In the book If I Should Die Before I Wake,” the author Han Nolan portrays Chana as a very strong person emotionally. Chana’s strength is shown throughout the book as she deals with the consequences of escaping Lodz and losing her family one by one. Chana lost her father first; he was shot by Nazis.
Next, Chana’s little sister Nadzia left the family to live with non-Jews. In the ghetto, Zade died of old age and malnutrition. Anna and her mother were taken to concentration camps. Jakub was the last person she and Bubbe saw before they tried to escape from Lodz to Germany.
(154-156) Chana and Bubbe escaped Lodz only to be jailed, tortured, and sent to concentration camps. Only a strong-willed person could mentally and emotionally endure such tragedy and horror as Chana did. Chana’s character was also very caring and compassionate towards others. Although she was miserable in the concentration camps, she was respectful towards the other inmates.
Another example of this was when Chana was living in the ghetto with the Krengiels. It took all her strength to be nice to them, and despite her kindness, they were hostile to Chana and her family. A noticeable trait shown in Chana as her character developed throughout the book was her religious and spiritual self. In the beginning, it was only her grandmother, Bubbe, who had total faith in God and who tried to encourage Chana to have faith as well. Chana did not believe Bubbe; she thought that God was not on her side and that he was nowhere.
Throughout the book, Chana’s faith in God developed during a time of crisis. At one point, she resented God until she looked into the eyes of her sister and then felt ashamed of her anger. Towards the end of the book, she prayed for Matel’s well-being and then put on a Jewish ritual ceremony to officially thank God, as requested by Matel.
A major problem Chana faced was survival. She dealt with the struggle for food each day and endured torture and hard labor in the concentration camps. Chana’s family coped with the daily struggle for food by working as hard as they could. While in the concentration camps, Chana was tortured and forced to work. She couldn’t rebel because the camp officials would harm her even more. Another great conflict Chana had to deal with was the ghetto life.
She lived where it was very crowded and often needed a way out. She solved this problem by hiding in a hole of the roof of the House of Culture and listening to music. She often thought of escaping and running away and suggested to her family that they should hide in the House of Culture, but Bubbe decided to take Jakub’s advice and get fake papers and go to Germany. If I were faced with Chana’s problems, I would have done some things the same as she did, but some different. Regarding the struggle for food, I would have brought things that are very valuable and rare like coffee and cigarettes to trade for food.
If worse came to worst, I would have sold the violin for food. With the problem of survival in the concentration camp, I would have tried to make friends with a lot of people in the concentration camp because, like Dvora, if one of them became an assistant to someone important, they could have pull into putting me somewhere else where the work and torture are less. If I had to make the decision whether to run away from the ghetto life, I would have done the same as Chana and Bubbe, but I would have hidden while in public places so I wouldn’t be as noticeable to people. Overall, Chana made good decisions considering the atmosphere she was living in most of the time.
