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Ruta's Closet
By Keith Morgan
Ruta’s Closet tells the compelling Holocaust story of a Jewish family, imprisoned in the tiny Shavl ghetto in Lithuania.
The Kron family survived the horror of the Nazi regime, thanks to the resourcefulness of Meyer and Gita Kron and the bravery of their rescuers. While Ruta’s Closet is based on fact, it reads like fiction. The drama of the events described and the richness of the characters make it a compelling work of narrative nonfiction—as intriguing as it is inspirational.
The Krons are the focus but horrific events in the ghetto are also revealed, including mass murders, a Nazi ban on births, the removal of all children to the Auschwitz gas chambers. All dreadful events; but accounts of brave rescues and daring acts offer hope for humanity.
Ruta's Closet is also the focus of a Holocaust awareness podcast series, available from all popular platforms. High School teachers can also download a teacher's guide and classroom activities recommendations, authored by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. Adult readers can download Book Club Talking Points, also authored by VHEC. Both guides, along with additional informative audio and text material, are hosted at the book's interactive website, rutascloset.com.
The Talking Points suggested here are designed for readers of all levels, either reading the book or listening to the audiobook version of Ruta’s Closet.
The questions draw on themes present throughout the narrative. Book club members are challenged to think deeply about the extremely complex nature of the biography, the Holocaust, themselves in our contemporary world and the prospects for another Holocaust.
Author Keith Morgan writes: “Ruta’s Closet contains a lesson from yesterday, to be learned today and remembered tomorrow”.
These discussion questions were provided by the publisher, DartFrog Books.
Book club questions for Ruta's Closet by Keith Morgan
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
In the first chapter, Meyer Kron, father of co-author Ruth Kron Sigal, talks about early warning signs of what could befall Lithuanian Jews at the hands of their Anti-Semitic neighbours and the Nazi regime, bent on committing genocide against the members of his ancient faith.
Why do you think the Krons and fellow chose not to leave Lithuania earlier?
Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel said: “The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.”
What does it mean to be ‘indifferent’ in the face of horrific events and what are the dangers of being indifferent?
Consider why soldiers joined the Nazi organizations such as the SS and why Germans voted for or supported Hitler.
Were they all virulently Anti-Semitic or what else could have motivated them?
Think about the social and ethical issues connected to hiding a Jewish child and the problems that could arise from doing so.
Why might some people have chosen to hide a child while others refused? - Would you have opened your home?
Throughout the book the history of Anti-Semitism is explored.
Why do you think so many people believed in it and how does Anti-Semitism exist today?
Ruta's Closet Book Club Questions PDF
Click here for a printable PDF of the Ruta's Closet discussion questions
*An online booklet, Ruta’s Closet - Book Club Talking Points, created by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (vhec.org), from which the suggestions here are drawn, can be downloaded free of charge from rutascloset.com. The website also tells how clubs can set up a Zoom Book Club call with author Keith Morgan. Additionally, you can listen to topics discussed by co-author Ruth Kron Sigal’s children on the Ruta’s Closet Podcast, now available on all podcast platforms.