Edith Hahn's passionate and profoundly ironic memoir tells a number of overlapping, interrelated stories simultaneously.   First, and most prominently, it offers a riveting account of one Jewish woman's struggle to survive the Holocaust by deliberately disguising and later reclaiming her true identity.   Second, and equally important, the author provides an insightful analysis of ethical decision-making during the Holocaust, attempting to explain why "a few decent people" risked their lives to save hers, while others either remained indifferent or could not bring themselves to act.   Finally, and equally fascinating, Hahn immerses her reader in the shifting crosscurrents of Nazi policy toward the Jews, policies that seem to change without rhyme or reason as the war progresses until the revelation of Nazi genocide shocks the author and the world in 1945.

	In the FIVE TO EIGHT PAGE (1250 TO 2000 WORD) PAPER, you are being required to write for this class, you should focus primarily on ONE of these three interwoven threads:
	Edith Hahn's loss and reclaiming of her identity;
	how "random good luck and the interventions of a few decent people" saved Edith's life;
	Edith's heart-rending journey from wondering what had happened to her mother and other Jews who had been sent to the east, to disbelief and then shock at the news that most of them had been murdered.
	Regardless of the thread you select, you need to write a well organized, clearly argued and well supported paper that respects both the chronology and the geography of Edith Hahn's account.   It should be word-processed, double-spaced and in a 12 point font.   It should be carefully proofread.   It should also be thoroughly documented using the standard method of internal citation required of all analytical papers submitted in Upper School English and Social Studies courses at Pembroke Hill.
	If you choose to focus on Edith Hahn's loss and reclaiming of her identity, you will need to begin by explaining the identity she constructed for herself as a young woman, an identity she then felt compelled to disguise in order to go into hiding as a U-Boat in Nazi Germany.   You will need to explain how she went about disguising her true identity and how she eventually decided that she needed to reclaim and reconstruct her old identity.   You will need to reflect on the physical and emotional toll that disguising and then reclaiming her identity had and continues to have on Edith Hahn and her family.
	If you choose to focus on the "few decent people" who intervened to save Edith's life, you will need to examine the motives and actions of Pepi Rosenfeld, Anna Hofer, Maria Niederall, Christl Denner, Johann Plattner and Werner Vetter   (You may include others in addition if you wish).   You must then offer your own explanation of why some of these individuals took such great risks and other individuals hesitated or refused to do so.
	If you choose to focus on Edith's mystification at the vagaries of Nazi policy toward the Jews, her initial disbelief in response to the rumors she was hearing and her eventual shock when presented with irrefutable evidence of Nazi genocide, you will need to begin by describing Austrian and German anti-Semitism prior to the Anschluss.   You will then need to trace the evolution of Nazi persecution of the Jews as Edith learned of it, from the Anschluss to the point in time when the nature, if not the full extent, of the Holocaust became public knowledge in 1945.   You will then need to reflect upon the possible reasons why it was so difficult for Edith and other contemporaries to discern the nature and scope of Nazi intentions.