Cage having to do with Humanity, Nature and Life Cycles, and Motherhood.
• In studying the larger plight of children during World War II, in what ways is this article reflected in Riva’s struggles thus far? What might we infer about what will happen to Riva in the chapters ahead?

Chapters 8-10

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 8, who steps up and takes the lead in attempting to find Riva a doctor, for her worsening health?

2. Without Riva’s permission, what do the siblings barter in exchange for a bottle of vitamin drops that will potentially heal Riva?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Riva stops letting the social worker from the Child Welfare Department into her and her siblings’ home for fear that she and her siblings might be separated. Whenever the social worker visits, Riva has an inner voice that keeps saying: “A mother does not give up her children! A mother does not give up her children!” (48). What does this say about the evolution of Riva’s character in this section? 

Chapters 11-13

Reading Check

1. Which of Riva’s siblings does she give a pep talk to, telling them that they are the strongest of all the siblings?

2. Shmulek moves from Riva’s family home to go where?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Questions of betrayal and deceit emerge in Chapters 11-13. In this section, how does Riva’s own sense of betrayal/deceit become more complex in response to the Nazi invasion?

Chapters 14-16

Reading Check

1. Why, in Chapter 14, does Laibele start reminiscing about the old oak that Mrs. Gruber ordered cut down?

2. What is the name of the blond-haired, blue-eyed stranger who arrives at Riva’s door at the start of Chapter 16?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. At the beginning of Chapter 15, Riva compares how the family celebrated Pesach this year to how they celebrated four years prior. What are at least two of the differences she observes?

Paired Resource

“And You Shall Tell Your Children: Marking the Holiday of Passover Before, During, and After the Holocaust”

• The “During the War” segment of this Yad Vashem exhibit illustrates the importance of observing the holiday throughout Europe even during the darkest days of the war.
• Holidays like Passover/Pesach are crucial to Jewish conception of Community Memory and Nature and Life Cycles.
• Does a deeper understanding of the celebration of this holiday of Passover/Pesach by Europe’s Jewish people during the war give new layers of meaning to the scenes in this section? What is the tragic irony about this celebration of “liberation” this year?

Chapters 17-20

Reading Check

1. When the Ghetto Government orders that Riva and her siblings leave their family home, they relocate into a one-room space. What had the space been previously used as?

2. In Chapter 18, Riva works in the cutting shop of a sewing factory. What is the name of the shop manager of the sewing factory?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Education continues to play a central role in Riva’s and her brothers’ lives, and as they gain maturity, they grow increasingly empowered by their literacy. Focusing on Chapters 17-20, name an example of how this concept is evidenced in the text.

Paired Resource

“The Girl Who Ran Auschwitz’s Secret Library”

• In this article The Jerusalem Post tells the story of Dita Kraus, a young Jewish girl of just 14 who was tasked with managing a clandestine collection of books among the prisoners in Auschwitz’s “family camp.”
• As with Riva, it is clear that Education, Writing, and Books were of vital importance to Dita and her family.
• How does Dita’s story compare with Riva’s? Given that Dita’s experience takes place within a concentration camp, how are the stakes of her protecting the books different? Did any part of her story strike you as particularly interesting/shocking?

Chapters 21-24

Reading Check

1. The SS ghetto commander of Lodz gives a speech in Chapter 21, urging Jews to leave for the labor camps for their own “protection.” What does he claim it is protection against?

2. When Riva and her siblings decide to leave Lodz, what are the only personal items that they take with them?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Riva and her siblings are forced into a wagon in Chapter 24, headed to the labor camp, they are filled with a sense of terror. What gives them hope to persevere through this ordeal?

Chapters 25-27

Reading Check

1. Riva and her brothers are separated immediately upon their arrival in Auschwitz. To comfort Riva, one of her neighbors from Lodz reassures Riva that her own brothers will be alongside Riva’s, and they will protect one another. What is the name of Riva’s neighbor?

2. What type of food is Riva given in her first meal at Auschwitz?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 27, Riva experiences a vivid nightmare while sleeping in her bed in the barrack. What happens in this nightmare, and why does it leave Riva so rattled?

Chapters 28-31

Reading Check

1. Doctor Ginzburg, in Chapter 28, announces in the barracks that the SS is playing classical music to ease the Jewish prisoners’ pain. What composer’s music is being played in this moment?

2. In Chapter 29, Riva feels as though she’s been running in and out of the barrack at Auschwitz for years. In reality, she has only been there for how many days?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Riva first arrives at Camp Mittelsteine in Chapter 30, upon stepping out of the cattle car, she observes the “majestic mountains” and the sun shining brightly on the snow-covered mountaintops. Why does Riva choose to highlight the natural beauty in this scene?

Chapters 32-36

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 32, Riva is unable to operate a certain piece of machinery in the factory at Mittelsteine. What type of machine is it?

2. What nickname does Riva give to the workplace where she lands, after she’s taken out of the factory?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. The importance of art and literacy reemerges when Riva arrives at Mittelsteine. What are some examples of this? Why does art/literacy become especially important to Riva and her fellow prisoners?

Chapters 37-41

Reading Check

1. On what does Riva cut her hand at the start of Chapter 37?

2. How does the camp doctor encourage Riva to continue writing poetry, even with a wounded hand?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 38, a Nazi guard escorts Riva to the hospital to treat her wounded hand. What happens between Riva and the Nazi guard who escorts Riva to the hospital that makes Riva feel as though the guard is human, that “under that brown Nazi uniform beats the heart of another human being” (168)?

Chapters 42-44

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 43, Riva returns to the factory after her convalescence. How long has she been away from the factory?

2. What nationality is Katia, the woman who runs the first-aid station?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 42, Riva and the other prisoners put on a performance in the barracks to entertain the guards, at the commandant’s orders. At the performance, Karola recites a poem in Yiddish with a dangerous message. What is the message?

Chapters 45-48

Reading Check

1. Of her belongings, Riva considers one to be a “friend.” Which belonging does this refer to?

2. In Chapter 46, Karola notes that they are digging ditches on a special day. What is that day?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Riva leaves Camp Mittelsteine in Chapter 47, she is immediately struck by the beauty of the surrounding area. What are some features she notices?

Recommended Next Reads

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke and Jennifer Armstrong

• In My Hands is a World War II memoir of Irene Gut, who was a 17-year-old nurse and Polish patriot forced to work in a German officers’ dining hall. In her own covert way, she learned to fight back—by smuggling people out of the work camp.
• This memoir deals with Humanity in the way that Irene finds the courage to step forward, at the risk of her own health and safety, for the greater good.
• In My Hands is also another story of a young teenage girl doing extraordinary things, like Riva in The Cage.
• In My Hands on SuperSummary.com

 by Thomas Buergenthal

• A memoir by Thomas Buergenthal, who is now a judge in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, A Lucky Child tells the story of how Thomas somehow managed to survive his time at Auschwitz. After spending time in two ghettos and a labor camp, at age 10, Thomas was transferred to Auschwitz. In the book, he details how wits and some remarkable strokes of luck allowed him to survive, ultimately being reunited with his mother in 1951.
• A Lucky Child deals with themes of Humanity and Community Memory.
• This Holocaust memoir, like The Cage, is told from the perspective of a child who grows up quickly and, against all odds, survives.
• A Lucky Child on SuperSummary.com