book review the true story of hansel and gretel

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THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL

A novel of war and survival.

by Louise Murphy ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 29, 2003

Lyrical, haunting, unforgettable.

A classic fairy tale is darkly reimagined in this brutally explicit Holocaust story by poet and second-novelist Murphy ( The Sea Within , 1985).

The eponymous protagonists are Polish Jews, the preadolescent daughter and seven-year-old son of a fugitive intellectual ironically nicknamed “the Mechanic,” who survived by servicing German military vehicles. In the late stages of the war, the Mechanic and his second wife “rename” his children and send them into a forest, hoping they can elude both Nazi pursuers and advancing Russian troops. The children are taken in by an aged “witch,” Magda, and reluctantly sheltered by the embattled residents of a nearby Polish village. At first juxtaposing the ordeals of the children and their father, Murphy gradually expands her novel’s scope, focusing in turn on an unwed pregnant woman (Nelka) and the redoubtable villager (Telek) who loves her; Magda’s brother, a sin-burdened priest who redeems himself by a heroic sacrifice; and German Major Frankel, a suave monster who “refreshes” himself with the transfused blood of Polish women and orchestrates the inspection of their children for the purposes of “assimilation into the German people.” Murphy’s crisp prose renders the war’s terrors memorably, and she makes expert use of indigenous folklore and superstition—perhaps expressed most beautifully in “Gretel’s” declaration to “Hansel” that stars above them are “all the Jews that died . . . and went up in the air, and the stars are the stars that they wore on their coats.” Comparisons to Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird are inevitable, but the relentlessly grim depiction of the children’s perilous odyssey, and especially the stalwart, mordant figure of Magda (whose eventual fate and transfiguration are stunningly described) link it even more closely with Davis Grubb’s Appalachian morality tale The Night of the Hunter . Only an unconvincing hopeful ending and elegiac coda dilute the power of Murphy’s unusually gripping fiction.

Pub Date: July 29, 2003

ISBN: 0-14-200307-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Penguin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2003

HISTORICAL FICTION

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THE NIGHTINGALE

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 2015

Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.

Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.

In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs : people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3

Page Count: 448

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014

HISTORICAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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SEEN & HEARD

WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES

by Georgia Hunter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2017

Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.

Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.

Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “ You’ll get only one shot at this ,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “ Don’t botch it .” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “ That form is a deal breaker ,” he tells himself. “ It’s life and death .” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016

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The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

Written by Louise Murphy Review by Tracey Callison

On the side of the road and a dark and forbidding wood, a father abandons his two children with the words “Go into the woods. Run.” As their motorcycle speeds into the distance, their stepmother calls out “Hansel and Gretel… You are Hansel and Gretel. Remember now.” And thus begins a powerful and moving story about two children caught up in the events at the end of the Nazi occupation in Poland during the Second World War. The children (whose real names are never used, as that would reveal their Jewishness) find their way through the woods to the house of Magda, a solitary and eccentric woman who lives outside a small village in the woods. They are uneasily assimilated until a Nazi officer arrives with his own plans for the children of the village. Hansel and Gretel’s parents, meanwhile, find themselves involved in a small group of resistance fighters who terrorize collaborators.

Murphy has used the mythic structure of Hansel and Gretel to explore the consequences of war and its effects upon everyday people in a story that is compelling and heart-wrenching. The story contains both beauty and innocence, made all the more poignant by contrast with the ugliness that goes on around it. This is not an easy story to read. Few things written about this time period are, really. But it is true, as the best fiction is, and you will emerge from it changed and hopeful. Highly recommended.

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Book Review: “The True Story of Hansel and Gretel” by Louise Murphy

Posted at 9:47 pm by laura , on january 22, 2012.

In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed “Hansel” and “Gretel.” They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called “witch” by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children. Combining classic themes of fairy tales and war literature, this haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children, and tells a resonant, riveting story.

A heartbreaking, wonderfully written tale of lore, truth, and horror. Little portions of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale come to life in the haunting atmosphere of World War II Poland. Everything from the names, the crumbs, the modern conception of a “witch,” even the burning oven. Despite all the hardships and sadness, I can promise you there is a happy ending. Not a cheerful, sun-is-shining one, but an ending that makes the breath you didn’t realize you were holding release.

There are multiple stories woven into the children’s. The reader learns about the various villagers; the witch, her grand-daughter, and the grand-daughter’s lover; the Nazi occupiers; and the partisans causing raucous to the Nazis in the forest. Murphy goes into detail about the various ways one could disguise their true identity, the starvation the Polish endured, the violence the Nazis inflicted, and even the cremation of the bodies at the camps. That particular passage was difficult and riveting all at once.

For any history buff who enjoys folklore, fairy tales, and fantasy, this is a great novel about love and loss. I liked it and I would highly recommend it, but it would take a while for me to work up the courage to read again.

Rating: ★★★ of 5

GoodReads : 3.99 of 5

Author: Laura

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Book Review: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

By Louise Murphy

Remember Grimm’s fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel? The brother and sister end up wandering the woods and follow a bird to a house made of bread, cake, and sugar. As the children begin to eat the roof, the witch who lives there invites them in. The witch keeps Hansel in a cage, fattening him up for stew, while she makes Gretel into her slave. When the witch gets hungry and tries to cook both children, Gretel pushes her into the oven. She frees her brother and the children find their way back home.

So yeah, remember that tale? The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a play on that tale. Set during the Nazi’s occupation of Poland, the True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a play on that fairy tale. Its the story of a Jewish family’s quest for survival. The children are separated from the father and stepmother and find their way into a nearby village where they are taken in by the village “witch.” They stay there for the duration of Nazi occupation, forming a little family with the witch, her niece, and another villager. Meanwhile, the children’s father and stepmother join up with a paramilitary group that sabotage and fight the Nazi troops. Will they survive the war? Will the family be united?

Despite some of the graphic descriptions of Nazi cruelty, Murphy’s retelling of the fairy tale was a fairly happy tale. The characters never lost hope that the Nazis would be defeated and their lives returned back to normal. They constantly made the best our of bad situations by sticking together and helping out each other and those in need.

Recommendation: Absolutely!

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

54 pages • 1 hour read

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Summary and Study Guide

Louise Murphy’s The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a work of historical fiction originally published in 2003. Loosely based upon the classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the novel reimagines Hansel and Gretel’s story as a World War II narrative . The San Francisco Chronicle selected it as a “Best Book of the Year,” and it received a starred review from Kirkus. This guide references the 2003 paperback edition.

Plot Summary

It is the winter of 1943, and World War II has gripped Europe for more than 4 years. German forces control Poland, occupying even its small villages. On a cold night, a Jewish family races along a wooded road in the western part of the country with Nazi soldiers in pursuit. The unnamed family consists of a father, his wife, and two children, all fleeing a Polish ghetto. The adults, later known as the Mechanik and the Stepmother , decide that they must abandon the children in the forest if any of them hope to survive. Before the Stepmother and the Mechanik leave the children, she warns them not to use their real names or otherwise give away their Judaism. The Stepmother suggests that they go by Hansel and Gretel.

11-year-old Gretel Cegielski leads Hansel, her 7-year-old brother, through the woods. Hansel crumbles his last slice of bread as they walk in hopes that the Stepmother will follow his trail to find them. Eventually, the children reach an isolated hut. An old woman named Magda emerges and says that she cannot give them shelter. She performs a ritual to grant the children good luck and then returns to the cabin. Hansel and Gretel stay by the hut. When Magda next emerges, they follow her back inside, and she does not force them to leave.

The children learn that residents of Piaski, the nearby village, consider Magda a witch. Magda’s grandmother was a “Roma,” or “gypsy,” and Magda carries on many of her customs. Over the next several weeks, Magda obtains false identification papers for Hansel and Gretel. She leads them to the village to apply for ration cards so that they can receive allotments of food. In Piaski, the children encounter the Major, a Nazi assigned control of the village. He does not realize that the children are Jewish and admires Gretel’s blond hair and blue eyes.

