The Light in Hidden Places

Stefania goes back in time six years to her childhood in Bircza. She’s 11 and lives on a farm with eight siblings. She goes to school and eats well, but she hates the country and wants to live in a big city. She goes with her mom—her dad died—to visit her two big sisters, Angia and Marysia, who work in Przemyśl. They eat and drink tea in the sisters’ apartment, and Stefania eagerly looks out the window and watches the big city excitement. Two years later, Stefania’s mom agrees to let her stay in Przemyśl, where she’ll sleep on a cot in her sister’s apartment and work for Mrs. Diamant in her shop.

Excited for her first day of work, Stefania skips to the shop. Mrs. Diamant calls Stefania ketzele (“little kitten” in Yiddish) and asks her to count the items on the shelves. She sings, and Izio, the second oldest son, makes fun of her and calls her by her nickname, Fusia. Izio has three brothers, Henek, Max, and Chaim, and a sister, Ernestyna. The Diamants are Jewish, so they don’t work on Saturdays. Stefania also finds out Mrs. Diamant makes a delicious babka.

Stefania is a solid worker. Mrs. Diamant sends her to the market square, where she sees two boys fighting. One boy calls the other boy “a dirty Jew” (15), and an unkempt man separates them and lectures the antisemitic boy about tolerance. Stefania hears a woman murmur the same antisemitic phrase and wonders if the Diamants could hate her because she’s Catholic.

Stefania goes back in time six years to her childhood in Bircza. She’s 11 and lives on a farm with eight siblings. She goes to school and eats well, but she hates the country and wants to live in a big city. She goes with her mom—her dad died—to visit her two big sisters, Angia and Marysia, who work in Przemyśl. They eat and drink tea in the sisters’ apartment, and Stefania eagerly looks out the window and watches the big city excitement. Two years later, Stefania’s mom agrees to let her stay in Przemyśl, where she’ll sleep on a cot in her sister’s apartment and work for Mrs. Diamant in her shop.

Excited for her first day of work, Stefania skips to the shop. Mrs. Diamant calls Stefania ketzele (“little kitten” in Yiddish) and asks her to count the items on the shelves. She sings, and Izio, the second oldest son, makes fun of her and calls her by her nickname, Fusia. Izio has three brothers, Henek, Max, and Chaim, and a sister, Ernestyna. The Diamants are Jewish, so they don’t work on Saturdays. Stefania also finds out Mrs. Diamant makes a delicious babka.

Stefania is a solid worker. Mrs. Diamant sends her to the market square, where she sees two boys fighting. One boy calls the other boy “a dirty Jew” (15), and an unkempt man separates them and lectures the antisemitic boy about tolerance. Stefania hears a woman murmur the same antisemitic phrase and wonders if the Diamants could hate her because she’s Catholic.

Stefania and Mrs. Diamant grow close. Much to Mrs. Diamant’s amusement, Stefania learns how to smile at boys in the shop so they’ll buy her chocolate. Once they leave, Stefania puts the coins in the register and the chocolate back out for sale. Stefania also hears Mr. Diamant arguing about war with older neighborhood boys.

Angia moves to Kraków, and Marysia moves to the other side of the city. Stefania needs a new home, and Mrs. Diamant lets her live with them. They turn the end of the hallway into a room. Stefania puts her picture of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary on the wall, and Mrs. Diamant keeps blintzes under her bed as Mr. Diamant doesn’t eat for Yom Kippur.

Izio and Stefania talk about how they want to see the world and if Hitler will declare war on Poland. As fall approaches, Izio and Stefania grow closer and hold hands. Two weeks later, Nazi Germany and communist Russia invade Poland and Przemyśl.

Stefania is at her sister’s apartment in Przemyśl—waiting to have lunch with her—when the bombings start. A hotel on the corner explodes, and then her building shakes and catches fire. Remembering sliding down the banister at her farmhouse, Stefania wraps herself in a wool blanket and slides down the apartment banister to escape the flames.

Outside, there’s chaos. The building across the street looks cut in the middle. After Stefania helps a man out of the rubble, she runs to the Diamants and their cellar. Izio notices her burnt hand, and Mrs. Diamant hugs her. It’s like Mrs. Diamant is Stefania’s babcia or grandma.

The brothers go to Lwów for their safety, and Stefania and Mrs. and Mr. Diamants stay in the cellar for a week. The Russians occupy their side of Przemyśl while the Germans take over the other side of Przemyśl and force the Jews on their side to the Russian side. Two German Jewish women, Regina and Rosa, come and stay with the Diamants.

The brothers return from Lwów, and Stefania asks Max what he saw, and Max says he saw blood. Stefania hears rumors about German soldiers running older men and young boys all over town and shooting them when they could run no more. Stefania doesn’t want to believe the violent reports. Mrs. Diamant asks about her daughter, Ernestyna, who she believes is somewhere safe in Vienna. Max thinks otherwise and subtly shakes his head at Stefania.

In the spring, Stefania turns 16, and Mrs. Diamant sends her to the shop owners’ monthly meeting. The other owners congratulate her on running a shop at such a young age. A young man, Zbyszek, whose parents own a butcher shop, calls her an angel. He visits Stefania, along with the other people at the meeting, but he brings his parents. His mom hired an investigator, so she knows a lot about Stefania, but Stefania doesn’t like Zbyszek and tells him and his parents to go to the devil in Yiddish.

Izio informs Stefania that if the Germans come to their side of Przemyśl, they will have to run again. Stefania doesn’t understand, and Izio tells her that Nazis are doing ghastly things to Jews. Stefania still doesn’t want to believe the reports, but Izio insists they’re true. Izio also informs Stefania that he wants to marry her, and he asks her to wait for him when he has to go away. Stefania agrees, and they kiss. A month later, Germany bombs Przemyśl.

