I Have Lived a Thousand Years

I Have Lived a Thousand Years

by Livia Bitton-Jackson

Study Guide

1.  Describe Elli’s relationship with her mother.

2.  What news does Bubi bring when he comes to Elli’s house in the middle of the night? How did Elli’s parents respond to the news?

3.  What happened to the schools in Hungary?

4.  Describe what happened when Ellie walked home on the last day of school.

5.  What is Elli’s most prized possession? What happens to it?

6.  How does Bubi deal with the “Jew badge”? How does Elli react?

7.  What are some of the rumors going around the ghetto?

8.  Describe some of the changes in Aunt Serena.

9.  Why is Elli’s mother glad to go to a labor camp? What is running low in the ghetto?

10.  What is Elli’s father commanded to do?

11.  What is Elli unable to tell her father the night before he leaves? What happens?

12.  What were the Hungarian Police collecting from those in the ghetto? What do the police do with the collected items? What did Elli hide from them?

13.  Why is Elli’s family packing? What are they to take with them?

14.  Describe Elli’s relationship with Aunt Serena before coming to the ghetto.

15.  Who eventually takes control of the prisoners from the Hungarian police? Where are the Jews taken? How many people are put in a car?

16.  Where does Elli’s family ultimately end up?

17.  Explain what happened to Elli and her mother once they entered the camp. What was done to them?

18.  Who was the person that spared Elli’s life by asking her to lie about her age?

19.  What is it that Elli wants so badly on the march to the barracks?

20.  What is the “lake”? What does it provide for the prisoners?

21.  Elli and her relatives decide to form a family of five. Why is this important to survival in Auschwitz?

40.  Where are Elli and her mother taken while they are marching after roll call?

41.  How do the kapos treat prisoners? Give specific examples.

42.  Why didn’t Elli want her mother to eat the soup? How did her mother respond to Elli’s complaint?

43.  How did Elli and the other workers commit sabotage? What was to be their punishment?

44.  Describe the deportation from Plaszow to Auschwitz.

45.  What were Elli and her mother given upon coming back to Auschwitz?

46.  Describe the incident with the breaking bed. What happens to Elli’s mother because of it?

47.  What punishment does Elli receive for visiting her mother in the infirmary? What is she told about the smoke?

48.  What do the women have to do before being transported?

49.  What happens when Elli tries to defend her mother to an SS guard?

50.  Explain three specific images in which they place there were taken could be described as “heaven.”

51.  What job does Elli’s mother get? Why is this good for her?

52.  Describe Elli’s job.

53.  What caused a radical transformation at Augsburg? What changed?

54.  What did the Commandant get for the women? Describe Elli’s new things and how people looked at her differently because of her new things.

55.  What did Elli find out about the new things she received? Where did these things come from?

56.  What did Elli and seven other girls do to get punished? What was her punishment?

57.  Why wouldn’t Elli eat her soup? What happened to the soup?

58.  What did Mr. Schiedel do for Elli?

59.  Where were Elli and her mother transferred? Why were they moved?

60.  Upon arrival at the camp, Elli and her mother find out what exciting piece of news?

61.  What does Bubi look like?

62.  Where is Elli’s mother assigned to work? What benefits does she receive by working there?

63.  When Elli talks about seeing the rest of the family after liberation, what does Bubi tell her? What proof does he give?

64.  What is the rumor going around when the inmates are put into boxcars?

65.  When the boxcars open, the prisoners assume they are free because there are no guards around. What do most of the prisoners do? What do Elli and her mother do?

66.  Who gets the prisoners out of the railroad cars?

67.  What do the Americans make the townspeople do?

68.  Describe the conditions of Elli’s family’s home and what Elli’s neighbors do for her family.

69.  How does the family find out about what happened to her father?

70.  Why does Elli feel so strongly about going to Palestine?

71.  School is different for Elli than before she was sent away. How is it different?

72.  Who does Elli meet every day at the Tattersall? Why is this important to her?

73.  Where does Elli’s uncle live? What is he willing to do for Elli’s family?

74.  What did Elli’s family find in the cellar?

75.  Describe the scene as Elli’s family reaches their new home.