Captured by the Nazis and separated from her younger sister, eight-year-old Lida must prove herself useful in a Nazi work camp to survive and find her sister in Making Bombs for Hitler (2012). Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s historical fiction novel offers middle grade readers a gripping perspective on the often-overlooked Ukrainian experience during World War II. Skrypuch based her novel on accounts from former enslaved laborers, resulting in a starkly realistic portrayal of life as a Nazi enslaved laborer. Skrypuch dedicates the novel to Anelia V., an enslaved laborer whose memories in particular added accuracy to Skrypuch’s story. The novel’s candid description of war, violence, and killings might disturb sensitive readers.

Lida endures appalling physical conditions and mental and emotional torment at the hands of her Nazi jailers, but friendships with other enslaved people and Lida’s hopes and dreams of family keep her resolve strong, even when she is forced to assemble bombs for the enemy. Making Bombs for Hitler explores themes of the sustaining power of relationships, courage, and the persistence of humanity amidst the barbarity of war. Making Bombs for Hitler won the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award in 2014 and the 2013 OLA Silver Birch Award for Fiction. In 2008, Skrypuch, a Ukrainian-Canadian author, received the prestigious Order of Princess Olha medal from the president of Ukraine for her writing. Pagination in this guide refers to the 2012 Scholastic edition.

Plot Summary

It is 1943. Lida and her little sister Larissa, the last living members of their family, are prisoners of the Nazis. Larissa begs Lida not to leave her, but Lida is thrown into a train car crammed with other children and bound for Germany. Conditions in the cattle car are horrific. Lida embraces her mother’s belief that beauty can be made anywhere: She sings a lullaby, and all the children join in. Lida meets a boy named Luka and a girl named Zenia, both from Kyiv. Lida is from Verenchanka in Ukraine, which is under Soviet rule. Luka was previously captured by the Nazis. His mother is enslaved by the Nazis, and his father is in a Siberian prison. Luka warns that Lida must pretend to be older and demonstrate a useful skill or she will be killed. Lida knows she must stay alive to find Larissa.

At the Nazi work camp, the children are shaved, sprayed with chemical cleaners, assigned to a barracks, photographed, and fingerprinted. Lida turns nine years old but claims she is 13. The enslaved laborers sew badges on their clothes identifying them as Ostarbeiter (OST), or “Workers from the East.” Lida learned to sew from her mother and takes time to make the stitches on her badge beautiful. Lida discovers that the Nazis identify her as Russian, not Ukrainian. Juli, a Hungarian dissident, explains that this classification makes Lida a nonperson. Lida receives noxious soup from a separate pot, while prisoners from other countries like Poland and Hungary get heartier food.

Officer Schmidt, a ranking Nazi officer, separates out the youngest children, including Lida. Lida desperately wants to be useful. She offers to be a seamstress and goes to work for Inge in the camp laundry. The youngest children go to the hospital. Juli works in the hospital and tearfully tells a horrified Lida that doctors kill the youngest children, using them as blood donors for Nazi soldiers. Lida works hard in the laundry and earns Inge’s praise. Other enslaved laborers, like Zenia and Luka, take a train into town and work in factories. Lida discovers that Zenia is Jewish and gives Zenia her beloved crucifix—the only physical memento Lida has of her family—to help her blend in. Lida dreams of happy times with her family and prays for Larissa’s safety.

Luka, injured while working, escapes from the work camp hospital. Lida, Zenia, and four other dexterous girls go to work in a bomb-making factory. Lida is upset that she is indirectly killing people. At the camp, Officer Schmidt poisons the Russian soup, murdering all the OST workers. Lida would have been killed if she where there. Lida vows revenge, and the girls, at great risk, sabotage the bombs.

An Allied bomb strikes the Nazi bomb factory, and the girls escape just in time. Lida thinks she glimpses Larissa in a Nazi car. The work camp was also bombed, and buildings are on fire. Juli tends to the wounded, then takes a gun and shoots Officer Schmidt. Both Juli and Officer Schmidt die. Zenia and two other girls escape, but Lida waits too long: She is apprehended by a Hitler Youth. Lida goes to a new prison where she and others assemble ammunition. Conditions there are even worse than in the work camp. Lida is near death when Americans liberate them.

Lida is overwhelmed by the compassion of the American soldier who rescues her. Lida recovers in an American army hospital, then goes to a refugee camp where she joyfully reunites with Luka. Hundreds of war refugees walk from camp to camp searching for lost loved ones. Lida settles into camp, attending school and confiding in her teacher, Pani Zemluk. The woman warns Lida not to return home: The Soviets are punishing Nazi prisoners as Nazis. Soviet soldiers tell Luka his father is alive and waiting for him, and Luka decides to return to Ukraine with them. Lida focuses on finding Larissa and does not accompany Luka. The Soviets beat and imprison Luka, who barely escapes.

Luka and Lida travel between refugee camps, finally settling in a displaced persons camp when the threat of Soviet forced repatriation is over. The camp is home for years until Lida receives a letter from Larissa in 1951. Larissa, now Nadia, lives in Canada with a loving adoptive family. She misses and loves Lida and wants her to immigrate: Nadia’s parents will sponsor Lida. Lida is overjoyed and tells Luka he is going with her.

Skrypuch expands on Luka’s story in the companion novel, The War Below (2018), and on Larissa’s story in Stolen Girl (2019).