Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkweed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Relationships
War, Dehumanization, and Innocence
Ingenuity, Resilience, and Survival
Family
Summary
Analysis
Janina becomes obsessed with the idea of the trains. Early one summer morning, after a night of smuggling, she and Misha discover that the trains have pulled into the ghetto station. Before long, everyone is talking about them. Uncle Shepsel rants at people to become Lutherans like him and save themselves. Meanwhile, the orphans sing in the orphanage. Everyone waits.
Deportations to the Treblinka concentration camp began in the summer of 1942, with 265,000 Warsaw ghetto residents ultimately transported there. An awful suspense hangs over the ghetto, as people cling to whatever hope they can find.
Themes
Two nights later, the Jackboots begin herding people down the street with rifles and snarling dogs. Rumors about “resettlement” start to circulate—the idea that the Jews are being given their own villages in the East. One street at a time, day after day, the ghetto is emptied. One day, Mr. Milgrom urges Misha to stay close to Janina no matter what. Misha realizes that Mr. Milgrom knows Janina has continued smuggling, and that he’s allowing this.
Misinformation about the trains’ destination gives some people hope. However, Mr. Milgrom suspects that the children need to stick together in order to survive, even if it means that he might lose them.
Themes
Soon, even the orphan boys begin to disappear. Misha is never sure if they’ve run away, gotten caught and hung for smuggling, or killed by Buffo. One day, Doctor Korczak and his orphans are marched down the street. The orphans are well dressed, Doctor Korczak’s head is held high, and they are all singing.
In the chaos, many people simply disappear forever—yet the prospect of death doesn’t stop people like Doctor Korczak and his orphans from holding onto dignity and hope to the last. This proves Mr. Milgrom’s earlier point that happiness and humanity are cultivated within, regardless of one’s circumstances.
Themes
