POB - DQ

8. What did you think of Lola's adventures? Did it make sense to you when the young man told Lola, "The only true home for Jews is Eretz Israel" (p. 50)?

The whole Palestine/Israel question is quite a complex one really, and one that we are pretty much still dealing with today. Does it make sense that people that have lived for hundreds of years would think that it made sense to just up and leave to live in a newly created country where they weren't really wanted? No. But then when you add in the Nazi threat and the latest wave of anti-Semitism, then you can understand that there were many families who would just want the chance to live in safety.

Mordecai was however a radical, and yet he and the people who went with him turned out to have made the correct decisions.

It did seem strange to me that Marshall Tito would disband the partisan groups but I think I had heard of that happening before, not sure whether it was in regard to Tito or not. Even stranger that the commander expected the group to just disband and go home, when for so many of them there was no home to go to. I was shocked by Isak's actions, but understood his desperation.

9. What did you think about Stela and Serif Kamal, the Albanian Muslims Lola met?

There are good people everywhere.

10. Why do you think the Nazis were intent on destroying Jewish books? Could something like that happen today? Before you answer, take a look at Banned Books blog.

I definitely think it could happen again, and quite frankly how do we know that it isn't happening in places where there are ethnic tensions.

I found the idea that they wanted to create a "Museum of the Lost Race, to exhibit the finest Jewish objects, after the people themselves are gone" (page 86) laughable. I think that Serif and his boss were right to be sceptical, and right to hide the Haggadah. Good job they were on the same wavelength though given how quickly they had to think when General Faber came to visit and demanded to be given the Haggadah.