Hansel and Gretel explore the snowy forest around Magda’s hut and admire the wild animals that inhabit it. Their guide to the wildlife is Telek , a local woodsman who loves Magda’s pregnant grandniece, Nelka . After Gretel recovers from a serious illness, she ventures into the woods by herself in search of wild ponies. Two men attack and rape Gretel, stopping only when the Stepmother, hidden nearby, kills them. The rape causes Gretel to lose her memory of recent events and become easily confused, thrusting Hansel into the role of older sibling.

A high-ranking Nazi officer, the Oberführer , arrives in Piaski. Obsessed with purity and order, he is tasked with evaluating the village children and sending any “perfect” ones to Germany. He develops a fascination with Nelka. When she delivers her son, the Oberführer takes him to keep Nelka from running away. To prevent other children from being selected, Telek injures and scars them.

While Hansel and Gretel stay with Magda, the Mechanik and the Stepmother join a group of partisan resistance fighters. They sabotage the Germans at every opportunity and cheer the arrival of Russian troops. But the Stepmother is killed by one of Gretel’s assailants. The Mechanik frequently passes near Piaski without ever seeing his children. He hopes that if they survive the winter, they will find their way back to Bialystok.

As spring arrives in Poland, the Nazis lose their grip on the country. Nelka and Telek rescue her son and escape into the forest. The enraged Oberführer sends Magda to a concentration camp, where she is killed. He tries to capture Hansel and Gretel, too, but Magda hides them in her oven. The children slowly walk to the city. Along the way, Gretel’s memories and mental clarity return.

Hansel and Gretel encounter the Oberführer in Bialystok. He chases them, but Russian soldiers arrive and take the Nazi away. The soldiers direct Hansel and Gretel to a refugee center where they reunite with their father. The children confess that they cannot remember their birth names. Tenderly, their father tells them who they are.

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THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL

Louise murphy, . . penguin, $13 (320pp) isbn 978-0-14-200307-7.

Reviewed on: 05/12/2003

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Didn't finish the book, very unique take on a classic tale, the true story of hansel and gretal, horrifying...unforgettable, dark, harsh, haunting, an extraordinary retelling of an old familiar tale, popular categories.

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Discover The Truly Grim History Behind The Fairy Tale Of Hansel And Gretel

When a great famine struck europe in 1314, mothers abandoned their children and in some cases, even ate them. scholars believe that these tragedies gave birth to the story of hansel and gretel..

The notorious tale of Hansel and Gretel has been translated into 160 languages since the Brothers Grimm first published the German lore in 1812.

Dark as it is, the story features child abandonment, attempted cannibalism, enslavement, and murder. Unfortunately, the origins of the story are equally — if not more — horrifying.

Most people are familiar with the story but for those who aren’t, it opens on a pair of children who are to be abandoned by their starving parents in the forest. The kids, Hansel and Gretel, get wind of their parents’ plan and find their way home by following a trail of stones Hansel had dropped earlier. The mother, or stepmother by some tellings, then convinces the father to abandon the children a second time.

This time, Hansel drops breadcrumbs to follow home but birds eat the breadcrumbs and the children become lost in the forest.

Wikimedia Commons A depiction of Hansel leaving a trail to follow home.

The starving pair come upon a gingerbread house that they begin to eat ravenously. Unbeknownst to them, the home is actually a trap set by an old witch, or ogre, who enslaves Gretel and forces her to overfeed Hansel so that he can be eaten by the witch herself.

The pair manage to escape when Gretel shoves the witch into an oven. They return home with the witch’s treasure and find that their evil matriarch is no longer there and is presumed dead, so they live happily ever after.

But the true history behind the tale of Hansel and Gretel is not so happy as this ending.

The Brothers Grimm

Modern readers know Hansel and Gretel from the works of German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm . The brothers were inseparable scholars, medievalists who had a passion for collecting German folklore.

Between 1812 and 1857, the brothers published over 200 stories in seven different editions of what has since become known in English as Grimm’s Fairy Tales .

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm never intended that their stories be for children per se , but rather the brothers sought to preserve Germanic folklore in a region whose culture was being overrun by France during the Napoleonic Wars.

Wikimedia Commons Wilhelm Grimm, left, and Jacob Grimm in an 1855 painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann.

In fact, the early editions of the Grimm brothers’ work published as Kinder und Hausmärchen , or Children’s and Household Tales , lacked illustrations. Scholarly footnotes abounded. The stories were dark and filled with murder and mayhem.

The stories nonetheless quickly caught on. Grimm’s Fairy Tales had such universal appeal that eventually, in the United States alone, there have been over 120 different editions made.

These stories featured an all-star lineup of well-known characters including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, and of course Hansel and Gretel.

The True Story Behind Hansel And Gretel

Wikimedia Commons The origin of Hansel and Gretel is perhaps darker than the story itself.

The true story of Hansel and Gretel goes back to a cohort of tales that originated in the Baltic regions during the Great Famine of 1314 to 1322 . Volcanic activity in southeast Asia and New Zealand ushered in a period of prolonged climate change that led to crop failures and massive starvation across the globe.

In Europe, the situation was particularly dire since the food supply was already scarce. When the Great Famine struck, the results were devastating. One scholar estimated that the Great Famine impacted 400,000 square miles of Europe, 30 million people, and may have killed off up to 25 percent of the population in certain areas.

In the process, elderly people chose voluntarily to starve to death to allow the young to live. Others committed infanticide or abandoned their children. There is also evidence of cannibalism. William Rosen in his book, The Third Horseman , cites an Estonian chronicle which states that in 1315 “mothers were fed their children.”

An Irish chronicler also wrote that the famine was so bad people “were so destroyed by hunger that they extracted bodies of the dead from cemeteries and dug out the flesh from the skulls and ate it, and women ate their children out of hunger.”

Wikimedia Commons An 1868 rendering of Hansel and Gretel treading carefully through the forest.

And it was from this grim chaos that the story of Hansel and Gretel was born.

The cautionary tales that preceded Hansel and Gretel all dealt directly with themes of abandonment and survival. Almost all of these stories also used the forest as a tableau for danger, magic, and death.

One such example comes from the Italian fairy tale collector Giambattista Basile, who published a number of stories in his 17th century Pentamerone . In his version, titled Nennillo and Nennella , a cruel stepmother forces her husband to abandon his two children in the woods. The father tries to foil the plot by leaving the children a trail of oats to follow but these are eaten by a donkey.

The grimmest of these early tales, though, is the Romanian story, The Little Boy and the Wicked Stepmother . In this fairy tale, two children are abandoned and find their way home following a trail of ashes. But when they return home, the stepmother kills the little boy and forces the sister to prepare his corpse for a family meal.

The horrified girl obeys but hides the boy’s heart inside a tree. The father unknowingly eats his son while the sister refuses to take part. After the meal, the girl takes the brother’s bones and puts them inside the tree with his heart. The next day, a cuckoo bird emerges singing, “Cuckoo! My sister has cooked me, and my father has eaten me, but I am now a cuckoo and safe from my stepmother.”

The terrified stepmother throws a lump of salt at the bird but it just falls back on her head, killing her instantaneously.

An Evolving Story With New Takes

The direct source for the story of Hansel and Gretel as we know it came from Henriette Dorothea Wild, a neighbor of the brothers Grimm who narrated many of the tales for their first edition. She ended up marrying Wilhelm.

The original versions of the Grimm brothers’ Hansel and Gretel changed over time. Perhaps the brothers were aware that their stories were being read by children and so by the last edition that they published, they had sanitized the stories somewhat.

Where the mother had abandoned her biological children in the first versions, by the time the last 1857 edition was printed, she had transformed into the archetypal wicked stepmother. The father’s role, too, was softened by the 1857 edition as he showed more regret for his actions.

Meanwhile, the tale of Hansel and Gretel has continued to evolve. There are versions today that are meant for preschoolers, like children’s author Mercer Mayer’s story which doesn’t even try to touch any of the child abandonment themes.

Every once in awhile the tale attempts to go back to its dark roots. In 2020, Orion Picture’s Gretel and Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale will hit theaters and appears to hedge on the side of creepy. This version has the siblings looking through the forest for food and working to help their parents when they meet the witch.

