The Island on Bird Street

“All this must be remembered so that other peoples will know what can happen when a madman is elected to be their leader.”

Alex’s father and Boruch are friends, but they disagree on political matters and current events. While Alex’s father says no one knows what is happening in the camps, Boruch insists that Jewish people being systematically killed is a known fact; while his father thinks this terrible phase of history should be forgotten quickly, Boruch insists it must be remembered for all time so people do not make the terrible mistake again. His reference to “a madman” is to Adolf Hitler, who rose to power not through a direct election by the people of Germany but through more indirect but still legal means; he was appointed Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg and given special authority to make laws by the Reichstag (the lawmaking body of Germany). The Nazi party gradually gained support leading up to Hitler’s chancellorship and was poised and empowered to seat Hitler as a dictatorial leader by 1933.

“Father liked to say we were all human beings. It didn’t matter what color your skin was, how long your nose was, or by what name you called God. So what difference did it make where you lived, here or in Honolulu? This made sense to me. But mother would sigh and say: ‘If only you were right.’”

This interior monologue represents one of Alex’s many recollections, and his parents’ ideas demonstrate a dichotomy of opinions. His father is the more idealistic of the two, wanting to believe that ethnicity, culture, and religion should carry no judgment from others. Alex’s mother, a realist, knows better. While Alex, only 11, does not comment directly or in a didactic way about these overarching ideas on human equality, the author presents them through Alex’s memories and conversations with himself.

“I knew what that meant. Everyone was rounded up in the yard, and then one by one you went out through a gate where the German factory owner and his Polish partner would be standing with policemen. It was they who decided who stayed in the ghetto to work and who was transported. Naturally, children and old people didn’t stand a chance. Neither did anyone who had a child with him.”

Alex describes a “selection” in simple terms that young readers can understand. Cruelly, the very young and the very old among Jewish populations were useless to the Nazis and typically were the first to be sent to concentration and death camps. While Alex suggests that this selection is specific to the rope factory workers, the larger inference is that selections happen throughout the ghetto continuously until, suddenly, at the end of Chapter 5, only Alex and a few others in hiding are left.

“The houses next to it hadn’t been damaged at all, and its own front and rear walls were still in place too. That is, neither attached solidly all the way up to where the roof once was, but both of them, leaning here and there on some inner wall or pipe still stood with the gaping sooty windows that opened in on nothing like two big frightening stage sets.”

Alex uses a theater simile (“like two big frightening stage sets”) to help convey the visual image of the ruined house at 78 Bird Street. It is inferred that the Germans bombed this residence, which held several apartments, and it is in dangerously decrepit condition. Ironically, while the house itself presents a danger to anyone inside the unsteady outer walls, its cellar is safer than Alex’s alternative—on a train to a camp.

“Alex, you were born lucky.”

Alex reflects on his father’s words as he attempts to settle in the ruins of 78 Bird Street. While both Alex’s situation and the greater circumstances of war seem distinctly unlucky, making this quotation highly ironic. Alex has an inherent belief in his luckiness and hopes that his mother, wherever she is, is sending more luck his way. This belief in personal luckiness helps Alex move confidently forward with ideas, such as throwing the rope-tied rock through the third-floor window to draw up his ladder. Alex’s appreciation for good luck despite the scares he encounters in the ghetto helps to develop The Opposing Forces of Fear and Luck.

“Are women always nicer than men? Maybe. Except of course for the Amazons. I once read about them in a book.”

Alex’s use of “always” here refers to his previous run-in with the Gryns, when Mr. Gryn only wanted to holler and lie about stealing food while Mrs. Gryn addressed Alex more measuredly, inviting him to stay with them. The Gryns’s response to Alex parallels the reaction of Marek and Marek’s wife in the loft a few days later, causing Alex to generalize here about the kindness of women. His allusion to the Amazons refers to Greek mythology and the group of warrior women whose strength and skills in battle were well-known.

“And it doesn’t bite or give you any germs?”

In his brief conversation with Martha, Alex describes Snow; despite the unkindness, desperation, and filth of war all around her in the ghetto, Martha wonders here how Alex can bring himself to touch a mouse. Her ironic comment depicts a youthful innocence; perhaps Martha cannot yet grasp how much worse war is than a mouse. At the same time, Alex’s warm acceptance of Snow as a true friend shows his empathy and kindness for living creatures.

“I can’t tell you my secret route, young fellow […] [b]ut if you ever need help, come see me and I’ll see what I can do.”

Ironically, Alex finds much greater kindness in the Polish looter Bolek than he finds in Mr. Gryn or Marek, both Jewish men. This line serves as foreshadowing since Bolek will be an important character later in the narrative when Alex has reason to utilize the secret passage into the Polish quarter. Alex keeps Bolek’s address in his head by repeating it nightly in a display of his Resourcefulness and Ingenuity for Survival. Alex’s conversation with Bolek also offers a thread of hope for happier times for Alex.

