“Lida! Don’t leave me!”

Larissa’s cry when she and Lida are dramatically separated in the novel’s first few pages is the last time Lida hears from her sister for years. Fulfilling her family responsibility and reuniting with Larissa becomes Lida’s mission, giving her the strength and the will to survive.

“‘Be useful or they will kill you,’ the woman whispered to us urgently in Ukrainian, lifting one pail and pushing it in against our legs.”

At first, Lida does not understand the ragged woman’s warning until Luka explains. Then, Lida realizes she must show a skill and prove valuable to the Nazis to save her sister. The ideal of usefulness reflects the Nazis’ prejudiced ideology. Germans viewed the OST workers as inferiors to be utilized and discarded.

“I may have temporarily lost Larissa, but in Luka and the others here, I had found sisters and brothers of the heart.”

Early on, Lida recognizes the importance of connection and camaraderie amongst the enslaved laborers. Their mutual trust and friendship build relationships as deep and lasting as family relationships.