It seems that the true story of Hansel and Gretel may still be darker than even this latest version.

After this look at the history of Hansel and Gretel, check out more folktale origins with this quick bio on Charles Perrault , the French father of fairy tales. Then, discover the true story behind the legend of Sleepy Hollow .

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A poignant and suspenseful retelling of a classic fairy tale set in a war-torn world, for readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz , We Were the Lucky Ones , and Lilac Girls In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed “Hansel” and “Gretel.” They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called a “witch” by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children. Louise Murphy’s haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children.

Print length 322 pages
Language English
Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
Publisher Penguin Books
Publication date July 29, 2003
Reading age 18 years and up
File size 4157 KB
Page Flip Enabled
Word Wise Enabled
Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Table of Contents

Once Upon a Time

Hansel and Gretel

Brother and Sister

The Mechanik

The Village Piaski

The Burning

The Drawing

In the Cage

December 10 , 1943

Christmas Eve, 1943

Father Piotr

Eindeutschung

March 11, 1944

March 21, 1944

The Wheat Field

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

“A provocative transformation of the classic fairy tale into a haunting survival story ... darkly enchanting.... No reader who picks up this inspiring novel will put it down until the final pages.” —Publishers Weekly

“It’s the scariest of all fairy tales, and it’s retold here with gripping realism.... The Grimms’ story is always there like a dark shadow intensifying the drama as the searing narrative transforms the old archetypes.”

“Purely imaginative ... The witch Hansel and Gretel find in the woods is a marvelously drawn old crone ... who takes them in and shelters them.... [Murphy’s] characters speak to us with terrible prescience.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“Filled with the breathtaking, sometimes death-defying contortions of war.” —Los Angeles Times

“Unusually gripping ... Lyrical, haunting, unforgettable.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A page-turner as well as a moving testament to the human will to do good and survive despite all odds. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal

PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V3B2 Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2 196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL, England

First published in Penguin Books 2003

PUBLISHER’S NOTE In this novel Louise Murphy uses the art of fiction to cast new light on the horrifying facts of the Holocaust.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Murphy, Louise, 1943- The true story of Hansel and Gretel / Louise Murphy. p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-49562-9

1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Fiction. 2. World War, 1939-1945—Fiction. 3. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 4. Jewish families—Fiction. 5. Children—Fiction. I. Title. PS3563.U7446T78 2003 813’.54—dc21 2003045976

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For Christopher, artist, friend, and son, and because we grew up together

C aught between green earth and blue sky, only truth kept me sane, but now lies disturb my peace. The story has been told over and over by liars and it must be retold. Do not struggle when the hook of a word pulls you into the air of truth and you cannot breathe.

For a little while, I ask this of you.

Come with me.

“ Y ou’ve no choice. Look back.”

“No.” The man looked over his shoulder and saw the lights of another motorcycle—two—no—three motorcycles following them. He couldn’t go faster on the dirt road. The ruts were frozen and the machine would tip into a ditch. The dark forest imprisoned the road. He could smell snow coming.

The children in the sidecar stared into the night, eyes slitted against the wind. The girl’s hair wrapped around her head like a scarf and was the only covering that protected her thin throat. The boy was rolled low into the metal egg, his curly head dark in the moonlight, so thin he took almost no space at all.

The woman squeezed the man’s sides until he grunted.

It was unfair. He adapted. He became like everyone else. College in France. Work as an engineer. New knowledge for new times and new people. Rejecting the sidelocks of his father. Leaving the study of dead laws and old men swaying in the temple. His friends had been Christian Poles, and none of them had been religious either.

But the world of intellectual talk and scientific study exploded. He fled from western Poland not in an airplane, defying the old laws of gravity, but crawling along in a peasant’s cart pulled by a spavined horse bought with all the silver spoons his wife owned.

Her silver had protected them from being in the city when the Nazis arrived, but it did not protect them from the bombs. He buried his wife beside the road after the strafing, when she lay with her beautiful torso facing the sky, dress torn, nipples like dead eyes, unblinking.

A quick learner, he survived the Russians by being a mechanic for them. He survived the Bialystok ghetto by being a mechanic for the Nazis. He had remarried this woman who now clutched his sides until he couldn’t breathe. He had gotten all of them out of the ghetto before the August deportations, hiding the children in tires strapped to the back of a truck, cutting their stepmother’s hair and giving her men’s clothes, passing through the barbed-wire fences as mechanics and hiding in a grease pit. Knowing that the trains were loading the other Jews. Hearing the screams and shots all night. Hearing them when he was awake. Hearing them in his dreams when he slept. He would not look over his shoulder again. The pursuing Nazis would be closer and he couldn’t bear much more.

“Your children will be dead if they catch us.” The woman clung tighter. “They’ll shoot us beside the road.”

“No.” He howled it, the shouted word giving him back for a moment his life that was lost in the whispering years of submission and hiding. “Someone could take pity on them. The girl is eleven, old enough to be useful. They may have luck.”

The girl in the sidecar looked back, her bony shoulder rising, blue eyes almost white in the moonlight. Three lights. It was almost over. She wrapped her arm tighter around her seven-year-old brother. She saw his throat move and knew what he was doing. She had taught him how.

He had saved his spit for over an hour. She had told him to think of biting into a lemon to make the spit flow, but he couldn’t remember lemons. He thought of vinegar. His spit spurted and he had extra juice at the end of the swallow. A mouthful of spit swallowed slowly was almost like drinking soup. Hot soup with potatoes mashed in it. He felt his stomach contract and willed it to stop aching.

“We have to hide the motorcycle and run into the forest.” The woman would not shut up.

“With the children,” the father shouted.

The boy listened. The Stepmother would get her way. She wasn’t their real mother.

“They’ll bring dogs. The children will slow us. Leave the children, and we’ll all have a chance.”

The father hated her with such a surge of his blood that he almost stopped the motorcycle so he could choke her. Beat her. He clung to the anger as long as he could because it squeezed the truth out, but the feeling seeped away and he concentrated on the road. He needed a curve, a hill, something to block the view so he could put the children down.

“It isn’t deep enough,” he said of the first curve. When he didn’t slow for the third, she gripped his sides again and howled like a dog.

The father braked on the fourth curve and leapt off. He grabbed the girl and wrenched her from the sidecar. The boy staggered when he was set on the road.

“Go,” he whispered. “Go into the woods. Run.”

The woman sat with her head down, but she called out to them. “Hide until the other motorcycles are past. Then find someone. Find a farmer who will feed you.”

The girl shook her head. “They’ll report us. If they don’t, the Nazis will kill them.”

Her stepmother looked back. She had to end it.

“You don’t look Jewish. You’re blond. Your brother—” She stopped and stared behind at the machines coming toward them. What was, was. “Don’t let him take his pants down in front of anyone. They’ll see he’s circumcised. Do you hear me?”

“Our names?” The girl clung to the sidecar.

“Never say them. You don’t have Jewish names anymore.”

“Who are we?” The boy smiled. It was interesting. He wouldn’t be himself.

“Any name. Any name that’s—” the stepmother paused and she couldn’t think of Polish names. Her mind was blank. She knew it was hunger. Six hundred calories a day for two years—on the good days, on the days when there was something left to sell. Sometimes she went blank.

The boy took his sister’s hand and moved toward the woods. “Who are we?” he called back.

The Stepmother moaned and slapped her face viciously. The man got on the motorcycle and they moved off slowly so the wheels wouldn’t catch in the ruts.

Slamming her fist against her head, their Stepmother shook loose an old memory.

“Hansel and Gretel,” she screamed over her shoulder at the children who were now almost hidden in the trees. “You are Hansel and Gretel. Remember.”

The man couldn’t look back. He gunned the engine and moved away from that place. The two adults had become the lure that would lead the hunters away from the children. The gas would last for another ten miles. Their motorcycle could stay ahead with the weight of the children gone. The Nazis mustn’t know that anyone had been left behind.

T he children stood near the trees and looked after their father and stepmother until the three motorcycles following droned louder.