“There were thirteen rungs on it, a lucky number. Not for everyone, perhaps, but certainly for me.”

Alex alludes here to the unluckiness connected to the number 13, a traditional superstition in many cultures. Juxtaposed against 13’s common unluckiness is that his rope ladder, made extra-long with the inclusion of a 13th wooden rung, is improbably the perfect length to get to the third floor of the ruined house at 78 Bird Street. Alex’s brash disregard for the superstition shows indirectly that he has faith that his helpful luck will hold out. Alex’s mention of luck despite ongoing fearful challenges supports the theme The Opposing Forces of Fear and Luck.

“The bunker had a tin boiler with an oil heater beneath it, just like the one we had at home. If the Germans didn’t wreck the place, I could come back to wash now and then. Not too often, though. I didn’t want to push my luck.”

The interior monologue shows that Alex thinks of home when he compares the boiler and heater to the equipment he and his parents used; these details also demonstrate key facts about daily life for those trying to escape persecution within the walls of a ghetto. Bunkers housed families or groups, could include multiple connected rooms, and might even be outfitted with heat, running water, and septic systems for toilets. Situational irony exists in Alex’s reference to his luck (a nod to The Opposing Forces of Fear and Luck); he shows caution with his intention not to “push it” by showering frequently, but his caution is pointless in this instance, as the German soldiers return the very next morning and cut off the bunker entrance.

“I realized now that real wars weren’t like the ones in adventure books where children fought like heroes at the grown-ups’ sides. One dead German on the floor was enough for me.”

Alex has immediate, grandiose visions of helping the Jewish uprising in Ghetto A as soon as he hears the gunfire, but these feelings quickly contrast with his emotional reaction to shooting a German soldier. While he confidently fires the pistol, his body soon belies his true reaction; he goes pale and feels sick in his stomach. This event contributes to Alex’s coming of age in that he recognizes his limits and takes a more realistic view of his role in the uprising.

“I kept trying to stop crying but could not. Yet how had I been any different from Robinson Crusoe? Robinson had also shot the savages when they had tried to eat Friday.”

Alex tries again to process his complex feelings the day after he shoots and kills a German soldier. His allusion to Robinson Crusoe, in which a shipwrecked man survives on a remote island, shows he is capable of metaphorical thought. His parallel refers to an event in Daniel Defoe’s classic work in which, after Crusoe has lived on the island for over two decades, he encounters cannibals who are about to kill and devour a man. Crusoe saves this man’s life and calls him Friday. Alex’s character arc develops toward maturity as he offers this complex rationalization regarding saving one man by killing others.

“We made a checkerboard from some white cardboard and used coins and pieces of wood for the men. I even beat him a few times. Maybe he lost to me on purpose. And then again, maybe he didn’t.”

The theme of Resourcefulness and Ingenuity for Survival develops throughout Alex’s months alone, initially with his gathering of supplies and outfitting the larder and bird floor and later with his careful rationing of food and kerosene. Here, Henryk and Alex create a gameboard and markers from handy scraps to play chess. Their game symbolizes Alex’s eagerness for interaction and his Longing for Connection.

“She wrapped a sheet around my neck and the doctor cut my hair like an expert while I went on with my story.”

After two months of solitude, Alex reveals his secret hiding place to four people within two days—Henryk, Freddy, the doctor, and the doctor’s wife. Indirectly, his choice to help Henryk and Freddy and share his hideout with them reveals Alex’s kindness, empathy, and Longing for Connection; his decision to travel to the doctor and explain his circumstances to gain the doctor’s help reveals his courage and inherent trust in others. Alex never hesitates to leave the ghetto in trying to save Henryk, and his sudden haircut in the doctor’s office acknowledges and symbolizes this courage. On a literal level, the doctor cuts his hair to keep Alex safe—from being recognized by others as a Jewish boy in hiding and for the realistic purpose of cleanliness. On a figurative level, however, the haircut is more significant: This sudden alteration in appearance serves as a marker of Alex’s maturity and changing identity.

“She stopped for a second and looked at me carefully, as if trying to place me. She couldn’t, of course, but she said good morning back to me before running on down the stairs two steps at a time.”

Alex’s run-in with the homework girl (Stashya) as he takes the doctor to tend to Henryk’s injury foreshadows his upcoming relationship with her. Already, he has developed a crush on the girl by watching the street through the air vent; now when he sees her up close, he feels a physical and emotional reaction. After this meeting, his Longing for Connection will prompt Alex to bravely ask Stashya to be friends the next time they meet.

“We talked about what would be then. Not just about walking wherever we pleased, or hiking in the country, or boating, or skating and skiing in the winter, but about the things that mother used to talk about too. About Palestine. Henryk called it ‘Erets Yisra’el.’”

