Making Bombs for Hitler

The sound of Allied bombing is an omnipresent noise during Lida’s imprisonment. She even dreams of bombs: in the Kantine, in the barracks, covering the sky, and even in Larissa’s arms. Bombs represent death and the annihilation of safety and security. Allied bombs ravage the countryside and endanger prisoners and civilians as much as military targets. It is bitterly ironic that although Lida and the workers are on the Allies’ side, Allied bombs nearly kill Luka, Lida, and the other factory workers; blast their train; and destroy their camp. Bombs reflect the helplessness and lack of control that Lida and the other five girls experience as they are forced to assemble bombs to support their enemy. Bombs also raise ethical questions for Lida, revealing her humanity and empathy. Because she is helping to make bombs, she feels partly responsible for any deaths that result from those bombs. Lida’s reflections reveal her sense of morality. When Lida and the girls sabotage their bomb-making, they exercise control. Their act of resistance empowers them despite their imprisonment. Bombs also symbolize freedom: As the bombing increases, the Front approaches, and so does liberation.

Lida’s crucifix reflects her Christian beliefs but primarily represents her family. Lida treasures the cross because it connects her to her family, and as such, the crucifix is a part of her identity. The crucifix, Lida comments, “was all that I had left of my parents” (48). Her father made the strap for the necklace out of shoe leather, and the “ancient” crucifix was passed down through generations of eldest children in Lida’s family, ending with Lida. It makes her feel strong and protected, feeling that “the spirits of past generations were watching over [her]” (171), but it also conveys family responsibility. Wearing the cross means that Lida, as oldest, must find and protect Larissa. The crucifix is a solace to Lida. She places her hand over it often, sensing its warmth and treasuring the memories it conveys.

The crucifix also reflects Lida’s altruism. Despite the profound personal significance that the crucifix holds for Lida, she gives it to Zenia, likely helping save Zenia’s life. When Lida regains the crucifix, she sees it as sign: Because the crucifix kept Zenia safe, it will protect Lida in the future while maintaining Lida’s connection to the past.

Food plays a large role in the novel as a motif that informs Skrypuch’s theme of finding humanity amidst the inhumanity of war. Food is alternately an expression of Nazi and Soviet prejudice and an expression of others’ compassion and connection.

Food is power for both the Nazis and the Soviets who use food to divide, control, demean, and even murder prisoners. Separate soup pots reinforce the Nazis’ prejudiced labeling. The lunch server at the bomb factory exerts his control over the enslaved laborers, showing his cruelty and prejudice towards them when he pours extra OST soup down the toilet. The Nazis stoke differences and division by allowing higher “classes” of enslaved laborers, like Juli, to have better food and threatening to shoot them if they share it. Officer Schmidt lets the food burn with the officers’ Kantine in an act of superiority and contempt. Food reflects the power imbalance between oppressors and the victims.

Food is a weapon. The Nazi women lure Lida with candy. Officer Schmidt poisons the OST workers with their meager soup. The Soviets starve the Ukrainians before the war: Lida’s taste of smuggled brown sugar is the best thing she has eaten since before the Soviet rule. The Red Army soldiers use food to put Luka at ease. Even after the war, food insecurity created by the Nazis and Soviets has long-term effects on the refugees, who clutch scraps of liberated food like “treasures.” Luka eats as if he fears not having another meal. Food reflects the oppressors’ inhumanity.

As much as food is used as a vehicle for cruelty, it also represents the best of humanity. The food that prisoners risk their lives to smuggle into camp is sublime—Lida weeps when she receives a bit of bread made with rye flour rather than sawdust—and reflects the enslaved laborers’ solidarity and generosity. Lida comments, “These little bits kept the rest of us in Barracks 7 alive” (84). Lida’s ever-present hunger and her drive to stay healthy and useful for Larissa show how large a sacrifice it is to turn down Inge’s sandwich, “the most precious gift I had ever received” (108). Her rejection of this gift illuminates Lida’s altruism. The American soldier shares his “shokolad” with Lida, a gift of compassion that shows Lida he considers her a human and an individual: all the things the Nazis and Soviets tried to crush. Prisoners share stories about foods made by their families, and these memories connect them to their cultures and one another. When Lida and Luka can support themselves in their displaced persons camp, Lida reflects this sense of peace and security in terms of food, saying, “We never went hungry again” (225).

Lilacs symbolize Lida’s memories of her family and home, when the entire family was intact: “a time of happiness” (32). Lida remembers the lilac tree behind their house and how she lifted Larissa up onto her shoulders to pick a lilac flower. Lida tries to mentally generate the lilac’s scent to block out the camp’s ugliness and “odor of oppression” (177). Because of the happy memories of family and safety that they inspire, lilacs offer Lida comfort and solace. Nurse Astrid uses lilac-scented soap to wash Lida when she is first rescued, and Lida is soothed by her loving care.

Lilacs also represent beauty, reminding Lida of her mother’s belief that one can find beauty anywhere. The lilac tree is intrinsic to Lida’s hopes and dreams. She imagines returning home with Larissa, finding the lilac tree, and leaving lilacs on the graves of their parents, but Lida has no safe home to return to. Lida seeks out a lilac shrub at the displaced persons camp because “its scent wraps [her] in memory” (227). The lilac sprig that Larissa sends in her letter confirms that Larissa remembers and loves Lida and that she shares those same happy family memories. 

Several of the novel’s chapter titles contain references to needlework, like “Cross-Stitch” and “Seams,” emphasizing the importance of sewing. Sewing represents beauty, usefulness, and transformation, which in turn reflect the novel’s theme of humanity within the inhumanity of war.

Lida inherits her mother’s needlecraft skills. Lida’s ability to create beauty becomes the skill that sets her apart from others—and saves her life. The stitching around her badge, “beauty to surround the ugly OST” (46), catches Officer Schmidt’s attention and keeps Lida from being sent to the hospital with the youngest children.

Lida uses her useful skill to bring things together, both fabric and people. She fixes, constructs, and remakes: all acts of creation and transformation. Lida’s selflessness and her skill help the girls in Barracks 7 mend their clothes and create a sense of unity. Helping the girls gives Lida a sense of agency. Sewing the pretty stitches on her badge provides an emotional boost, reminding Lida of her mother. Lida’s sewing is a positive force, an act of humanity and creation amidst acts of destruction. After the war, Lida uses her skills to create new garments out of the oppressors’ uniforms, showing the strength of Lida and the refugees to overcome tragedy and transform evil into good.

In a calculated act of cruelty, Officer Schmidt corrupts Lida’s skill by assigning her “deft fingers” to make implements of death, rather than construct life-affirming beauty. Lida thinks her assignment is “my punishment for being good with my hands” (140). The bomb-making so troubles her morally that Lida feels removed from her work, saying, “It was almost as if those hands didn’t belong to me” (142). When Lida begins to sabotage the bombs, she once again uses her hands for good.