Hello Book Clubbers! We will be meeting over zoom at 10:30AM on August 22. Our Book is From Protest to Resistance, by Lilli Segal.

Here are some discussion questions:

1. How does Lilli’s personality as a child foreshadow her decisions as an adult?
2. Why is Lilli’s family so slow to realize the danger they are in? Why does her father kill himself?
3. What is Lilli’s motivation for working for the Resistance? Were you surprised that she kept her Resistance work going even after having a child?
4. How does Lilli keep her spirits up in Fresnel Prison? What character traits do she and other prisoners display that help them stay resilient?
5. Lilli is enraged at a guard who says that he only beats her because of orders. Why is that “the worst part of the whole business?” (157)
6. How are Lilli’s coping skills in Auschwitz similar and different from the ones in Fresnel? How do personal relationships affect morale and survival throughout the story?
7. The Germans pit different groups against one another in the camp to keep them from allying against their captors. Where has this tactic been used in other books we’ve read? How have you seen it play out during your own lifetime?
8. Some people meet Anni and Lilli with kindness, some with rejection, some with hostility. Why do they react in the ways they do? What do you think you would do?
9. Were you surprised that Lilli and Jascha ended up (at the end of the book) happily in East Germany? Why or why not?
10. What lessons, if any, did you learn from the book?
11. Why are memoirs like this important?

Here is an interview our book club member and book translator, Margo, gave to Insight on NPR!