The+Cage+Selena+Feng

= The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender =

Summary
==Riva Minska is a Jew living in the Lodz ghetto in Poland during the Holocaust with her mother and three younger brothers. Her mother had sent her older sisters and brother to live in Russia during war, and her father died during an earlier typhus epidemic. One day, the Nazis arrive for yet another deportation, and Riva's mother is brutally taken from her family. Now, left alone to protect her brothers, Riva must struggle to keep her family alive in spite of every obstacle thrown at them from the Nazis, ghetto police, and the elements. Then, after five long years fighting to survive in the ghetto, the last of the Jews in Lodz are deported, and Riva is separated from her family. She is sent to Auschwitz, then Camp Mittelsteine and Grafenort, where she battles to stay alive and, most importantly, hope, because, as her mother believed, "If hope is lost, all is lost". ==

Review
==This novel is a very moving portrayal of the Holocaust and the many horrors that were experienced in the ghettos and concentration and work camps in Germany. The language/writing style is not complex or hard to understand, yet there is a quiet sophistication in its simplicity. Sender captures the emotions she felt while enslaved at the concentration camps, and lets the reader feel the anguish she experienced. However, she also emphasizes her message of the importance of hope and love, and the infallible spirit of her fellow Jews was a testament to the ability of humans to have compassion even when they are thrust into a world of hate and prejudice. This Holocaust story also shows just how ugly people can be when they shut their eyes to the horrors happening around them, and refuse to help the less fortunate in their petty acts of self-preservation. Through her story, people learn that it is necessary to fight to live even when it is easier to just let go, and that "as long as there is life, there is hope". ==