110 pages • 3 hours read
Livia Bitton-JacksonI Have Lived a Thousand Years
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: City of My Dreams –Somorja, Summer 1943 - March 1944
When she is twelve, Bitton-Jackson dreams of becoming a celebrated poet and hopes to attend prep school in Budapest, the city of her dreams. In her “small farming town on the edge of the Carpathian foothills,” the Danube is the central feature. Days wind down early. Stars illuminate the town, and an “orchestra of insects begins its overture” (15). She longs for her mother to be more affectionate, like her friend Bonnie’s mother. Her mother, Laura, says too much affection makes people soft, and unprepared to face life’s hardships, but Bitton-Jackson fears her mother is not affectionate because Bitton-Jackson believes herself unattractive and clumsy. Her mother wanted dark-haired, dark-eyed children, but Bitton-Jackson has blond hair and blue-green eyes. She has ambition, which her father praises, but worries it will not be enough to achieve success as a poet.
In August,1943, Bubi leaves for Budapest to study at the Jewish Teachers’ Seminary. That winter, the Hungarian occupation brings food shortages and Hitler’s “shrill radio broadcasts”; Bitton-Jackson hears him say Germans will “play football with Jewish heads” (18). Her father tells her not to worry, but the vision becomes “a recurring nightmare” (18). Since the occupation began and his business was confiscated, Markus, Bitton-Jackson’s father, has become distant. His only pleasure comes from reading the Talmud.
On her thirteenth birthday, Bitton-Jackson looks forward to the future. She has passed her exams. Her “heartthrob” classmate Jancsi Novák smiles at her. That night, a sharp knock on her window wakes her. The family has grown accustomed to nighttime raids the Hungarian police stage to find contraband items—Russian tea, French soap, English wool—that justify accusing Jews of collaborating with the enemy. The person knockingis Bubi, back from Budapest. He reports he’s seen German tanks and the swastika flying in Budapest and immediately purchased a ticket home. The news reports nothing of an invasion. Markus says Bubi must be mistaken and insists he return to Budapest. The next day, a neighbor, Mr. Kardos, brings news of the invasion from his son, who also studies in Budapest. The following morning, the newspaper headlines refer to Hitler’s army as liberators. The Friedmanns hear of mass arrests and the deportation of Budapest’s Jewish population. That night, Bubi again returns home.
Chapter 2 Summary: ‘Hey, Jew Girl, Jew Girl ...’ – Somorja, March 25, 1944
Six days after the German invasion, Bitton-Jackson’s teacher announces that all schools are closing “to safeguard our best interests” (23). She does not mention the German invasion and leaves without explaining what will happen next. Bitton-Jackson looks around her classroom, taking in the familiar scene of whitewashed walls, threadbare maps, and the dark green Crucifix above the door that “spells security” (23). She reflects on the struggles and triumphs she experienced there and wonders if it will ever be her classroom again, or if she will again get to share secrets and laughs with her classmates.
She walks toward the school’s main entrance, hoping to see Jancsi Novák. She does not see him, but another boy blocks her way. He grins at her as he gives the Nazi salute, chanting “Heil Hitler, Sieg Hitler,” which other boys repeat (24). Bitton-Jackson runs down the stairs and hears the boys shout, “Down with the Jews!” (24). She runs into the street and hears her classmates singing an army marching song, “Hey, Jew Girl, Jew Girl” (25). She is mocked and taunted as she runs home. Her parents are still at synagogue for the Sabbath. Bitton-Jackson throws herself onto her bed and weeps for the classroom and school, along with weeping for her life, “which will never be the same again” (25).
Chapter 3 Summary: The Tale of the Yellow Bicycle – Somorja, March 27, 1944
Jewish residents receive an order to register at the town hall. Bitton-Jackson says it is easiest to comply and believe it must be “God’s will” (26). Jewish residents are counted, tagged, and ordered to surrender their valuables— “jewelry, radios, and vehicles” (26). Bitton-Jackson will have to give up her birthday present, a new yellow Schwinn bicycle. She has longed for this bicycle for years. At first, she does not believe she will be able to give it up. She wonders how she can be asked to do so withno explanation. She did not believe such things could happen. Her “panic and rage” leave her feeling “helpless, exposed [and]…violated” (27). By Monday morning, pain and humiliation replace anger. She follows her father and brother to a courtyard where “[j]ewelry, silverware, radios, and cameras are piled high on long tables” (27). Her mother waits in a line to add their valuables to the pile.
That night, her father takes her into the cellar to show her where he has buried the family’s most valuable jewelry. Everyone in the family must know, since they do not know who will survive. Bitton-Jackson does not want to look. In the kitchen, she cries out to her parents that she does not want to know or to be the only survivor. She begs to know why then retreats to her room and pulls a blanket over her head, “to muffle [her] convulsive screams” (28).
