My Bridges of Hope (Pgs 199-251)

Summary: 

In Vienna Elli has three brothers on her foot night and day. One of the brothers Andy, who she has been spending a lot of time with, asked if she could meet his sister-in-law. However he wants to introduce her as his fiancé. this was a surprise to Elli, that her response was that she did not want to get married because she wanted to go to America and get a job while she is also getting an education. This was the opposite of what Andy wanted which was to get married and go live in Israel. he confessed his long time love for her since he say her in Bratislava. But when he heard her decision, he became sick. He became so sick from her answer that it lead to him starting a violent outrage and attacked his brother Tommy. They call the police and they send him to a sanatorium. When Elli hears of this news she goes to the sanatorium, to go visit him. At the first sight of Elli one second latter he falls asleep, this occurs because the treatment that they gave him drained a lot of his energy. Since that day and on she visited him and feed him his lunch because that was the only way that he would even eat. During these visits she feels as if she is getting closer to him. But back home with Andy's brothers they are also getting closer to Elli, that by the time Andy gets out of the sanatorium all three of the brothers are in love with Elli. 


After a few weeks the brothers get the opportunity to go to Israel and Elli and her mother go to Germany. There they stay with a couple of friends while trying to get a visa to go to America. However they get declined a visa, and are told that the only way they can get a visa is if they go to Austria. During their time in Germany Elli gets a job in Camp Feldafing, as a teacher. Then the camp gets moved to Camp Gerestried, but there she gets a job as camp administration. At last after years of waiting they get their visa to America and there they begin their new life with their uncle and her brother Bubi. 

Quote: 

"When will the day come when I will wave good-bye to the empty platform from the window of a departing train?" (Jackson 1240).

Reaction: 

When I read this quote i thought that it was pretty funny imaging a random person waving goodbye to an empty platform. But  at the same time that it would be a very sad and joyful time because it would mean that there is no one left in Europe, and that they are the last of their friends and family to leave Europe. Its a joyful time because at last they are able to go to America and be reunited with Bubi who they have not seen for more than three years. Now Elli has the ability to live in a place where she will not feel like everyone around her has betrayed her or left. She can study how much she wants and still have a job. This quote also reminded me how at first she wanted to go to Israel. However her loyalty to her family is more important to her that she would rather go to America than follow he dream to go to Israel. However all her dreams do come true because at the end she is able to go to Israel and have a family of her own. 

My Bridges of Hope (Pgs 152-198 )

Summary: 

This section of the novel begins with Eretz Israel being free and the British leaving the land. However, after a few days it has been attacked by Arabs. When this many people start to become part of the fight, and join secret associations. While this happens Elli gets a job in teaching but before she starts she has to do community service with other teachers for a couple of days. During these couple of days she meets a guy named Vilo, who say her during the time she ran into the streets and started to dance in the rain. They start to get closer and learn more about each other lives. the couple of days end and Vilo wants to keep this friendship to keep on going. Elli has to say no because it is against of her religion and even if he becomes religious she is still not going to be able to be with him. Vilo promises her that he will find a way to make everything work so that they will be with each other. The other reason why she does not want to date him is because she does not want him to find out about her work for Briha. 


A lot of people are starting to go to Eretz Israel. Elli tries to get a spot to get her an her mother to go to however, they told her that at this point they are not transporting older people. So no Elli is stuck with her mother while all her love ones are some place else. At last Elli decides to tell her mother that she is working for Briha and that they have to make the choice if they are going to leave and go to Vienna and find a way to go to America. Their day comes and they go to the screening. Even though she tries to hind from her co-workers, they notice her and play along with her plan so they would not get caught. During her journey she meets Vilo again. And the first thing she thinks about is how she is dressed and if she is wearing the latest style. When he truck comes she says goodbye to him and starts to cry, and her mother tells her everything will be okay and that she will see him again someday. They reach Vienna with no troubles, and are greeted by six boys that she helped a couple of days ago escape to Vienna. They were so thankful for Elli's help that they were on her and her mother's hand feet all day. It was the best day of her life and it seemed like she was in heaven. 

Quote: 
"Once again we are pulling up our roots and obliterating our identity. This time, in order to live. " (Jackson 176).

Reaction: 

When I read this quote I had to look it over twice because i was kind of confused because when I put this in my own words i see it as saying that they are destroying all traces of their identity again but this time for so that they can live. I think that the only other time that they destroyed their identity was during the holocaust. But I see it as the Nazis trying to destroy their identity in the concentration camps, so that there would not be any evidence of the names of those they have killed. Then i thought maybe another time they try to destroy all traces of their identity was when they might of been trying to pretend that they are German and not get caught by the Nazis. However they could of got caught and that might be how they ended up in the concentration camps. This quote rose up the question when was the other time they had to do this but not in order to live?. I think that this is a very strong quote because its the point in the autobiography when Elli takes responsibility and tells her mother the truth and her thoughts about what is going on. Her being the bigger person and trying to get them out of Czechoslovakia. At this point of the story i think that she does not seem like the little girl she was always but as a grown woman, who knows what she wants in life and will try anything to reach that goal. 

My Bridges of Hope (Pgs 102-151 )

Summary: 

After a ten hour train ride they reached their destination. However Sruli and the rest of the teenagers have not arrived yet. Elli becomes worried and tries to find them on the train but there is no luck, and she starts to think bad things, like what if the drunk men found them. All of a sudden she sees groups of boys bring in luggage, and sees that they have come back, and that they had to hide in the woods because the drunk men where in their path to getting to the train station and that is why they had to get on a latter train. When Elli goes home, she latter goes to a teaching seminary for all girls, and during her free time she works at a dressmaker shop. 