“Quick.” The girl helped her brother climb over a log and push through the piles of crackling leaves.

They moved back into the darkness between the trees. The boy stared up and saw only a few stars. Clouds obscured the moon, and as the two children staggered through the deep layers of leaves, stiff-legged from being folded into the sidecar, they heard an owl call nearly over their heads. The boy almost cried out, but remembered the need to be silent, and bit his lip so hard it left a half-moon line of red when he unfastened his teeth.

“Lie down.” His sister pushed him into the leaves and lay beside him.

Their voices would not have been heard over the roar of the motorcycles that came slowly but steadily down the rutted road. One in front. Two behind in perfect formation. Precision even at midnight on a dirt road while chasing subhumans in eastern Poland.

The boy lifted his head above the leaves and watched. He stared admiringly at the clean uniforms, the smooth metal bowl of helmet. The three motorcycles swept past, and the child marked down in his mind the way the Nazis sat perfectly straight and weren’t afraid of being seen.

The noise of the engines grew fainter until there was complete silence. The girl felt panic rising. The silence was unlike the constant moaning and screams in the ghetto. Too many people in such little space. Always someone dying or losing their last rag of dignity and howling for food or fighting or weeping. It had never been silent for so much as a second.

She felt the tears run down her cheeks, and her brother watched her with interest.

“You’re crying?”

“Everyone’s gone.”

“They didn’t see us. I was quiet.”

She nodded. “You were good—” She paused. The new name. It took a moment. “Hansel.”

“What’s your name?”

“Maybe I’m Gretel.”

“Gretel is a girl’s name.”

“All right. I’m Hansel.” He smiled. He was not himself anymore. He was not the little Jew who hid in the grease pit. He wondered if he could change his stomach to a stomach full of food. He tried to imagine it but couldn’t.

“We can’t lie here. They could come back. They could have dogs.”

“Wait a minute, Gretel.”

She didn’t flinch when she heard her new name, but her lips quivered for a second. She felt herself wanting to relax so she could cry again, but there wasn’t time. “Come on.”

He followed her back into deeper darkness, walking with one bony fist smaller than a windfall apple pushed deep into his gut to stop the pain. The brush was thinning, and the enormous height of the trees rose over their heads in a canopy which allowed only moss and low plants to grow underneath.

They had gone only a few steps when he stopped, holding her back like an anchor. She turned and waited. She knew his nature. It was impossible to move him until he was ready.

He was making a great decision. He had some in his pocket, but it would mean breaking the most sacred law. You never touched the last piece of bread until everything had been done. The swallowing of spit. The fist in the gut. Forcing yourself to feel the stomach pain as if it belonged to someone else standing beside you. Father had taught him how to do these things.

Only when the pain gave up could you touch the last piece of bread. Gretel said it was the law. You had to eat it slowly, not gobble it. It was how they did it. He didn’t know why.

He took the piece of bread out and measured it with his eyes. His father had stolen it from a pile that had been forgotten in the burning and killing. Like all the ghetto bread, there was a dark mark where the metal rods that pressed into the bread while it baked left lines. There had to be lines on the bread so it could be divided evenly.

Both children leaned toward the bread until their noses almost touched the hard lump. They stared at it with the gaze of connoisseurs. It was slightly larger than the piece that Hansel usually managed to save.

He looked at Gretel appraisingly. She might forbid it, but it was his right. No one could take it from you. Even if they were sick or starving or hungrier than you. The Stepmother had taught them. Your bread was your bread.

He pinched off a tiny piece and deliberately let his fingers open so the bread fell to the leaves under their feet.

Gretel’s eyes widened. The hunger tore through her, and her hand twitched but she did not grab the bread from Hansel. He picked off another piece and threw it back toward the road.

“Why?” Her mouth grew wetter as she thought of going back, finding the breadcrumb, holding it in her mouth.

“If we leave bread, they can find us. Later.” He began walking into the dark and every ten steps he dropped another crumb.

“The leaves will cover it up.”

“Stepmother can find a crumb on the street, in the middle of bodies thrown out in the morning. She’ll smell it.”

Gretel nodded. The Stepmother always found crumbs, pressed them into a flat pancake with water, and divided it meticulously among the four of them. It was true.

“She’ll find the bread.”

Gretel couldn’t really believe it. It would be too hard to find in the leaves. The Stepmother was used to concrete pavement where crumbs lay naked. But the law was the law. It was his bread. No one else could eat it, and if he chose to waste it, she guessed it was his right, although no person had ever done that as long as she could remember.

There were memories. Far back. Food on a table. A hand pulling off a piece of bread carelessly, without measuring. Candles. The bread—challah—the word stuck in her mind. She savored the sound—it reminded her of someone—not her mother—

A man. White hair and beard. She could shut her eyes and see him smiling down at her, and he was saying something—asking her to do something.

The memory was gone. It bothered her. She had lost so many memories during the ghetto.

Forcing her mind, she saw the curtains again and felt the warmth of summer air moving the cloth like mist over the window. Then she quite deliberately shut the door in her mind. It wasn’t good to think of things that were too far off, and now it was the first day of November. Warmth was too far in the future.

She turned and plunged past the trunks of trees that became larger as the children moved deeper. Her hair rose on the back of her neck. They were bigger than any trees she had ever seen. They weren’t like the spindly, friendly, little trees in the gardens by the Bialy Lake in the city. Those were trees that men had planted, little umbrellas of trees, in pleasing patterns following the paths.

Gretel touched the bark of a tree, and as she did the owl hooted again, deeper in the forest now. “Listen, Hansel.”

They stood and stared ahead into the gloom. Had the trees been in full leaf, the darkness under the canopy would have been absolute, but only the scudding clouds blocked the moonlight fitfully.

“The owl is leading us,” he said. “Listen.”

They waited, breathing shallowly, and heard the call, mournful as the voice of the mad cantor who had stood calling on the corner of Pilnesky Street under their window.

Gretel smiled. “We’ll go that way.”

Hansel nodded, only partly attentive, his whole body tense with the work of giving up his bread, crumb by crumb.

They walked on for a long time, and the way did not get more difficult. The ground was soft at times, but their slight weight made only dents. They came to a stream and both knelt and drank the icy water.

“We ought to wade in it so if there are dogs they can’t sniff us.” Hansel held only one crumb now, and he did not want to eat it. It wouldn’t be perfect if he did. He thought of the soldiers riding in formation, so clean, so unafraid.

“You do it too.” He cut the crumb with his thumbnail and gave one part to her. Gretel took it carefully, ignoring the hunger in herself so she could behave with dignity.

“It’s still my bread.” He picked the other piece out from under his nail. He had to do it quickly or he would put it in his mouth. “You have to do what I say.”

“All right.”

“Like this.” He threw it hard and it went into the flowing water of the stream. She threw her bread too, and they stood watching the water.

“They do that, some people,” she said, an old story she had heard coming back to her.

“Throw bread on the water.”

“It carries their sins away.”

“What are sins?”

“Bad things you do.”

Hansel thought about it. “How much bread did they throw?”

“Maybe a whole marked piece.”

“From the end to the mark?” He couldn’t believe it.

“I don’t know. We can’t walk in the water, Hansel. It’s too cold, and we’d get sick.”

“The dogs will smell us.” The sound of barking always made him have to pee.

“No dogs. We’d hear them.”

She was so tired, and she knew he was too, but they had to find someone. A farmer who had a lot of food. If they didn’t they’d die. But if the farmer was too afraid of death, then he would report them.

“I have to pee. Wait.” He pulled down his pants.

“No.” She grabbed him. “Not even in front of me. You have to go behind a tree.”

He pulled his pants up and began to walk around a tree. “It’s dark.”

“Shut up. You can’t let anyone see it.”

“You’ve seen it before.” He pushed hard to finish and go back to her.

“You can’t pee in front of anyone. Not ever again.”

“Why did they do it?”

“Why did they make my penis this way?”

“Because they had to. They didn’t know it’d be like this.”

She couldn’t walk much farther. They followed the owl’s call until another owl began to call off to their right, and then a third owl answered on the left. It was too confusing.

