The Keeper of Hidden Books

Zofia dislikes keeping secrets from Janina but realizes that her new cause might motivate Janina to leave her house and take dangerous risks. The Bandit Book Club meets to discuss All Quiet on the Western Front. They discuss how the novel’s brutal descriptions of war help them to empathize with the Polish soldiers. Zofia struggles to identify with the protagonist because he is German, and Darek encourages her to look past his nationality. Janina asks Zofia to bring some Marta Krakowska novels from the library on their next grocery run so that they can share the books with the Jewish grocer. This is Zofia’s first time smuggling books from the library. After just a few days, the grocer asks for more books for herself and her friends. Soon, Zofia is sneaking books out of the library every day. Upon learning that Zofia is checking out books for Jewish patrons, Mrs. Mazur offers to check some out under her name to help Zofia avoid suspicion.

Zofia works with the Gray Ranks to remove swastikas from buildings, plant fake newspapers in newsstands, and carry out other acts of sabotage. One day, Zofia and Janina are walking home when soldiers show up to conduct a random roundup. Janina hides in an alley. Just as Zofia is about to join her, she sees a woman being seized by German soldiers and crying for someone to help her daughter. Zofia recognizes them as her neighbor Mrs. Borkowska’s daughter and granddaughter. The chapter ends just before Zofia decides whether to risk helping the girl.

Taking a great risk, Zofia darts into the crowd and grabs Mrs. Borkowska’s granddaughter so that she won’t be taken prisoner by the Nazis as her mother was. They hide with Janina in the alley until the roundup is complete and the street has gone quiet. Zofia leaves the alley first, and finds scraps of papers littering the street; as people were being picked up by the soldiers, they wrote goodbyes to their families on whatever bits of paper they had in their pockets. Heartbroken, Zofia collects the notes. After seeing the girl and Janina safely home, she delivers the notes to the families.

Some of the library’s reading rooms around the city have reopened, and some librarians are rehired to staff them. The elderly Miss Laska is also rehired, much to Zofia’s relief. While processing a new list of banned books to be removed from the library, Zofia and Mrs. Mazur hide their efforts from Miss Laska so that their unlawful actions won’t put the elderly woman in danger. Mrs. Mazur and Zofia realize that they need a more secure place to store the rescued books. They plan to move their hidden library to a warehouse beneath a reading room that was damaged during the bombings.

In October of 1940, the General Government forces all Jewish residents to move to the Jewish Quarter. Zofia rushes to Janina’s home to offer her support. Tearfully, she helps her friend pack her belongings. Zofia asks Matka to allow the Steinmans to move in with them, but Matka refuses. Zofia is aghast when she realizes that her mother believes some of the German propaganda about the Jews. Zofia visits Janina at her new home in the Jewish Quarter. She meets Janina’s neighbor, a precocious five-year-old boy called Mouse. Janina’s mother forbids Janina from leaving the Jewish Quarter until they know it is safe, so Janina cannot accompany Zofia to the library for their book club meeting. The other Bandit Book Club members agree to postpone the meeting so that Janina can join. On November 16, Zofia tries to enter the Jewish Quarter but finds the gates closed. A soldier tells her that “the ghetto is sealed” (157).

Zofia runs into Darek on the street after she has been told that the ghetto has been permanently closed. Darek holds her while she cries. They walk together to meet with the Bandit Book Club. The discussion of A Brave New World by Adolphus Huxley is a welcome distraction from their grief and worry, and they select The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz for their next read. The street where their new hidden warehouse is located, Swietokrzyska Street, is the same street where Maria died. Zofia is shaken to stand on the spot where she lost her friend; the street is now repaved as if nothing ever happened.