The bombs force the Diamants back into the cellar, where they hide with others, including crying babies. Stefania hears gunshots, and Henek sneaks up to see dead German soldiers displayed in shop windows. The next time he goes up, dead Russian soldiers are in the windows.

Chaim screams the Germans are on their way. Mrs. Diamant orders everyone upstairs. She has Stefania divide up the money in the cashbox five ways. She then tells the boys to wear boots and two layers of clothes to go to the shop and get all the bread they can hold. The brothers run away again, and Mrs. Diamant and Stefania comfort each other.

Now Stefania believes the reports. She thinks they, too, need to escape. Mrs. Diamant sews jewelry in her girdle and money into her bra. They join others and walk slowly through the harrowing city and eventually to a farmhouse with a well. An antisemitic woman with a Russian gun threatens them, and Stefania tells the woman off.

In the village of Nizankowice, there’s a Catholic woman, Mrs. Nowak, who let Max stay with her when he worked as an assistant for the dentist, Dr. Schillinger. She lets Stefania and Mr. and Mrs. Diamant stay with them. While the Diamants rest, Stefania goes out and sees dead bodies and hears virulent antisemitism. Later, Mrs. Nowak asks Stefania and the Diamants to leave.

The three return to Przemyśl. There’s a crack in their shop window, a yellow Star of David, and “Jew” in paint. Inside, there are no items. They go to the bank, but the manager, who’s known Mrs. Diamant since they were babies, claims they don’t have an account there, but Stefania can take the money out. Stefania also has to do the shopping as Jews can’t go to the market between 8:00am and 6:00pm (the only time when there’s food). Mrs. Diamant and the other Jews must wear white armbands with the Jewish star. Banned from the sidewalks, they have to walk in the gutters.

Rosa and Regina still live in the apartment, and they’re difficult. Mrs. Diamant tells Stefania not to be mean to them: She doesn’t know what they endured in Germany. The two women call the Gestapo over a dispute about drying linen in the attic. Later, Gestapo officers violently take Mrs. Diamant’s boots.

The four brothers return. The border is closed, so they can’t escape the Nazis. Chaim tells terrible stories about what they saw, but they also laugh. Max impersonates Hitler reading a Jewish text while wearing women’s boots.

The Diamants, Regina, and Rosa must move into the Jewish ghetto behind a train station. Before leaving, the family hears a machine gun and screams. Max pulls the curtain and tells his mom not to look outside.

The Gestapo arrives. Mrs. Diamant orders the brothers to put their boxes, the kitchen table, and the four chairs in Stefania’s room. The Gestapo won’t take them: They’ll only take what belongs to the Jews, like the Diamants’ couch. Stefania looks outside and sees a truck full of items belonging to the Jewish families in the building. She also sees blood in the gutters.

Izio reminds Stefania to wait for him, and then the Diamants go to the ghetto. Stefania looks out the window again and sees a line of Jews going to the train station. She also hears former customers saying antisemitic things to the Diamants.

The next day, Stefania goes up to the ghetto fence. A German policeman with a machine gun scares her off. She tries to find work but needs papers in German not Polish. She returns to the apartment, and Emilika, a Catholic woman in her early twenties who works in a photography shop, knocks on her door. She’s uncomfortable being by herself in the empty building. Stefania understands. The two have tea and talk about boys. Every night, Emilika sleeps in her apartment.

More than a week later, Stefania looks out the window and sees Max marching to work outside. She runs to him, and Max tells her there are eight families in their apartment and that Mrs. Diamant wants her to sell things for food. A German guard yells at her, and Stefania moves away. She gets eggs, chicken, and butter and sneaks into the ghetto. Babies cry and kids scream, and it smells like a bathroom.

Mrs. Diamant calls Stefania stupid for sneaking into the ghetto. She was supposed to give the food to Max, but she didn’t think Max could get all the food in safely. Mrs. Diamant pivots and kisses Stefania and calls her a little kitty. Stefania meets Henek’s girlfriend, Danuta, and Mrs. Diamant tells Stefania to get soap and, each day, to give Max some food.

As Stefania leaves the ghetto, she sees an SS man beat a girl to death with the end of his gun. Stefania thinks the Nazis are evil and doesn’t want to perpetuate their wickedness. Instead of giving Max a little food, she meets him by the ghetto fence at night and passes him food.

Days later, Izio comes to her apartment and tells her the Nazis will send a thousand younger men to work in an Lwów labor camp. Max’s name is on the list, but Izio doesn’t think Max can survive further labor. The coal yard is hard enough on him. Izio thinks Max and the rest of them will die. Stefania thinks that they’ll live. Later, Stefania sees Max marching to work. She blows the guard a kiss, so he’ll let her talk to him. Max says he’s not going to the labor camp: Izio is going for him.

Stefania reads posters that promise death to anyone who helps Jews, but she’s determined to go to the Janowska work camp in Lwów. She has to take the train but lacks the proper travel papers. Emilika saves the day and takes her picture at the photography shop and signs an affidavit confirming that Stefania is her cousin.

The trip to Janowska is long, and a guard tells her there are no visitors. He can’t provide the names of inmates. Stefania finds another guard. She says she wants to tell a friend in the camp that his wife, her sister, has a baby boy. The news should make him more obedient and hardworking. After Stefania kisses his cheek, the guard brings her to Izio. He looks terrible and smells awful. He tells Stefania the Nazis plan to kill him and everyone else.

Stefania forms a plan: She’ll hide clothes under a bush near the officers’ bathroom, escort him away from the camp in civilian clothes, and then hop on the train. Stefania dreams about what their life will be like together: a new apartment with two kids. Unfortunately, when Stefania takes the train back, there are long delays due to the German army. When she arrives, the camp is closed for the night.