Henryk refers here to “The Land of Israel.” Not to be confused with the political state of Israel formed in 1948 (after the events of this novel), “The Land of Israel” refers to “a philosophical, theological and halakhic (Jewish legal) concept” (“Eretz Israel.” Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue). As Henryk implies, this term connotes a place of acceptance where Jewish people can have a home, be free from persecutions experienced since Biblical times, practice traditions, and develop culturally. It is based on God’s vow in the Hebrew Bible to give Abraham and his descendants a “Promised Land.” Geographically, it is difficult to name borders for “The Land of Israel.” The Rossing Center uses the term “ambiguously defined” regarding its precise location and suggests the land might be (a) that which Biblical Israelites controlled, (b) from the Wad-el-Arish River to the Euphrates River, or (c) some expanse in between. In the novel, Alex’s mother’s and Henryk’s mentions of Palestine are synonymous with this idea of Erets Yisra’el (also spelled Eretz Yisrael) and represent their Longing for Connection among Jewish people.

“From then on the curtains in the windows of his office remained closed. His wife vanished too, and I never saw her again.”

Helping Jewish people during the Holocaust carried great risk. Alex sees this firsthand when the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s secret police, take the kind doctor, who trusted him regarding Henryk’s injury and visited Alex’s hideout. The phrases “vanished” and “I never saw her again” underscore the swiftness with which the Nazis removed people, taking them to a likely perilous fate. The entrance of the Gestapo here connotes an especially brutal treatment toward Jewish people and those like the doctor attempting to help them.

“I want you to know that sooner or later the ghetto will be opened up to Poles.”

Bolek’s line foreshadows Alex’s upcoming loss of freedom. After making friends and spending time with Stashya over several trips through the secret passage, Alex realizes his days of moving about will soon end when he sees men in business attire carrying briefcases walking along Bird Street. This refers to likely assigning property to Polish people in preparation for the opening of the ghetto. The Jewish people who used to live there are now in work or concentration camps or have been killed—except for those in hiding like Alex. Bolek’s words prove prophetic when the ghetto wall is torn down and Polish children come to explore the ruins of Number 78.

“Do you hate Jews?”

In a surprising plot twist, Alex reveals to Stashya that he is Jewish. He spills the truth without much forethought because he simply cannot lie to her, an action that indirectly shows his kindness and goodness. In an even bigger twist, Stashya tells Alex she too is Jewish. Both worry about the consequences of telling, but both are relieved and overjoyed to have an empathetic listener in the other.

“When I was little, I would come not just to skate but also to watch the fat woman crank the handle of the gramophone. I was fascinated by the quickly spinning record and by the iron needle that stuck out from its shiny head and coaxed melodies from the round, black disk as if by magic.”

Personification (the needle “coaxing” melodies from the record) decorates Alex’s interior monologue regarding the setting of the park’s pond and ice skating in winter. His voice, by this point in the novel, exudes a more mature and reminiscent tone, demonstrating that his months of solitude and struggle have caused him to grow up quickly. Though he was “little” just a few years prior, his voice carries the weight of experiences that have aged him beyond his years.

“We tried to think of some way to find each other.”

The chaos of the war, especially in the latter days of World War II with its consequential displacing, transporting, and killing of the Jewish people, caused many family members and friends to part ways without any definite means of reestablishing communication once the war ended. Seeking help from The King of England and the Red Cross are among the ideas Alex and Stashya brainstorm the day before she leaves with her mother for the safer countryside, in a show of Resourcefulness and Ingenuity for Survival. Their promise to meet on New Year’s Day after the war ends echoes many wartime relationships and connects to Longing for Connection.

“Trolleys ran again on the tracks that had been under it. It was as though the ghetto had never existed. As though other people had never lived in it.”

Alex’s reference to “other people” is itself significant, symbolizing how the Jewish people who inhabited the neighborhood, then the ghetto, lost their name and identity along with their homes. The ghettos were a step in the process of attempting to eradicate the Jewish people; reopening the area after “liquidating” (sending the Jewish people on to work or death camps) the ghettos implied that the original owners would never return. In the novel, great situational irony exists in the fact that the opening of the ghetto to the Polish people next door means the end of what little freedom Alex had to leave his hideout.

“He didn’t shout it. He said it in a very strange voice. Maybe that’s how a person talks to a ghost.”

Alex’s father’s words convey grief when he enters the house at Bird Street; he believes Alex is dead, and he visits the site more in commemoration than any realistic hope. Alex’s perception of his father’s actions and voice display an emotional shock that parallels his own when he realizes his father has finally come. With “ghost,” Alex inadvertently calls to mind the Nazi goal of eradicating the Jewish people and leaving little to no trace of them.