Three months pass and they are still waiting for their papers from the American Embassy to arrive. They get news from their Uncle Abish that Bubi and her are able to go to America and go to school and this would act as an exceptional visa from them. However her mother did not have a way to get a visa to go work in America. So they made the choice to let Bubi go to America and Elli would stay with her mother until she got her visa. When Bubi left to America, and Elli said her good byes, she went back to her dormitory at school. The next day she has to go with her mother on a shopping trip, and brings along too little kids named Elka and Jerry. During the trip Elli loses Jerry, and starts running around looking for him, until she gets back home she finds out that after having a fight with Elka he went back home.

Near the end of May she takes her final exams and the results are that she is going to graduate. Also during the same time, history was made, they voted to make a Jewish state in Eretz Israel. When Elli heard of this news she ran to Michalovska street  to join the crowd of people that were dancing and singing because of the good news. When she gets back to her dormitory a girl name Gina tells her of Haganah which is a secret Jewish army in Palestine, she considers it and after a couple of weeks she goes in for an interview. However she is sent back home because she is too young to be part of the army. When she gets back to her dormitory she gets good news, that she is being offered a job at the seminary to teach students older and younger than her, even though she is seventeen, still she takes the job.

Quote: 

"Textiles stores, shoe stores, drug stores--- each has lost its individual character...All forms of advertisement have become a thing of the past. Color is gone. " (Jackson 147).

Reaction: 

This quote reminded me of the novel The Giver  because it was about a place that resembled a utopia. Meaning that everything and every one looked the same, and there was nothing that influenced people to rebel, or be creative. Like Elli described the city with no color, like in The Giver, the town did not consist of any color meaning that the citizens did not know what color is, or where they could find or see color. Even though it is not possible for a town or anything thing in life to loose its color or not color have. It is a very unique way to describe a place as having no color, because from that description I picture a black and white movie showing people just walking around and nothing really happening. It showed that the communist really had a big effect on the city, that it made things very depressing. It seemed as if people were scared or worried that the communist would cause dangerous riots, because it looks as if nothing else really mattered and all productions of advertisements and clothes just stopped immediately. 

My Bridges of Hope (Pgs 50-101)

Summary:

A couple of weeks pass by and Elli's mother is worried sick about her health so she decides to bring her to the doctors. When she gets there the doctor is able to diagnose that that she is very thin for her age and if she does not gain about ten more kilograms, there would be a very high chance she will die before the age of sixteen. Because of this news, her mother becomes insanely worried about her daughter's health because she only has her and her brother who which she can call her family since her husband died. She would not want to lose someone else in her life again, especially after the holocaust is over. So she starts to feed her daughter large amounts of food during every meal. Trying her hardest to get her to gain some weight.

When Bubi, her brother, comes back home from school he thinks that is if she gets a job at a children camp, would encourage her to eat more. After a long search he finds he a camp for her and was also able to get her an interview at at a camp called High Tartas. When she goes in for the interview, after she thinks that she is not qualified for the job, but unexpectedly Bubi tells her that she got the job and would be spending the summer at the camp, even though she did not know anything about the Jewish culture that much. 

Elli starts to get ready to leave to camp and her mother makes her clothes out of pillowcases that came in a Care package. When she got her suit cases packed she went and stayed at her brothers room at his school for the night. The next day she goes the the station where she was told to read off a list of names, to see if they have everyone. Before she was even able to do anything she was made to look over two little kids around the age of four. When they get on the train,she tells the group of little children a story about a kitten and after a couple of hours they reach Vysne Ruzbachy.

On the first official day of camp she wakes up late and sits and watches everyone go off doing their own tasks. Before the day is over Frieda, one of the counselors, receives a telegram that says she got her certificate that allows her to go to Palestine to live there. Without haste she packs her clothes and leaves to Palestine that very night, and tells Elli she will be fine by herself taking care of the kids and that she will send for a replacement. Weeks pass by and there isn't a replacement yet, however things are running well and everyone has fallen in love with Ellie's stories every the teenagers encourage her to keep on telling them. Sruli, the only other counselor at this time, agreed to take care of the teenagers, only if Elli would be able to take care of the little kids all by herself. As the days were going by well, one day around three a.m there was a emergency that everyone from the camp had to flee to the train station, because a group of drunken partisans were coming to  kill the little kids. Almost at the edge of getting killed they lose the group of teenagers that were with Sruli, however they are able to reach the four o'clock train and escape the drunken men.

Quote:

"Oh, God, am [I] entitled to such happiness?" (Jackson 94).

Reaction:

 Before Elli asked this question, she was talking about how all the children were promised that their parents will come back after the holocaust and that if there is no news about where they were it meant that they would soon come back. However she drifts away from that topic and talks about how she can not wait until the climbing trip and being able to spend the day in Sruli's company. When I read this quote, it reminded me about a normals girl diary, where they write about what they believe in and, their feelings, their thoughts. This was the point that I noticed that I was reading a biography and that everything that was being said happened in reality. It made me look over what I just read, not believing what the children had to face at such a young age. I think that the camp was a good way for them to relive those times that where taken from them to act like little kids, and learn. Moments like this in the novel, is when i start to see how life is different for everyone, and that we all do not have it easy at times. These children are able to go though out their day as everything is okay and that they were not just in concentration camps a couple weeks ago, is very shocking to me. It was as if at this exact moment Elli also noticed what these children had to face and how she is also lucky in life compared to their lives.