The Light in Hidden Places

Stefania’s cries draw the attention of a German, who kicks Helena’s side. She coughs, and the Germans bring them to a police station where Dr. Becker examines and concludes Helena is exhausted and underfed. She has a fever and something in her lungs and needs decent food and rest. He gives Stefania antibiotics and aspirin after she promises not to sell them. He gets her address and promises to stop by tomorrow. Two policemen bring them home. Dr. Becker arrives the next day. He gives Stefania vitamins and grain and tells her she’s doing a good job caring for Helena. Stefania worries about money and food—she needs a job badly. Emilika advises her to bribe the labor office person to move her name to the top of the list.

Helena refuses to eat. The sisters fight, and Helena wants to go home. She doesn’t think Stefania wants her around. Stefania says it isn’t true. She says they’re a team, and she always tells Helena the truth—no matter how bad it is. Stefania shows her the apartment and how to lock the door and put a chair under it. They come up with a special knock so that Helena knows it’s her sister. Satisfied, Helena chews on bread.

At the ghetto fence, Max says there will be an Aktion or action: The Jews without work cards will go to supposed labor camps. Max, Chaim, Henek, and Danuta have them, but Mr. and Mrs. Diamants don’t. Max wants to give his parents as much food as possible. He also asks about Izio: Was it a lie that his death was quick? Stefania tells the truth with a nod. Max thanks her for lying to their mom. He then gives her several things to sell so she can use the money to bribe the official to get work.

Stefania sells the items and amasses 340 zloty. She hands the man at the labor officer her paper with the Polish money tucked inside them. The man says she’ll get a letter, and Stefania thinks she wasted a lot of money.

At night, she sees lights in the ghetto. The Jews scramble onto the trains. Sometimes, they fall. She hears gunshots and cries and barking dogs. She thinks she hears Mrs. Diamant. The next day, Max says Henek and Danuta are at a farm, and their parents are not in a labor camp but Bezec—a death camp. Stefania thinks she and everyone else are in hell.

After the Aktion, the ghetto contracts, and the Nazis move the fences closer. Now, Max and Chaim live with the dentist, Dr. Schillinger, his daughter, Dziusia, an older man, Dr. Hirsch, and his grown son, Siunek. The Jews grow desperate and sell anything for food. Stefania sells the things Max gives her—four gold buttons, two coats—and finds clothes for Helena, who plays with kids on the street.

The new neighbor, Mr. Szymczak, tells Stefania about how the Gestapo searched nearby apartments for hidden Jews. She then heads to the ghetto, and the Ordners, the Jewish police, are in charge. Chaim says Henek asked Danuta to marry him. Max says there are rumors of another Aktion. As Stefania sneaks out under the fences, a flashlight shines on her, and there’s a gun beside her head. After a conversation in German, the gun and light vanish.

Near the apartment, SS men find Jews hiding in a warehouse and shoot them and those who hid them. Mr. Schwarzer, who was friends with Mr. Diamant, was a part of the slain family. Helena is outside and runs to Stefania. They rush inside a church. Helena says the SS men knocked on their door, but she didn’t let them in, so they broke down the door, but they didn’t have what the SS were searching for. Stefania then explains to Helena what a Jew is and says it’s not bad to be a Jew.

With Mr. Syzmaczak’s hammer and nails, Stefania repairs the locks and nails rugs over the windows. As winter arrives, she sees and hears more violence but doesn’t tell Helena about it. She thinks about Mr. Schwarzer and how the SS found out he and his family were hiding in the warehouse.

The ghetto fence moves in again, and Stefania goes there, but Max isn’t there. Maybe Max is dead. Max isn’t dead: He’s at Stefania’s door.

Stefania orders Helena to make Max tea with sugar and put coal in the fire. Bleeding and hurt, Max says he jumped off the moving train. Stefania wants to know more but not in front of Helena. Stefania cleans him, and Helena asks if he’s a Jew. Stefania says he is—he’s also family. Max tries to sleep but has nightmares. Stefania feeds him, and Max explains what happened.

