Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Who was Adolf Hitler? What were his goals as a politician? How did other nations respond to his goals, particularly those in Europe?

Teaching Suggestion: These questions orient students with the historical context of the novel: Nazi Germany and World War II (WWII). As the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (i.e., “Nazi” Party), Adolf Hitler discouraged the reproduction of non-Aryan peoples, a concept that links to the theme The Malleability of Identity. As a part of his vision for a “pure” German race, the Nazi regime identified the Jehovah Witness, Jewish, Roma, and LGBTQI+ communities as well as those with communist associations, as “undesirable” to their goal of racial purity. This genocide these communities was called the Holocaust. Although many countries claimed not to know the nature of Hitler’s extermination camps, his attempts to establish “lebensraum” by invading the surrounding countries of Austria and Poland led to the start of WWII. Students may benefit from an in-depth review of this and similar content prior to reading.

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