“There aren’t any farmers in the forest,” she told him. “We have to go to sleep and then find a farm tomorrow, when we get to the end of the trees.”

“How long will that take?”

She stared ahead. The moon was covered with dense clouds now and the air smelled of snow. She knew it wasn’t safe to go to sleep when it was so cold, but she walked on until there was a small clearing in the middle of circling trees. The sky was dark and high up.

“Help me.” She kicked leaves into a pile in the middle of the clearing. He got on all fours and pushed leaves, sneezing from the dust. When the pile was large enough for her, she got on all fours with him.

“Now we’re like little rabbits. We’ll make a hole in the leaves and sleep under them.”

“Rabbits live under the ground. Uncle—”

“Don’t say any names.”

“I didn’t say it.” He was nearly in tears.

“Just don’t. Come on. Crawl in the leaves. It’ll make us warmer.”

It was harder to crawl in than she thought it would be. The leaves moved away from them and fell off, but finally she lay beside him and pulled as many leaves over them as she could, covering even their heads.

“Roll over.” She wrapped herself around him, and his back and her stomach grew a little warmer where they were pressed together. “Now go to sleep.”

He was cold, but everyone was cold for part of the year. It was how things were. He fell asleep quickly and his fist, pressed again into his gut, relaxed and softened.

She felt him relax under her arm, and then she fell asleep too, but not before she heard it. At first she thought it was the owls, but the sound was too great for the wings of owls. Then she thought it was the wind in the trees, but that wasn’t it either.

It went on until she was too tired to wonder and fell asleep, with the sound of great wings over them, beating, cracking the air, the sound continuing as the sky darkened and the first dust of snow fell onto the wings of the angels and through the moving sinew and muscle and feather onto the pile of leaves which covered the children.

H ansel woke first, but he couldn’t bear to move. He was terribly cold, but the air outside the leaves was colder. He wasn’t hungry now and smiled at the feel of his stomach with no pain in it.

Gretel stirred and the leaves moved. A leaf with a few flakes of snow on its brown surface fell beside Hansel’s face and he stuck his tongue out and touched the white crystals.

Gretel was awake instantly when she heard his voice.

He lay, ashamed. He had spoken aloud.

They curled under the leaves, nearly frozen, and listened, but there was no sound. Even the birds had left the forest. Not a footstep, not a crack of a twig.

Gretel pushed a few leaves away and stared out at the floor of the forest. It was covered with a dust of snow. She craned her neck and examined the whole surface of the clearing. Not a single footprint marking the snow. They were alone.

Unless someone hid behind the trees. She shut her eyes. It was different in the country. It was harder to hide. It was bigger.

“I’ll get up first. If anything happens, just lie still.” Her mouth barely moved near his ear.

She rolled to the side and pulled up on her knees and then stood stiffly. Nothing. No shouts of “Raus! Raus!” or the bark of a dog or the thump of a blow.

“It’s all right. Get up—” She hesitated and was frightened for a second. “Hansel,” she said, remembering. “We have to practice our names.”

“What’s our last name?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Her face twisted with worry. He was right. They’d need a last name.

He stood and brushed the leaves off. His face was very pale and he looked hopefully at her. “When will we find a farmer?”

“Soon. Maybe.”

“I’m not hungry now.” He smiled at her, but she didn’t smile back. There were no hunger pains in her own body, and she knew what it meant. Ransacking her pockets for a crumb, no matter how small or dirty, she felt the panic rising again. Just a tiny crumb swallowed could bring the hunger raging back. There was nothing in her pockets.

“Come on. We have to go fast now.” She knew they had to get food before night. “The dogs might come.”

He would go faster if he thought about the dogs, and they had to get out of the forest. Stealing food could take time, and stealing was safer than asking. They moved at a trot through the trees and she wondered how you stole food from farmers. She had seen pictures of farms in a book, but she couldn’t remember if farmers had refrigerators or kept the food outside in their barns.

They had a refrigerator once. When she was little and lived in a city somewhere else. Two men carried it up the back stairs into the kitchen. She remembered the maid shrieking when she opened it up and felt the cold air coming out.

The sun was only a glare through the clouds and the cold didn’t get any better. Gretel could tell it was midmorning by the silver disk of sun in the sky when she glimpsed it through tree limbs.

“Can we whisper, Gretel?”

She looked around. It was silent except for the sound of their feet and their breathing.

“Only whisper.” She leaned toward him so her voice didn’t have to rise.

“I’m thirsty.” His whisper was loud, but she was glad he had thirst.

They had come a long way. The forest was bigger than Bialy Park, maybe bigger than Bialystok itself. The forest might not ever end but just keep going east until they were in Byelorussia. She remembered the map on the wall of their room in the ghetto. She had watched her father tear it out of a book and hang it up. He had been able to save only three books.

“A mathematics book and an atlas. We will study logical thought and the world. Not everything is Poland and Germany. And one book of fairy tales, for you, daughter.”

Then he pointed. “This is Poland. This is Germany. But the rest of it, look now, the rest of it is the world.”

Her father taught them ever since she could remember. Math lessons and geography. And the third book that lay in the corner of the room where she slept on a mat with her brother.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004DI7I64
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (July 29, 2003)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 29, 2003
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4157 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 322 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0142003077
#497 in Jewish Historical Fiction
#3,576 in Historical Literary Fiction
#4,533 in Fairy Tale Fantasy (Kindle Store)

About the author

Louise murphy.

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Customers find the emotional tone compelling, remarkable, and hard to put down. They also describe the book as well-written from beginning to end, with rich details and a classic retold in a realistic manner. Readers appreciate the great concept and history education. They find the characters realistic and well-developed.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book compelling, bringing to life the horrors faced by humanity during WWII. They also describe the book as a beautifully orchestrated morality play, sobering, and stark in its detail. Readers also mention the journeys are gripping and remarkable. They describe the narrative as historical fiction, and the narrative tells a tale of war, the cost of, and brutality.

"...Part history. Lots of sacrifice and love and care. It’s trauma and horror . And reunion. I’m not explaining it well but you need to experience it." Read more

"This was a beautifully told story of two Jewish children abandoned (by necessity) in Poland during WW2, the people who rescued them, and those who..." Read more

"This book was MORE than I expected! So very real in its narratives , physical descriptions and personalities...." Read more

"...Murphy's way of describing a scene and feelings is remarkable . I cared so much for Hansel and Gretel and Magda...." Read more

Customers find the book well-written from beginning to end, stark in detail, and a classic retold in a realistic manner. They also say the settings are described in rich detail and the characters are well fleshed out.

"...Other than that, I think it was very well written ." Read more

"...All of the characters - including the SS officer - were so fully drawn that you could become a part of the story through reading it...." Read more

"...Just all so well written from beginning to end . Without giving too much away I can saf" Read more

" Very well-written , and I was impressed with how effectively the author weaved the fairy tale into the "true" story of the Jewish Hansel and Gretel..." Read more

Customers find the characters in the book well developed.

"...So very real in its narratives, physical descriptions and personalities ...." Read more

"First time reading this author. Memorable characters , great story line, excellent narration, and a great ending...." Read more

"...The characters are complex and well-developed; the entire novel is a beautifully orchestrated morality play...." Read more

"...The characters were complex , and I appreciated watching how each of them developed in order to survive and save each other from the brutal situation...." Read more

Customers find the book has a great concept, smart writing, and compelling. They also say it's a good reminder of history and does an interesting job using the story of Hansel and Gretel.

"...It is a good reminder of history and makes me challenge my ability to stand up to injustices that occur in the present (no matter how small)." Read more

"...I enjoyed reading it. Easy to follow. Informative on the Holocaust . Such a nasty time." Read more

" great concept . ok writing. but the story line had few parallels to the fairy tale. and that's ok...." Read more

"...A wonderful new approach to the horrors of the nazi invasion of Poland. A story of love and resilience in the face of insanity." Read more

Customers find the book to be a great WWII read with thrilling moments. They also say the plot is perfectly paced and that they can't put the book down.

