No Pretty Pictures

Anita brings up the United States of America when she discusses Cousin Raisa’s transparent coat from America. The adult Lobel identifies as an American, and she equates the country with freedom and a good life. America helped England and other countries fight Nazi Germany before officially entering the war in 1941. America has a long history of deadly oppression, and, as James Whitman’s book Hitler’s American Model details, Nazi Germany modeled its antisemitic laws on America’s racist laws (Whitman, James. Hitler’s American Model. Princeton University Press, 2017).

On the death march, Anita and her brother briefly stop at Auschwitz. She sees the deceptive sign above the gate, “Work makes one free” (180), and becomes aware of the “sick stench of burning” (101). Auschwitz was the largest extermination camp complex and had four gas chambers. Of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, around 1.1 million died at Auschwitz. Anita “realized that the dreaded Auschwitz was empty” (101), so the burning smell could be Nazis trying to destroy evidence of their genocide.

In Sweden, Anita’s brother studies for his bar mitzvah, so her brother isn’t averse to Jewish identity. When a boy turns 13, he can have a bar mitzvah, which is a special religious ceremony and celebration that marks his