The Cage

Riva’s mother’s loyalty, at the end of Chapter 2, contrasts with the events of Chapter 3, in which the Grubers betray Riva’s family. As September comes, the rumors give way to the invasion of soldiers. The Germans invade Lodz in “a war against the Jews: men, women, children” (12). As the Germans evict Jews from their homes, giving families five minutes to leave before they begin to beat them, non-Jews seek ways to identify as German(12). Mrs. Gruber, Olga, and Harry participate in this transition, taking Jewish possessions left behind and moving into a fancy, abandoned Jewish house.

One day, Harry shows up at Riva’s door “smiling proudly” and wearing a Hitler Youth outfit (12), which upsets Riva. Harry insists that he will still protect her, but “his family stands calmly by, watching Volksdeutsche rob [her] home” (13). Despite Sender’s mother’s plea, Mr. Brown, the potato delivery man, takes the stove that keeps their home warm, and when she cries out to Mrs. Gerber and Olga for protection, she receives only cold replies.

Olga tells Riva’s mother not to worry, because “you will not be here much longer. You will all be gone soon” (14).She then takes the fur coats from their closet. The family stands together “motionless, shocked, betrayed, helpless,” but Riva’s mother will not be passive (14). She curses Mrs. Gruber, shouting that “God will punish you for what you are doing! German blood will flow, just as Jewish blood is flowing in the streets! Remember my words, Mrs. Gruber! Remember!” (14). Mrs. Gruber reminds Sender’s mother that she could kill her without repercussions in that moment. At chapter’s end, Mrs. Gruber tells Sender’s family that she will send over men to chop down the oak tree next to their building, because she does not want Jews to enjoy its beauty, but Riva’s mother tells her to “take the tree” because “the dead tree will help us remember what you became” (15). The women’s exchange scares Sender, and she runs to her mother to ask why the Grubers betrayed their family.

In April, Sender and her cousin, Saba, walk to the post office together to mail a letter while Nazi soldiers flood the streets to round up Jews. In the middle of a conversation in which Saba expresses pride in the yellow stars that they wear on their coats, which Sender has called “the yellow star of disgrace,” Sender is knocked to the ground and awakens to find Saba gone (17). As she and other Jews around her, are forced to march together, Sender reflects upon her mother’s strength, acknowledging that “the bravest person [she has] ever known is Mama” (18). She forces herself to “be brave” and “have hope” for her mother (19).

As she walks in the chaotic crowd, Sender watches the weak and vulnerable being mistreated by the Nazis. At the station, the Nazis separate the men from the women and children, and then they take just the men away, leaving the women and children behind. Sender, her deaf-mute neighbor, Abram, and a little boy who has taken her hand walk home, and once they depart from the boy, Sender and Abram return to their apartment building, where their families await them. As Sender’s crying mother wraps her in her arms, repeating the sad phrase “I thought I lost you. I thought I lost you” (24), Sender hears the echoes of cries of “agony on receiving the tragic news: Your husband, your father, your son are not coming home” (23), and wonders how she will tell Mrs. Avner, across the street, that she saw her husband taken. At the end of the chapter, Sender reveals that “Mrs. Avner never sees her husband again. The men of our caravan of horror are sent to labor camps or shot” (24).