"...As a mother of two children it was definitely an intense read ...." Read more

"...tale is original, with the characters so well drawn and the plot so perfectly paced , that you will not be able to put it down. Highly recommended." Read more

"...The book was a quick read , without lacking any details. I look forward to reading more of her books." Read more

"...It read quickly with thrilling moments . - a good WWII read." Read more

Customers find the content graphic, gruesome, and inappropriate for children. They also say the story about the Holocaust is terrible and disturbing.

"I would have given this novel 5 stars if not for the very violent , and graphically disturbing, sexual scenes...." Read more

"...However, I was very surprised and disturbed with the amount of rape and sexual evil in this book...." Read more

"...This story is not for someone looking for a light read. It's graphic and has some bad language here and there...." Read more

"...I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It gets a little gruesome for a few pages around 80% on Kindle, so you can skim through that if you wish...." Read more

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Saturday 6 December 2014

Review: hansel and gretel.

Read the excerpt from "Hansel and Gretel.” The children, too, had not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their step-mother had said to their father. Gretel wept bitterly and spoke to Hansel: "Now it’s all up with us.” "No, no, Gretel,” said Hansel, "don’t fret yourself; I’ll be able to find a way of escape, no fear.” And when the old people had fallen asleep he got up, slipped on his little coat, opened the back door and stole out. The moon was shining clearly, and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house glittered like bits of silver. Hansel bent down and filled his pocket with as many of them as he could cram in. Then he went back and said to Gretel: "Be comforted, my dear little sister, and go to sleep: God will not desert us”; and he lay down in bed again. At daybreak, even before the sun was up, the woman came and woke the two children: "Get up, you lie-abeds, we’re all going to the forest to fetch wood.” She gave them each a bit of bread and spoke: "There’s something for your luncheon, but don’t you eat it up before, for it’s all you’ll get.” Gretel took the bread under her apron, as Hansel had the stones in his pocket. Then they all set out together on the way to the forest. After they had walked for a little, Hansel stood still and looked back at the house, and this maneuver he repeated again and again. His father observed him, and [said]: "Hansel, what are you gazing at there, and why do you always remain behind? Take care, and don’t lose your footing.” "Oh! father,” said Hansel, "I am looking back at my white kitten, which is sitting on the roof, waving me a farewell.” The woman exclaimed: "What a donkey you are! that isn’t your kitten, that’s the morning sun shining on the chimney.” But Hansel had not looked back at his kitten, but had always dropped one of the white pebbles out of his pocket on to the path. Which sentence best states how Hansel’s actions help reveal a theme? Hansel lies to his father in order to protect Gretel. Hansel fills his pockets with stones to mark the way home. Hansel plans ahead for a way to save both Gretel and himself. Hansel defies his stepmother in order to say good-bye to his kitten.

c. Hansel plans ahead for a way to save both Gretel and himself.

Explanation:

The first choice is only minor, the second is primarily plot/not thematic, the last choice is simply untrue.

Choice c reveals something about the character of Hansel and the a concept in the story (using cleverness to outdo evil).

Related Questions

Please help me on this and follow the extrucation so I can get an A due in class now

Citizens of New Mexico are affected by these four different levels of government. * Tribal, States, Congress, Courts Federal, Executive, Judicial, Legislative National, State, Tribal, Local President, Congress, Chief Justice, Speaker of the House

Jupiter and his mighty company end the golden agePart a which of the following best identifies the central theme of this text? A.peace never lasts B.only the strong survive C.power can corrupt D. People are selfish

The correct answer is c) Power can corrupt.

It is said that before in the Golden Age, everything was handled by the Titans who had the appearance of humans but were more abundant and stronger. As the king of the Titans was Saturn the father of Jupiter (also known as Zeus), at this time they say that people felt happy with what Saturn offered them, there was no disease, war, envy and no one wanted to rule another, for example, the fields were full of harvest and beautiful climates.

But Jupiter had planned to defeat the Titans and joined his brothers to destroy them; in this way, the golden age no longer existed, and everything that was previously known as the golden age no longer existed. People were influenced by power, causing wars and enemies; all were eager for power.

I hope this information can help you.

What two tasks should an effective argumentative introduction accomplish

In argumentative essays, writers accomplish this by writing: A clear, persuasive thesis statement in the introduction paragraph. Body paragraphs that use evidence and explanations to support the thesis statement. A paragraph addressing opposing positions on the topic—when appropriate. Explanation:

Introductory paragraph. The first paragraph of your essay should outline the topic, provide background information necessary to understand your argument, outline the evidence you will present and states your thesis.

The thesis statement. ...

Body paragraphs. ...

Conclusion.Introductory paragraph. The first paragraph of your essay should outline the topic, provide background information necessary to understand your argument, outline the evidence you will present and states your thesis.

Conclusion. Explanation:

The formal gardens were designed so that each large, circular flower bed had its own “tangent” gravel path. What could “tangent” best be replaced by? A) winding B) leading C) touching D) traveling

A) touching

If there are any essays people want done, let me know, I can get them done within 5 mins!

Thanks so much! Unfortunately, I need help with my math at the moment ^^"

Identify a theme from The Hunger Games and explain how it is developed in the text. Then, compare and contrast this theme with a theme from The Giver. How are they similar? How are they different?

Using the paragraph rubric, write a well developed paragraph in the 3rd person, with logic and reasoning evidence, addressing one of the following promp: a. The teacher should continue with _____________________ academic program, unit, or project.......

Answer: Its going to be A or C

Explanation: A or C sounds better then B so either one of them should be fine

(If wrong sorry its 3am)

Pls help I will mark brainliest ( write one sentence using the word disarming and one sentence using the word condone) Pls don;'t copy on g00gle

I began disarming the suspect with careful precision

I did not condone his behavior during the meeting

This is for anyone who needs the answers for the assessment PRACTICE END MARKS 2

OMG tysm U are the best

President Truman made the decision to drop atomic bombs on these two cities that effectively helped to end WWII. Yokohama and Kobe Tokyo and Osaka Nagasaki and Hiroshima Yoshi and Luigi

he dropped it on Nagasaki and Hiroshima

Explain how determination and deviation are connected.

One may be very determined to achieve a goal and would be willing to deviate from the set rules in order to win.

PLEASE ANSWER TRUTHFULLY THERE ARE 3 ANSWERS!! 60 POINTS!! THE VOYAGES OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE By Hugh Lofting Chapter 1: The Cobbler's Son My name was Tommy Stubbins, son of Jacob Stubbins, the cobbler of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh; and I was nine and a half years old. At that time Puddleby was only quite a small town. A river ran through the middle of it; and over this river there was a very old stone bridge, called Kingsbridge, which led you from the market-place on one side to the churchyard on the other. Sailing-ships came up this river from the sea and anchored near the bridge. I used to go down and watch the sailors unloading the ships upon the river-wall. The sailors sang strange songs as they pulled upon the ropes; and I learned these songs by heart. And I would sit on the river-wall with my feet dangling over the water and sing with the men, pretending to myself that I too was a sailor. For I longed always to sail away with those brave ships when they turned their backs on Puddleby Church and went creeping down the river again, across the wide lonely marshes to the sea. I longed to go with them out into the world to seek my fortune in foreign lands—Africa, India, China, and Peru! When they got round the bend in the river and the water was hidden from view, you could still see their huge brown sails towering over the roofs of the town, moving onward slowly—like some gentle giants that walked among the houses without noise. What strange things would they have seen, I wondered, when next they came back to anchor at Kingsbridge! And, dreaming of the lands I had never seen, I'd sit on there, watching till they were out of sight. Part A: Which of the following best states a key theme of the excerpt "The Cobbler's Son"? Enter your selection in blank 1 using A, B, C, or D. A. Commitment is a great quality in the young. B. Home is always a place of comfort. C. Imagination can take you very far. D. Planning for your future is very important. Part B: Select one quotation that clarifies your choice in Part A. Enter your selection in blank 2 using E, F, or G. E. A river ran through the middle of it, and over this river, there was a very old stone bridge F. I used to go down and watch the sailors unloading the ships upon the river wall. G. And I would sit on the river-wall with my feet dangling over the water and sing with the men, pretending to myself that I too was a sailor. Select one additional quotation that clarifies your choice in Part A. Enter your selection in blank 3 using H, I, or J. H. For I longed always to sail away with those brave ships when they turned their backs on Puddleby Church and went creeping down the river again, across the wide lonely marshes to the sea. I. I longed to go with them out into the world to seek my fortune in foreign lands—Africa, India, China, and Peru! J. And, dreaming of the lands I had never seen, I'd sit on there, watching till they were out of sight.

please help I will mark brainliest pls really need it

The most dangerous animal to hunt in the world could be a bear.

