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Character Analysis in "Daniel's Story" by Carol Matas

Summary:

"Daniel's Story" by Carol Matas centers around Daniel, a Jewish boy who survives the Holocaust. The narrative follows Daniel from age six to eighteen, highlighting his journey through Nazi-occupied Europe. Key characters include Erika, Daniel's wise and talented younger sister, and Rosa, his love interest and a spirited activist in the Lodz Ghetto. Other significant figures are Daniel's parents, Ruth and Joseph, along with relatives like Uncle Peter and Auntie Leah, who shape his experiences during this harrowing period.

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What are the names and descriptions of characters in Daniel's Story?

The characters in the book are as follows:

  • Daniel: At the beginning of the book, he is a 14-year-old Jewish boy living in Frankfurt, Germany in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He is deported to the Lodz Ghetto during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and then liberated at the Buchenwald concentration camp when he is 18. At the beginning of the book, he is a comical kid who likes to make jokes.
  • Erika: Daniel's younger sister. She is in the orchestra in the Lodz Ghetto and plays the violin. She has wavy brown hair and brown eyes, and Daniel compares her to a mouse when she is little. She is calm and quiet and expresses herself through her music.
  • Mother, Ruth: Daniel's mother, who dies at Auschwitz. Her clever handling of food and frugality helps others, and she is described as calm, beautiful, and sweet. 
  • Father, Joseph: He is the head of Daniel's family and owns a hardware store. He is a religious man, and his spirit helps other survive. His brothers are Leo, Walter, and Aaron.
  • Rosa: She is Daniel's girlfriend and is very spirited. Nathan: Rosa's brother. Rosa starts a youth group in the Lodz Ghetto that Daniel and Erika join. 
  • Uncle Peter: A photographer who is fired from his teaching job because he is Jewish. He then teaches at a Jewish school. He is Daniel's uncle, and Daniel is very fond of him. Peter is killed at Dachau, and his ashes are sent to Daniel's family.
  • Auntie Leah: Peter's wife and Daniel's mother's oldest sister. Leah is bossy and has four children: Friedrich, Mia, Gertrude, and Brigitte. 
  • Adam: A resistance fighter in the Auschwitz camp who is killed when he tries to resist an SS officer. 
  • Friedrich: Daniel's cousin who is one year younger than Daniel and who lives near him in the ghetto. He becomes an orphan.
  • Opa Karl: Daniel's grandfather who dies two years before the action in the book.
  • Oma Miriam: Daniel's paternal grandmother who was married to Opa Karl and who lives in an old age home at the beginning of the book. She makes Daniel a Hitler Youth uniform when he is 12 so he has the freedom to go wherever he wants to. She is funny and smart, and Daniel adores her.
  • Opa Samuel and Oma Rachel: Daniel's mother's parents. 
  • Mr. Schneider: Daniel's teacher at the beginning of the book who doesn't like his joking around. Mr. Schneider also doesn't like Daniel because Daniel is Jewish. 
  • Uncle David: Daniel's uncle who marries a Christian and moves to the United States. He wants the rest of the family to join him in the U.S. 
  • Hans: Daniel's best friend when they are little. Hans isn't Jewish and attends another school. 
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Who are the characters in "Daniel's Story" by Carol Matas?

Daniel’s Story is told from Daniel’s point of view; he uses photographs to trigger memories of important events and people. The story is told in flashbacks when Daniel is eighteen, as he looks back on both his childhood and his more recent experiences as a Jewish young man caught up in the atrocities of the Holocaust. Daniel has survived to tell his tale, but many of his relatives have not.

Besides Daniel, the main characters in the book are Daniel’s parents, Ruth and Joseph, as well as his younger sister, Erika. The entire family is taken to the Lodz ghetto and eventually separated, with Daniel and his father going to the Buchenwald concentration camp and his mother and sister going to Auschwitz.

Another important supporting character is Rosa, a girl Daniel meets in the Lodz ghetto and who later becomes his love interest.

Other characters include Uncle Peter, Uncle David, Auntie Leah, Oma Miriam, Oma Rachel, Adam, and Friedrich.

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Who are the three main characters in Daniel's Story by Carol Matas?  

Daniel's Story by Carol Matas was written in 1993.  It is a fictionalization of one young man's life as he grows up under the Nazi occupation during World War II. Its stark realism has earned it the honor of an exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum located in Washington, D.C.

The first main character is Daniel, the narrator of the story.  He is 14-years-old at the start of the story.  Through flashbacks, we view him as young as six.  By the end of the story, he has progressed to 18 years of age. 

Though we meet all of his family members, Erika is the second main character. She is Daniel's younger sister.  One of her most memorable contributions is being the youngest violinist in the orchestra at Lodz.  It is her spirit which keeps the family "alive".

The final main character is Rosa.  She and Daniel meet in the Lodz Ghetto. The majority of her "appearances" throughout the story are strictly in Daniel's memories, until the end when they are reunited.

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