Darek visits the library. His interactions with Zofia have become more friendly and flirtatious as she has gotten to know him better. He tells her that he has found someone who can deliver a letter to Janina. Zofia worries that such a dangerous service will be prohibitively expensive, but Darek reassures her that there is no charge; it is a gesture of his friendship. Zofia decides to attend one of the secret schools that have been started by Poles who want to continue their education. She seeks out her former Girl Guides captain, Krystyna, who helps her to enroll. Two days before Christmas, Darek returns with a letter from Janina.

Chapter 15 recounts the first letter that Zofia receives from Janina, who is writing from within the sealed Jewish ghetto. Janina describes the crowded conditions; many people are unhoused and are living on the streets. She and her family are cold and hungry, and electricity and food are in even shorter supply than in the rest of Warsaw. Janina tells Zofia that she has started a small library program herself, carrying her personal book collection in a suitcase to lend to her neighbors. Mrs. Berman, the librarian whom Janina and Zofia knew before the war, now collects children’s books to start a reading room disguised as a daycare, and Janina is helping there, too. Janina asks Zofia to try to write again, but she also conveys her affection for her friend and her love for Antek, in case they aren’t able to communicate further.

After Christmas, Zofia and her mother receive a letter from Pawiak Prison, stating that her father is dead. In the new year, Zofia returns to work at the library. Darek gifts her with a drawing that he made, depicting her and Janina.

In January of 1941, the occupation has been in place for over a year. Zofia begins her studies in a covert class taught by Krystyna and attended by four other girls. They each have an embroidery hood and fabric; in case of a German raid, they will pretend to be a sewing class. Zofia visits a bookstore, hoping to find a textbook for class. The bookseller is cautious and scoffs at her limited selection of books, since she can only sell titles that are German-approved. However, when Zofia states that Krystyna sent her, the woman relaxes and finally reveals a hidden wall of banned books.

Darek brings Zofia another letter from Janina, along with a note from Dr. Weigl stating that vaccines for typhus are ready and that he will send some to her as soon as possible. Darek tells her that the pharmacy they have been using to move letters in and out of the ghetto is closing; he isn’t sure how many more letters she will be able to exchange with Janina.

Chapter 17 recounts the second letter that Janina sends to Zofia from inside the ghetto. The letter is dated February 10, 1941. Janina’s letter details the starvation conditions in the ghetto. Her family now has three other families living with them in their small apartment. She is dedicating most of her time to working in the children’s library, as she finds the plight of the children in the ghetto to be the most heartbreaking. Janina describes one of her neighbors, who borrowed H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine for longer than Janina expected her to. It turns out that the woman was copying the entire novel by hand as a gift for her husband, since new copies of the banned book are impossible to come by.

Zofia comforts a distraught Darek, who is upset that prisoners from Pawiak Prison are being executed in retribution for the killing of a famous actor and Nazi collaborator. Darek confesses to Zofia that he is one of the resistance fighters who killed the actor; now, he feels guilty for the execution of the Polish prisoners. Zofia admires Darek for fighting to free Poland, even when the fight comes at a price.

During a clandestine school meeting in Krystyna’s apartment, German soldiers arrive. The students, including Zofia, take out their embroidery hoops and conceal the map they were studying. Everyone is tense while the soldiers look around. One soldier notices Zofia’s terrible sewing, and she is worried that her lack of effort on her embroidery will betray their secret. However, she is lucky; the Germans simply make fun of her and leave.

True to his word, Dr. Weigel sends three doses of the typhus vaccine to Zofia at the library. Zofia sends the vaccines with Darek, hoping that he will find a way to sneak them into the ghetto for Janina’s family even though the pharmacy they had been using to communicate with Janina has closed.

The Bandit Book Club picks The Doll by Boleslaw Prus for their next read. Four days after Zofia sends the vaccines with Darek, he informs her that the vaccines have been delivered to Janina’s family. He delivers a very short letter from Janina, thanking Zofia for the vaccines and telling her that Janina’s family has been forced to leave their apartment. Janina’s words have a ring of finality to them; Zofia shares her fear that this might be the last time they ever communicate.