Bears are rather agressive when not tamed or have the time taken to communicate properly. When interfearing with a ritual they have their mind set on it could very much be like a human and attack out of frustration or anger.

Lions and leopards and other big cats like tigers, are some of the most challenging and dangerous animals to hunt. Both lions and leopards have exceptional night vision, shrewd intelligence, fearlessness, speed and agility. A lion can cover 100 yards in 3 to 4 seconds.

PLEASE HELP ME NO LINKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it's wrong I'm so sorry

It's C because it's not a full formal audience.

Describe and define examples of ineffective support.

Definition of Ineffective support:

not producing an intended effect

Define examples of ineffective support:

bad customer experience

The housekeeper returned the ineffective vacuum cleaner and purchased one that worked much better.

Monsters of the Deep The ocean is full of mysteries and amazing creatures. Since the first sailors left their home shores and set off for adventure, stories have been told of the strange and wondrous beasts encountered on the open ocean. With only glimpses and imagination-enhanced stories to go on, humans have made many an interesting creature into a monster. The truth is, the ocean's scariest creatures inhabit such extreme depths that humans are rarely, if ever, threatened by them. That does not mean they are not the stuff of nightmares. Consider, if you will, the following frightful fiends. Atlantic Hagfish Part eel, part sea snake, this sea serpent may have inspired many stories. Lacking the scales that most fish have, the hagfish secretes the most amazing slime to protect itself. This slime may be used to suffocate predators. The slime includes small fibers that make it almost impossible to remove. But the hagfish's truly horrific nature lies in what it does to its prey, not its predators. With an excellent sense of smell that compensates for almost total blindness, the hagfish will locate and latch on to a victim. With a circle of razor sharp teeth, the hagfish bores a hole into the side of its now-doomed prey. Once the hole is complete, the hagfish just welcomes itself inside for a meal of fish innards. It essentially eats its prey from the inside out. Like other deep-sea monsters, however, hagfish are seldom a nuisance to humans. They live most of their lives at depths of up to 5,600 feet. In fact, they prefer a soft sea bottom so they can quickly bury themselves to hide from threats. Gulper Eel Another, more hideous, fiend of the deep is the gulper eel. This creepy critter is part eel and part giant pouch. Like a pelican's enormous pouch-shaped mouth, the mouth of the gulper eel can open quite wide to gulp prey. It has a long tail tipped with a glowing organ that is used to lure in prey. Thanks in part to its tail, the gulper can reach up to six feet in length. Because its tail is so thin, it is not able to pursue prey with any speed, but it can scoop up hundreds of small crustaceans or shrimp in one bite. Often swimming through these prey groups with its mouth wide open, its large jaws allow it to feed on squid and other creatures much larger than itself. Gulper eels have only been studied because they sometimes get caught in the nets of fishermen. The depths they inhabit make it quite difficult for scientists to study them. They can go as deep as 6,000 feet, well beyond the abilities of humans to pursue them. Vampire Squid Perhaps the most frightening of the deep-sea monsters is also the smallest. The vampire squid reaches lengths of only six inches. It is also one of the most ancient of the deep-sea monsters. Scientists believe it to be the last surviving member of its order.

Answer: he ocean's scariest creatures inhabit such extreme depths that humans are rarely, if ever, threatened by them. That does not mean they are not the stuff of nightmares.

I WILL GIVE BRAINLIEST TO WHOEVER ANSWERS GOOD PLEASE PLEASE HELP Find one type of intelligence in the story “Flowers for Algernon” and say how Daniel Keys demonstrates that intelligence in the story.

hope this helpsss

Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love... Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis.”

He also meets Miss Kinnian, who recommends Charlie to the team of doctors from the psychology department at Beekman University for experimental surgery. This neurosurgery stimulates Charlie's brain centers and increases his ability to learn, thereby increasing his intelligence.

what he said is corect :/

Interview… 10 questions about me? I need this for a project Please ask me any questions and they must be appropriate because this is for a slide show

Where do u like and y do u like it or dislike there?

1. What are your hobbies?

2. Where are some places that you would like to travel?

3. What is a bad habit you have that you would like to get rid of?

4. What is one thing people often misunderstand about you?

5. What is one thing you will never do again?

6. What career or job do you want to pursue in the future?

7. What is your biggest fear?

8. What is your favorite movie/tv show?

9. Do you love, like, or hate rollercoasters?

10. If you could take away one negative thing in the world, what would it be?

Please please please help me!!!!!!

Which organisms reproduce through sexual reproduction? (Select all that apply.) single-celled organisms humans flowers animals

humans, animals, flowers

hope this helps

have a good day :)

Humans , Flowers, and Animals are organisms that reproduce through sexual reproduction . therefore options B, C, and D are correct.

Organisms that reproduce through sexual reproduction are those that require the involvement of two parents, each contributing genetic material to create offspring .

Humans, flowers, and animals are examples of multicellular organisms that reproduce sexually .

In sexual reproduction, specialized cells, such as sperm and eggs , are produced by the parents, and fertilization occurs when these cells unite to form a new individual with a unique combination of genetic traits from both parents.

This genetic diversity leads to variations in offspring, enhancing the potential for adaptation and evolution .

Single-celled organisms , on the other hand, typically reproduce asexually, where one parent produces genetically identical offspring without the need for mating or fertilization .

Therefore options B Humans , C Flowers, and D Animals are correct.

Know more about sexual reproduction:

https://brainly.com/question/7464705

Please help I will mark brainliest pls really need it Your response should be 4-6 sentences (topic sentence, evidence, explanation, concluding sentence.

Let’s pretend you were assigned a research paper for your history class. While searching for resources on the Internet you find two websites about your topic. One website is a personal blog. The other website has .gov at the end of its web address. Which website would be better to use for your research paper? Explain why.

True or False: If you make a mistake when brainstorming, you should fix it before moving on. True False

Answer: true !

Read the passage from “Edgar Allan Poe.” “In speaking of my mother you have touched a string to which my heart fully responds. To have known her is to be an object of great interest in my eyes. I myself never knew her—and never knew the affection of a father. Both died (as you may remember) within a few weeks of each other. I have many occasional dealings with Adversity—but the want of parental affection has been the heaviest of my trials.” The dialogue helps the reader analyze Poe’s parents. the central idea. the main setting. Poe’s character.

Select the correct answer. What can the reader learn from the passage because it is in third-person omniscient point of view? It was a dark, crazy night. The sound of rain and thunder filled Mrs. Windermere’s dining room. The guests sat around the mahogany table. All five of them sipped the soup, feeling thankful for having found shelter before the rain started. John Culkin, the youngest guest, mentally counted the number of fish paintings in the room. Mrs. Windermere was an expert sailor, and she loved the beauty of sea creatures. Max Cena took off his tight shoes under the table, enjoying the cushiony softness of the carpet. Rachel Gellar amused herself by guessing what was inside each of the silver pots on the table. Buffalo wings, she thought to herself when she came to the round pot in the center. A. The reader learns what the characters are thinking and feeling. B. The reader learns about how the characters feel about each other. C. The reader learns about the thoughts and feelings of only one character. D. The reader learns what the narrator thinks and feels about the readers.

Explanation: The reader learns what the characters are thinking and feeling

What is the primary difference between voluntary trade and coercive trade? a. being forced to trade something b. submissive trade c. trade that is compliant

a. being forced to trade something

In poetry which of these is a refrain? a. Choice of language b. Regular rhyme pattern c. A set of stanzas d. A line or phrase repeated regularly

d.a line or a phrase repeated regularly

Your answer is B.

