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The Warsaw Ghetto In Milkweed By Jerry Spinelli

687 Words3 Pages

World War II was a brutal time. Many innocent people were tortured, and this was a very real situation for the victims held captive in the Warsaw ghetto. Individuals were starved and put in a place of devastation and depression. Contributing factors, like sickness and disease, forced human beings to figure out ways to survive. In the book Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, people used survival skills such as stealing and supporting the Jackboots. Stealing was the main tactic that Jews, Gypsies and everyone else in the ghetto used. It was the easiest way to get food; therefore, smuggling was while worth the risk. Stealing proved to be a very successful survival skill for most; although, some smugglers were killed by the Nazi’s for stealing. They …show more content…

The Jackboots are Nazis. They would harm these poor people; therefore, causing them to try and earn their good graces. Which is why people volunteered to sacrifice people of their own kind. Most did this by becoming Flops. These were the police officers of the ghetto. Flops were also Jews, and they lived in the ghetto just like everyone else. The flops did not carry guns; however, like the Jackboots they helped keep people in line. “ I knew who was on the other end of the club. I looked up … Buffo the worst flop of all” (Spinelli 112). Buffo is one of the jews that supported the Jackboots. He became a flop hoping to save himself, but this turned out to be a bad survival skill. He tried so hard to show the Nazi’s he was on their side, but he was still a Jew. Therefore, he got sent to the concentration camps with everyone else from the ghetto. This shows that supporting the jackboots by becoming a flop didn’t work. This was the case for most people; this being said, there was one benefit for a Jew named Uri. Uri had red hair; this allowed him to become a Jackboot. All he needed to do was hide his Jewish identity, for if he didn’t it would be the end of him. “He shook me. Never mind what I’m doing here … If I see you in here again I’ll tell them to shoot you. My name is not Uri here. You never call me that” (Spinelli 145). This shows that Uri is hiding his identity. In the end, the only

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