Around 50 to 60 Jews tried to hide in the cellar, but an Ordner came and threatened to throw a grenade if the Jews didn’t come out. Max thought the Ordner was bluffing, but a panicked mother removed the sandbags to save her little girl. The Ordner took the girl to the Gestapo, and the girl told the Nazis about the hiding place. On the train, Max cuts the wires with dental pliers. Two others jump after him. Chaim was supposed to jump, but he didn’t because he thought Max died. Stefania tells Helena that Max is a secret, and Helena watches Max sleep. Helena giggles because he’s wearing a nightgown, which makes Stefania smile.

While Stefania was at the market, Emilika knocked on the door, and Helena said she couldn’t come in because Stefania was sick. Max looks terrible, but he’s less sick. He asks Stefania to go to the farm Henek works at and tell him that Max is alive and not to return to the ghetto.

Stefania goes to the farm and has little trouble communicating with Henek—the guard doesn’t care. Henek thinks Max is overreacting about the ghetto, but Danuta promises to talk some sense into him. On her way back to the city, Stefania worries that the Gestapo discovered Max somehow, but she finds him and Helena safe, sleeping side by side.

Three days later, Danuta shows up at Stefania’s apartment. She ran away from Henek. She doesn’t want to return to the ghetto—it’s a death sentence. Upset that she can’t go out and play, Helena eats all of the butter. Danuta quizzes her on what she’d say if someone wonders about what’s going on in the apartment. Helena comes up with creative answers, so Stefania trusts her and lets her go outside.

As Helena leaves, Emilika arrives. Max hides under the bed, but Danuta remains exposed. Stefania says Danuta is her cousin. She’s pregnant, and her parents can’t find out. Sympathetic, Emilika has Danuta sit on a pot full of hot water, run up and down the stairs, and then sit on the pot again. Emilika tells people in the building about Danuta, giving her a bad reputation.

A strange man arrives with a letter for Danuta from Henek. He wants her back in the ghetto. Stefania is angry that Henek gave the man her address. It could lead to all kinds of lethal danger. The man claims he’s not a killer: He just did it for money. Danuta signs the letter so Henek knows she read it. The man leaves, and Danuta and Max talk: They’re returning to the ghetto.

Max and Danuta sneak in under the fence, and Danuta scolds Henek for giving Stefania’s address to a stranger. Henek replies that the man has a trustworthy reputation. Stefania doesn’t want Max to leave, but Helena is safer now.

Helena asks if Max lives in the ghetto, and Stefania lets Helena see a policeman hit a boy with the end of his gun in the ghetto. Stefania says Max lives in the ghetto, and, as the boy demonstrates, it’s dangerous, which is why they helped him and must keep it a secret.

As the temperature drops, the sisters struggle to keep warm and feed themselves. There’s nothing to sell, and they drink hot water for breakfast. Hungry, frustrated, and incensed by the constant violence, Stefania cries. She thinks of Izio and feels better. She explores the attic. The Diamant brothers told her there were dead bodies up there. Stefania doesn’t find corpses, but she discovers the Diamants’ furs. Stefania brings the furs downstairs and throws them on Helena. They can’t keep them. Stefania sells them to a cousin in Lezajsk—it’s far away from a big city, so she’ll get more money. A week later, the cousin visits them with more food.

Stefania continues to bring food to the Jews in the ghetto. One time, a handsome Polish policeman, Markus Berdecki, stops her. He asks for her papers and scolds her for going to the ghetto. He tells her that supporting Jews is against the law. She tells him it’s the other way around: They’re supporting her and giving her money for food. Berdecki says he’s supposed to arrest her and tells her to come with him, but he doesn’t want to arrest her, so he walks fast and lets Stefania wander away.

Berdecki thinks Stefania is pretty. Due to her papers, he knows her address and speaks to her neighbor Mrs. Wojcik. Mrs. Wojcik talks to Stefania and assures her the policeman isn’t thinking about police matters.

Stefania receives a letter from her mom: She and Stasiu are together working in a factory in Salzburg, Germany. She also has a letter from the labor department: She has a job. After midnight, Max shows up: He tried to kill a policeman.