Bibliographic Information: Ligocka, R. (2002). The Girl in the Red Coat. New York, NY: Bantam Dell. ISBN: 038533740X
Plot Summary: Roma Ligocka tells her life story as a Polish Jew growing up in German occupied Poland. Years later, as an adult artist living in Germany, Roma recognizes herself as "the girl in the red coat" at a screening of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. This inspires Roma to write her memoir of her harrowing journey into her past. The first years of Roma's life were spent in darkness and fear. Roma describes life in the ghetto and, in depth, the horror of her living conditions. Roma and her mother (Tosia) and father (David) are constantly moving and hiding. Under force, Roma's hair is died blonde so she would look more German, thus safer. The men in "shiny black boots with snarling dogs" were always raiding the ghetto; there was the endless waiting in lines and Jewish people were shot indiscriminately. Roma was very close to her grandmother who was seized by German officers as Roma hid under a table, terrified. Roma's father was taken away to Auschwitz.
Roma and her mother sneak out of the ghetto and, after a few homeless nights, are taken in by a Polish family. Roma's life with this family was better, but she always had to stay inside for fear of being seen. Roma and her mother were kicked out several times due to German raids, but returned because they had nowhere else to go. After the German occupation, Stalin and the communists took over Poland. In Krakow Roma is sent to a communist school where she is treated differently. Roma learns that her mother is having an affair with a married man after finding letters between the two of them. A girl at Roma's school tells her about the affair and Roma is humiliated.
The theater, staging plays, painting and writing are Roma's passions. Piotr, Roma's first love, is an art student who gives guided tours at museums. He happens to be married though. Later Roma meets Wieslaw who is from an aristocratic family. She falls in love and marries him despite her mother's warnings that there are scandalous rumors regarding his family. Wieslaw turns out to be a drunk. Roma divorces him at the ripe age of 21. She enrolls in an art academy for costume and stage design. Jan Biczyeki is the youngest and most talented artistic director in Poland. Roma meets Jan when she is designing costumes and he is directing a play in Austria. They marry and live a bohemian life, constantly moving. Roma gets pregnant with Jan's baby, but they don't have any money to raise a baby, let alone live a "normal" life. Abortion is illegal in Austria so Roma gets money from a poet friend to get an abortion in Hungary.
After moving to West Berlin, Jan gets a more stable teaching job with a steady income. Roma gets pregnant again and they have a beautiful blonde baby boy, Jakob. Jan buys a house in the suburbs that Roma instantly dislikes. She hates the suburbs and feels herself "slowly suffocating." Roma goes to a doctor and tells him of her symptoms of depression, inability to sleep and so on. The doctor prescribes pills to which Roma eventually becomes addicted. Meanwhile, a man named Slawo who is a writer and poet comes over and Roma falls in love with him. She leaves Jan and finds an apartment in Stuttgart, not too far from Paris where Slawo lives. Roma takes Jakob with her but Jan visits him often. Slawo ends up leaving Roma because he "wants to be alone." At the same time that Slawo leaves Roma, Roma's mother dies. She starts taking her pills more and more and ends up quitting them "cold turkey" after she realizes she has become a slave to them.
Critical Evaluation: When I was employed as a middle school librarian, an English teacher where I worked highly recommended The Girl in the Red Coat. I had never heard of it. After searching I was not able to order library-bound editions for the library, but I did get several copies in softcover. Besides The Diary of Anne Frank, The Girl in the Red Coat is one of the best and most insightful memoirs of the Holocaust I have ever read. It is full of so much history and insightful memories of the horror and beauty of daily life in Poland during World War II and after. Roma's life is rich and full of love, lost and she reveals in depth the psychological devastation that her experiences have had on her life.
About the Author: In addition to The Girl in the Red Coat and details of her life above, Roma Ligocka has written Znafoma z lustra, Kobeta w podrozy, Tylko jo sama and Wszystko z milosci. She currently resides in Munich, Germany.
Annotation: As a Jewish girl in German occupied Poland, Roma Ligocka writes an unforgettable fifty year memoir of survival after realizing she is "the girl in the red coat" during a screening of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List.
Genre: Biography/Memoir, Holocaust, World War II, Survival
Curriculum Ties: Social Science: Holocaust, World War II.
Book Talking Ideas: How does a young child survive the horrors of being a Polish Jew during World War II in Poland occupied by the Nazi Germans? Will Roma survive having her beloved grandmother and father taken away by the Nazis? As an adult who has survived the holocaust as a Jew, what are the psychological repercussions?
Reading Level and Interest Age: 13 & older.
Challenge Issues: Abortion
Reason for Inclusion: Historical relevance, curriculum ties and it is an excellent memoir.
1 comment:
what would you say the theme and main idea of the book is?
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