Chapter 4 Summary: The Tale of the Yellow Star – Somorja, March 28, 1944
Bitton-Jackson wakes to an announcement by the town crier. In the past, his performances have fascinated her, and she would gather with townspeople to listen. She no longer does, as recent announcements have brought only bad news. From her window, she hears him announce that all Jewish residents must wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing—sewn not pinned—and paint this star on their homes. Non-compliance will result in immediate arrest. Bitton-Jackson recalls learning in Hebrew school of a similar practice during the Middle Ages (30). Her brother “makes a brave joke of it,” pretending he has “been awarded a medal,” but Bitton-Jackson refuses to leave the house and be seen wearing the star (30). Bubi’s “valiant attempt to turn humiliation into triumph” laces her anger with “raw pain” (30). Her mother tells her the star marks them as Jews, not criminals, and asks if she is proud to be Jewish. Bitton-Jackson does not know if she is, but is sure she is hurt and outraged by being singled out.
The town crier announces that since schools will not reopen, students must appear at their respective schools to collect their reports and diplomas. Bitton-Jackson’s initial excitement fades when she imagines her classmates seeing her wearing the star. She fears seeing the boys who menaced her. After her brother calls her a coward, she runs to school. Her teacher distributes the diplomas, and Bitton-Jackson receives an honor scroll. Her teacher and classmates enthusiastically congratulate her. As she leaves, Jancsi Novák tells her he will be coming to the library and asks if he can see her there. As he shakes her hand, his glance falls on the star, and “his eyes hold unfathomable sadness” (34). Bitton-Jackson promises to meet him at the library, but her “glow is gone” (34). She feels “unbearably bruised” by his sadness (34).
Chapter 5 Summary: Farewell, Old Mr. Stern – Somorja, April 4 - April 18, 1944
Bitton-Jackson never sees Jancsi Novák again. Two days later, the town crier announces that Jews are forbidden from interacting with Christians and from entering any public places—theaters, restaurants, parks, the post office, city hall, the library—on penalty of immediate arrest. Christians are encouraged to inform on their Jewish neighbors. Bitton-Jackson cannot imagine passing her Christian friends and neighbors as if they were strangers, but it happens. Her “sense of isolation” overwhelms her (35). Eight days later, Jewish residents hear the announcement they dread most: that they will be deported to a ghetto. Bitton-Jackson recognizes “ghetto” as the place to which Jews were restricted in the Dark Ages.
On the day of departure, military police arrive with peasant carts. Her mother and brother oversee packing, the only two who are “practical and efficient” (36). Tension has rendered her father still as a statue, Bitton-Jackson with an intense stomachache, and her mother’s older sister, Serena, is left dazed. Laura, Bitton-Jackson’s mother, has received permission to visit her parents’ graves before departing. Bitton-Jackson accompanies her mother to the Jewish cemetery across town, passing men and women fearfully loading their belongings onto carts. At the synagogue, they see an acquaintance, Mr. Stern, praying at the western wall, tears flowing into his white beard. Lauratells him, “Farewell. God be with you,” then asks him for what they should pray (37). Weeping, he tells her they must pray for the long road ahead.
Back on Main Street, the gates to Jewish homes are open, but at Gentile homes, doors and windows are shut, shades drawn. Bitton-Jackson climbs into the cart’s rear-facing seat. She faces the past “as it slips into oblivion,” wondering if she will ever see her birthplace again (38).
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
The first five chapters describe how rapidly conditions deteriorate for Jewish residents, transforming them from integrated community members to deportees. Bitton-Jackson suggests Christians and Jews peacefully co-existed in her town prior to the war. She marks time by the church bells and says the crucifix in her classroom “spells security,” but treatment of Jewish residents declines with the Hungarian occupation of 1938 (23). Police have confiscated her father’s property and shut down his store. They stage raids as a pretext for detaining Markus and forcing him to sign confessions of his crimes.
The family’s position further deteriorates quickly and dramatically with the German invasion, which the press hails as liberation. Jewish residents are physically marked as “other”: They are forbidden from entering public spaces and communicating with Christians. They are forced to surrender their valuables and to wear the yellow star and paint it on their homes. Though Laura tells Bitton-Jackson the star only means she is Jewish, not a criminal, Bitton-Jackson recognizes that intention renders the distinction irrelevant. The star is meant to criminalize being Jewish. Her brother’s attempt to transform the star into a badge of honor saddens her.
Within a month of the German occupation, Somorja’s Jewish population is deported to a ghetto. They are permitted to bring one room of furniture and personal possessions but to leave everything else behind and to surrender their keys to police. Bitton-Jackson notes that displacement and persecution has been the plight of European Jews throughout the Dark and Middle Ages (the 5th through 15th centuries), as they were expelled at various points from France, England, and Spain.
