Behind the Bedroom Wall

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. What gift does Korinna receive from her parents in Chapter 1?

2. Who is Korinna’s best friend?

3. What is Herr Haase, the local butcher, labeled as when he is beaten and arrested in the street?

4. What does Rachel ask Frau Rehme for in Chapter 5?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How would you describe Rita’s attitude towards the Jewish community?

2. How would you describe Eva’s attitude towards the Jewish community?

3. How would you describe Korinna’s attitude towards the Jewish community?

4. How would you describe Frau Rehme’s attitude towards the Jewish community?

Paired Resource

“Nazi Propaganda”

• This paired resource produced by the Holocaust Encyclopedia explores the propaganda about the Jewish race which was distributed throughout Nazi Germany.
• This resource connects to the theme The Propaganda of the Third Reich; it helps to explain the abhorrent beliefs about Jewish people held by characters like Rita and Korinna.
• How were Jewish people maligned by harmful propaganda? What beliefs were German people encouraged to adopt? 

“German Children read an Anti-Jewish Propaganda Book Titled Der Giftpilz”  

• This photograph shows the circulation and consumption of antisemitic propaganda aimed at children.
• This connects to the theme The Propaganda of the Third Reich.
• Consider the symbolism of Jewish people being represented as poisonous mushrooms in a garden, or foxes; how do these symbols position German children to feel about Jews? Do Rita and Korinna’s antisemitic beliefs and comments make more sense in light of this propaganda? 

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. Who notices that Korinna looks pale and tired?

2. What game does Rachel want to play with Korinna, that Korinna is reluctant to play with her?

3. What sentence does Rita see written in Korinna’s black book?

4. Whose brother is part of the Gestapo raid?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Frau Rehme upset with her daughter in Chapter 6?

2. Why is Korinna slapped at her jungmädel meeting?

3. How does Korinna try to dissuade Rita from coming to her house?

4. What does Hans do to Frau Rehme during the raid?

Paired Resource

“The Secret Annex”

• This interactive site allows students to explore the attic where Anne Frank lived with her family between 1942 and 1944.
• This connects to the theme Compassion for Jews and Disillusionment with the Nazi Regime; Korinna increasingly feels compassion for Sophie and Rachel’s predicament, having to live in the tiny confines of the secret room behind the bookshelf.
• Imagine the situation for Anne Frank and her family, and for Sophie and Rachel. Consider the conflicting emotions of extreme fear and extreme boredom experienced by those living in these conditions. How might members of the hidden families have reconciled those fears?

“Holocaust Survivor Recalls Two Years Hiding in Attic to Mark Yom HaShoah”

•  A survivor recalls two years he spent crammed in a tiny attic above his father’s old factory with his family.
• This connects to the theme Compassion for Jews and Disillusionment with the Nazi Regime.
• What hardships were faced by Israel Unger and his family?

Chapters 11-15

Reading Check

1. What color does Rachel wish her hair was?

2. Why were the Reinekes arrested?

3. Who joins Sophie and Rachel in the hiding place in Chapter 13?

4. Who tips Korinna off to the Gestapo raid that will occur at their house later?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Rachel wish her hair was a different color?

2. What does Rita tell Korinna about her secret feelings about Jewish people?

3. What does Korinna surmise from Rachel’s drawing of her recently deceased sister, Ruth?

4. What does Korinna realize about Rita’s likely role in the raid?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

• A collection of diary entries by Anne Frank between 1942 and 1944; she was between 13 and 15 at the time of writing. Anne Frank was a German Jew who emigrated from Germany to the Netherlands with her family to escape antisemitic persecution. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, the family went into hiding with another family in a hidden attic in Anne’s father’s warehouse in Amsterdam. The families were betrayed and arrested in 1944; Anne Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
• Shared themes include The Propaganda of the Third Reich, Compassion for Jews and Disillusionment with the Nazi Regime, and Trust and Deception.  
• Shared topics include WWII, Jews hiding to escape persecution, antisemitism, and the Holocaust.   
• The Diary of a Young Girl on SuperSummary    

“First They Came…” by Martin Niemoller

• Martin Niemoller was a Lutheran pastor who was arrested and imprisoned in Nazi-run concentration camps from 1937-1945 for criticizing Hitler’s policies, namely Hitler’s interference in churches and church policies. Niemoller delivered these words as a speech; they were later fashioned into a poem. 
• Shared themes include The Propaganda of the Third Reich, Compassion for Jews and Disillusionment with the Nazi Regime, and Trust and Deception.  
• Shared topics include the immorality of racism and discrimination, the importance of advocating for those without rights, the defense of freedom, WWII, and the Holocaust.
• First They Came… on SuperSummary