WORTH 30 POINTS!! HURRY! SHARKS' TEETH Langston Carter The day we found the sharks' teeth was foggy and cool. Moisture hung in the air so thick you could almost see it sparkling in the dim sunlight. There were days, early in the summer like this one, where it seemed there was more water in the air than in the bay. We had beached the boat and stepped out on the recently cleared spit of land. The ground had a light dusting of white sand over an under layer of dried black mud. It looked like a recently frosted chocolate cake, though the frosting was spread a bit thin for my taste. The ground was solid, but we knew from experience that it was full of fiddler crab holes, and would be underwater at the first super-high tide. Mysteriously, to us anyway, someone wanted to build a house there. We often came to these spots to look for artifacts. Our beach, our summer home, had been a fishing camp for as long as anyone living could remember. The oldest stories told of travelers coming down to the edge of the sea, lining up to fill their wagon beds with salted fish to take back home. Old decaying cabins still lined the beach. Rotting nets, hung out to dry in the last century, decorated their weathered walls. Their broken faces spun stories in our minds. The fishermen who, tanned and wrinkled from sun and salt, hauled their nets full of splashing mullet in to cheers from the waiting crowds. The bounty of the sea lightened everyone's hearts, and the smell of roasting fish filled the damp air. Women fanned themselves from wagon seats. Children splashed in the shallow edges of the bay. It was a scene we had acted out as youngsters, building an imaginary bridge to a life we would never fully know. What is one way the narrator connects the present moment to the past? By describing imagined scenes By describing the land as if it were food By including details about the environment By recounting his youth

Answer: By including details about the enviroment.

The number of cyber prosecutions is likely low because cyber crimes often get charged under other various laws, including wire fraud, Feve said. Cyber cases also bring unique challenges to the courtroom. Digital evidence might be overseas. Hackers may delete or encrypt evidence wright in races stragety forn

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Review: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
The True Story Of 'Hansel And Gretel' That Will Haunt Your Dreams
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel von Louise Murphy
The True Story Of 'Hansel And Gretel' That Will Haunt Your Dreams
La verdadera historia de Hansel y Gretel

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Hansel and Gretel, Story Book
2024-04-16 Hansel & Gretel Book Review
Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
Hansel & Gretel Are STARVING For Something TASTIER...
Hansel and Gretel

COMMENTS

THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL
IndieBound Bestseller. An unlikely love story set amid the horrors of a Nazi death camp. Based on real people and events, this debut novel follows Lale Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew sent to Auschwitz in 1942. There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify ...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
by Louise Murphy. "The story has been told over and over by liars and it must be retold." In the winter of 1943, on the outskirts of a dark forest, two Jewish children flee the Nazis with their father and stepmother. In a moment of desperation, the children are given the aliases Hansel and Gretel and sent alone into the woods to hide.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel. Written by Louise Murphy Review by Tracey Callison. On the side of the road and a dark and forbidding wood, a father abandons his two children with the words "Go into the woods. Run." As their motorcycle speeds into the distance, their stepmother calls out "Hansel and Gretel… You are Hansel and Gretel.
Book Review: "The True Story of Hansel and Gretel" by Louise Murphy
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: a novel of war and survival by Louise Murphy. In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed "Hansel" and "Gretel.".
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
Author interviews, book reviews and lively book commentary are found here. Content includes books from bestselling, midlist and debut authors. The Book Report Network. Our Other Sites. ... The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy. Publication Date: July 29, 2003; Paperback: 297 pages; Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) ISBN-10: ...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival [Murphy, Louise] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival ... #8,314 in Literary Fiction (Books) Customer Reviews: 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,693 ratings. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Book Review: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a play on that tale. Set during the Nazi's occupation of Poland, the True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a play on that fairy tale. Its the story of a Jewish family's quest for survival. The children are separated from the father and stepmother and find their way into a nearby village where they are ...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
About The True Story of Hansel and Gretel. A poignant and suspenseful retelling of a classic fairy tale set in a war-torn world, for readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were the Lucky Ones, and Lilac Girls In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
A poignant and suspenseful retelling of a classic fairy tale set in a war-torn world, for readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were the Lucky Ones, and Lilac Girls. In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal ...
The True Story Of Hansel And Gretel
The True Story Of Hansel And Gretel. Transposing one of the grimmest of Grimm fairy tales into the Holocaust, where it becomes a parable of survival, is an intriguing idea. And the first chapters ...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
Louise Murphy's The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a work of historical fiction originally published in 2003.Loosely based upon the classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the novel reimagines Hansel and Gretel's story as a World War II narrative.The San Francisco Chronicle selected it as a "Best Book of the Year," and it received a starred review from Kirkus.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival
Very well-written, and I was impressed with how effectively the author weaved the fairy tale into the "true" story of the Jewish Hansel and Gretel during the Holocaust. I've read numerous stories about WWII and the Holocaust, both fiction and nonfiction, and the atrocities committed during this period in history never cease to disgust me.
THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL by Louise Murphy
THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL. Louise Murphy, . . Penguin, $13 (320pp) ISBN 978--14-200307-7. A provocative transformation of the classic fairy tale into a haunting survival story set in ...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel Summary of Key Ideas and Review
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (2003) by Louise Murphy tells a harrowing tale of survival and resilience during WWII in occupied Poland. Here's why this book is worth your time: It weaves a compelling narrative that blends folklore with historical events, offering a unique perspective on the Holocaust. The book explores themes of family ...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy About the Book "The story has been told over and over by liars and it must be retold." In the winter of 1943, on the outskirts of a dark forest, two Jewish children flee the Nazis with their father and stepmother. In a moment of desperation, the children are given the aliases Hansel and ...
Summary Of The True Story Of Hansel And Gretel By Louise Murphy
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel was written by Louise Murphy who began writing at age five. And the genre of this book is historical fiction because the characters and plot is based off historical events. People believe they have it hard, not compared to the people during WWII Anyone who didn't agree with the Nazi were killed because they ...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel book by Louise Murphy
Khaled Hosseini. from: $3.99. Buy a cheap copy of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel book by Louise Murphy. A poignant and suspenseful retelling of a classic fairy tale set in a war-torn world, for readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz , We Were the Lucky Ones , and Lilac... Free Shipping on all orders over $15.
The True Story Of 'Hansel And Gretel' That Will Haunt Your Dreams
The true story of Hansel and Gretel goes back to a cohort of tales that originated in the Baltic regions during the Great Famine of 1314 to 1322. Volcanic activity in southeast Asia and New Zealand ushered in a period of prolonged climate change that led to crop failures and massive starvation across the globe. ... William Rosen in his book ...
The true story of Hansel and Gretel : Murphy, Louise, 1943- : Free
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The True Story Of Hansel And Gretel
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The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
Murphy brings the genocide history up close through the horrifying daily experience of 11-year-old Jewish Gretel and her younger brother, who save each other from the worst with the help of a few brave villagers. The Grimms' story is always there like a dark shadow intensifying the drama as the searing narrative transforms the old archetypes.
Kids' Book Review: Review: Hansel and Gretel
Review: Hansel and Gretel. We all know the story of Hansel and Gretel — the brother and sister abandoned in the woods by their father, who stumble across a gingerbread house and then find themselves at the mercy of an evil old woman. It's a classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, but it's also probably considered to be one of their darkest.
Hansel and Gretel Audiobook by Brothers Grimm
"Hansel and Gretel" is one of the most magical and captivating fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. It tells a story of bravery, overcoming hardships, and true family love. In this tale, you will meet two brave children who, despite all dangers, find a way out of the toughest situations.
Read The Excerpt From "Hansel And Gretel.The Children, Too, Had Not
c. Hansel plans ahead for a way to save both Gretel and himself. Explanation: The first choice is only minor, the second is primarily plot/not thematic, the last choice is simply untrue. Choice c reveals something about the character of Hansel and the a concept in the story (using cleverness to outdo evil).

THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL

THE NIGHTINGALE

WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES

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