Escape from Warsaw

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Synopsis
Historical fiction. In Warsaw in 1942, the Balicki chidren watch in horror as Nazi Storm Troopers arrest their mother. With the war raging around them, they live in constant fear.
Copyright:
1990

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
224 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780590437158
Publisher:
N/A
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Scholastic, Inc.
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Children's Books, Military, Literature and Fiction
Grade Levels:
Fourth grade, Fifth grade, Sixth grade, Seventh grade, Eighth grade
Submitted By:
Carrie Karnos
Proofread By:
Carrie Karnos
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

4 out of 5

By on

i choose 4 stars because the person i likes nick name has four letters and its an alrite book.

4 out of 5

By on

The silver sword was a very good book. In the book at the beginning they were a very happy family story until the war started. At first Joseph the father was taken away to a camp because he wouldn’t teach in German. Second Margrit the mother was taken away for no apparent reason. After that the children had to look after themselves. After about a year Edek was working on the black market as a salesperson so sell and move items from one place to another. Following that, the suspected that Edek had been caught, because he had never come home for quite some time.<p> Each summer Ruth and Bronia came to the city of Warsaw and spent the summer there in there bombed house/shelter. One day they were playing a game called “Air Raider” and a boy wouldn’t get up off the ground when he got found so Ruth came to check on him. He was almost dead so they brought him onside. After that the boy whose named Jan stayed with them after that.<p> Later on they meet up with Edek at a soup kitchen. Thy met each other there because there was a big scrum, and Ruth grabbed Edeks hand and then they found each other. As the days went on, Ruth, Edek, Broina, and Jan were walking and walking , trying to get to Switzerland to find their mother and father. A couple places that they stopped along the way were a couple of soup kitchens, a farm, the woods and Jan went to jail for seven days for stopping a train.<p> Near the end they were all on the shore looking over to Switzerland, but Edek was in a bed because he was sick. When they heard the news they that they had found their parents, they were so excited that their were jumping on Edeks hospital bed. After that they went to the shore and looked at the water. Their father was to come and pick them up the next day. But when they were near the water a storm started to came and so Edek hid under a boat and Ruth, Jan, and Bronia went inside a boat because there were in a bit deeper than Edek. After a while the storm got worst. They tried save each other… but in the end Jan had saved every one. When they got to Switzerland they met their parents there and they went to an international children’s village. And then it was the end of the story.

5 out of 5

By on

Great book...i did a report on it...It's about a Polish family separated during the Second World War and trying to find each other again when the war is over; a simple enough story, fictionalized but based on fact, totally gripping and authentic. The story opens with Joseph Balicki, the father, escaping from a prison camp in the Polish mountains. He was the headmaster of a primary school in Warsaw until he was arrested by the Nazis in 1940 for turning a picture of Hitler to the wall. He makes his way to Warsaw only to find his home in ruins. A neighbour tells him that one night in 1941 his wife was taken away by Nazi Storm Troopers; and that that same night the Nazis came back and blew the house up. His three children, Ruth, Edek and Bronia, have not been seen since and are presumed dead. <p> Joseph cannot believe it. He returns to the rubble of his home and finds there the silver sword of the title, a paper-knife he had given his wife as a present. There, too, he finds Jan, owner of a scrawny cat and a small wooden "treasure" box, who expertly picks his pocket. Jan asks Joseph for the silver sword; and Joseph gives it to him on condition that, if he ever meets the children, he will tell them to head for their grandparents' home in Switzerland. <p> That is the background. The main body of the story takes off from there. Ruth is 14 when we first meet her, Edek is 12 and Bronia is four. They are alone, fending for themselves, with bombs exploding around them. Ruth takes on the responsibilities of mother. They set up home in a bombed cellar; Edek scrounges for food, stealing when necessary. Ruth protects Bronia from terrors, tells her stories, is careful not to transmit her own fears, and starts a school for other lost and orphaned children. Life gets harder for her when one day Edek fails to return. He has been caught and arrested for smuggling food. Not long afterwards Jan turns up outside their cellar, fainting and half-starved. Ruth takes care of him, earns his confidence and he elects to stay. <p> The war is changing, the tide turns, the Russians are liberating Poland. Ruth gets word that Edek has been traced and is alive; and so they set out on their trek across 900 miles of Europe, first to find Edek and then to find their parents.