Making Bombs For Hitler

Summary of Book: Making Bombs For Hitler was writ

ten by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. In this story we see a young German girl, named Lida, put into a concentration camp for her families sympathy towards the Jews. Her parents are killed and she is separated from her dear sister Larissa when she gets put in the concentration work camp. She is put to work doing backbreaking labor and is basically starved to death. Eventually the Germans put her and the other prisoners to work making bombs for Hitler which makes Lida very upset. However, she and the other workers devise a plan to sabotage the bombs so that they will hurt the Germans instead. They continue to do this and then one day, they get the news that the war is over. She and a close friend, Lukas decide to return home and look for their family. A year after the war, Lida gets a note from Canada with a Lilac in it. Her sister has immigrated to Canada and been adopted by a couple. She tells her sister that she too can come and be sponsored by this family. At the end we see Lida overwhelmed to learn her sister is alive and excited to start a new life with her along with Lukas in Canada.

Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I would use this book in my classroom to give a different view towards the people that were not Jews, were not Nazis, but were those that were sympathetic towards the Jews and helped them out.

Appropriate age group for this book: 8-12

Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use this book in the classroom: I would have comprehensive questions available at the end of each chapter that the students would have to answer. As the teacher I would orally read the story and then have them answer the questions. They would have to use evidence from the text, critical thinking skills, predictions to support their answers.

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