"October 1944: In the long, narrow undressing rooms in Auschwitz-Birkenau, prisoner Jakub Bak toils under the scrutiny of SS guards. Like other members of the Sonderkommando, Jakub was selected on arrival for an unthinkable job: sorting through the clothes of the dead and moving their bodies from the gas chambers to the crematoriums...Every morning, Anna marches miles to the union munitions factory where she works alongside other prisoners...she and a few other women have been taking the ultimate risk, smuggling trace amounts of gunpowder back in their clothing. A bold plan is brewing to revolt against the SS and liberate the camp. Every morning, Anna marches miles to the Union Munitions Factory where she works alonside other prisoners. Even Jakub doesn't know that she and a few other women have been taking the ultimate risk. smuggling trace amounts of gunpowder back in their clothing. A bold plan is brewing to revolt against the SS and liberate the camp. Jakub, pressured to join the resistance, knows that any uprising faces impossible odds. Add to this already stark choice is another desperate reality - the risk from informers who see their only chance of survival in betraying their fellow Jews. Powerfully moving, BEYOND THE WIRE tells of the women and men who, though outnumbered and outgunned, fought to free themselves, sparking a brilliant flash of light and hope amidst the darkest evil that humans can conceive."--

adult

James D. Shipman.

Includes discussion questions.