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The Stone of Madness
The Jewish boy that Peter Szubanski’s family took in during World War II symbolizes the unique suffering and moral uncertainty that war creates. During World War II in Poland, when the penalty for sheltering Jews was death, Peter’s family took in a young Jewish boy and his mother. While staying with the Szubanskis, the Jewish boy would cry in Yiddish, causing a disruption that put the Szubanski family in danger of capture and execution. Whenever Peter mentions the Jewish boy and the danger in which the boy’s crying could have put the family, his tone is disdainful, leading Magda to wonder whether Peter had, in his fear, developed anti-Semitic thinking. Thus, for Magda, the Jewish boy comes to represent how the war caused Peter to compromise his personal morals, instilling in him prejudices that would have repulsed him under normal circumstances.
The Jewish boy also symbolizes the danger of emotions during wartime. As Magda investigates her ancestors’ lives during the war, she learns that, under the pressure of their own and their neighbors’ fears, the Szubanskis eventually sent the Jewish boy and his mother away. Danuta and Jadwiga were both particularly fond of the Jewish boy, and they knew that he and his mother, who both had distinctive Jewish features, would likely be captured and killed after the Szubanski family turned them away. Yet their obligation to protect their own family forced them to set aside their emotions and betray people they cared about. In this way, the boy represents how the war forced families to make impossible choices, setting aside their emotions in order to survive.
The Jewish Boy Quotes in Reckoning
The Reckoning quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Jewish Boy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7: Life Lessons Quotes
I had never seen a photograph of a real dead body. A murdered body. Lying face down was something that looked like an old bundle of torn clothing. But there seemed to be a hand attached to it. And another hand, unconnected, a few inches away. What appeared to be a head was lying face down and had a hole the size of a fifty-cent piece in the back of it. But it was the body I couldn’t understand. It wasn’t there.
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This passage describes a moment from Magda’s childhood when she looks at one of Peter’s war books and sees gruesome and confusing pictures of the horrors of war for the first time in her life. Significantly, when Magda looks at this particular picture, she does not feel certain about what she is seeing. “What seemed to be a hand” is connected to “something that looked like” a bundle of clothing, and “what appeared to be a head” lies nearby. Magda’s uncertainty here emphasizes how shocking the image of the body is to her as a child. Magda tries to piece Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusam
Chapter: 11 Leon Uris Quotes
It was not just Germans who hated the Jews—it was Poles as well. Betraying them, selling them, profiteering and collaborating in their destruction.
[…]
It was as if someone had plunged a red-hot iron into my sympathetic nervous system. Pain shot through my whole body. I lay on my bed trembling. The Poles were not just the good people. We were also the bad people. We had not helped the Jews. Had my father hurt the Jews?
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This passage occurs after Magda learns how many Poles secured the own interests at the expense of the Jews during World War II. In the first part of this quote, Magda explains how her illusion about the war is shattered. She always knew that the Germans hated the Jews. However, in her mind, this meant that the Poles must have unequivocally supported the Jews. Thus, in her old illusion, good and bad were distributed in a black-and-white manner during the war: the Germans were bad, and the Poles were good. However, in her new understanding, the bad belongs to the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aper
Chapter 25: Shadow in the Amber Quotes
He was reproaching her—for what? Her weakness?—and he was recasting her response as self-indulgent. A useless thing that was no help to anyone.
As a man his job was not to feel. It was to act, to do something. Maybe Izabella’s father was right—feelings are what get people killed.
But dear God, if you cannot weep at Auschwitz?
I was thirty-one years old. I was a brave Pole. I felt the expectation to man up, and my emotions fell into step with my father’s. They floated off like vapor. I felt, at that moment, nothing except irritation with my mother’s weakness.
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This quote appears when Magda and her parents go to Warsaw and visit the sites of extermination camps from World War II. At Auschwitz, Margaret is too emotionally distraught to leave the car. In the first part of this quote, Magda describes the two ways that Peter responds to Margaret’s emotional reaction. First, Peter reproaches Margaret, although the questions between the dashes reveal that Magda is not sure what Peter reproaches Margaret for, and so she is only able to guess that it is for Margaret’s “weakness.” Second, Peter’s response is an act of “recasting”—the process of reforming a piece Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit a
Chapter 29: Home Movies Quotes
[Peter] squints into the distance as though he might find…what? Answers? Justice? Wisdom?
‘How would I react?’ he asks straight at the camera. ‘You see you don’t know your reaction until you are actually there, until you are confronted with the circumstances. There were people swearing what they wouldn’t do. And when it came to the crunch…they bloody well did it.’
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This quote appears during Magda’s filming of Peter telling his story of the war. In the first part of this quote, Magda describes a mannerism of Peter’s that she struggles to interpret. Peter “squints” into the distance, like a person trying to see something that this very far away. This straining to see leads Magda to guess that Peter is trying to find something. She then lists several possible things he could be looking for, two—answers and wisdom—having to do with the revealing of the truth, and a third—justice—the desire for the dispensing of just deserts for what occurred. In Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenet
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The Jewish Boy Symbol Timeline in Reckoning
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Jewish Boy appears in Reckoning. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: My Father’s People
...several were former friends and famous Polish people. Meanwhile, Peter’s family hid in their apartment a Jewish boy who would not keep quiet; Magda suspects this led to her father’s impatience with childish...
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Chapter 29: Home Movies
...Peter does not reminisce as much as other Poles, and he often expresses disdain for the Jewish boy his family sheltered. These behaviors lead Magda to wonder if Peter’s extreme guilt is because...
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Chapter 31: The Little Jewish Boy
...Jadwiga sheltered Jews in the family’s house. Once, they housed a friend’s wife and son, a Jewish boy who spoke only Yiddish. With an insensitive tone, Peter says that the boy threw tantrums...
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...eventually sent them away at the insistence of the neighbors. Afterward, the Szubanskis feared that the Jewish boy , when tortured or bribed, would give away the family who had sheltered him. Privately,...
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Chapter 38: The Sewer
...talks of how her family hid guns for the resistance; she remembers consoling the crying Jewish boy . While Peter doubted himself, Danuta is set in her ways: anyone who betrayed Poland’s...
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Chapter 40: Women’s Conspiracy
When Magda asks about the Jewish boy , Danuta says that his name Jurek and his mother’s name was Hella. Since Danuta...
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