The Unreveal: We never learn Gemma's real name, or who she was before the war.The fairy tale came from her pseudonym KSIĘŻNICZKA or 'Princess' to help her cope with the trauma.

The Reveal: Gemma was a Holocaust survivor from Chelmo.Most of them were killed, including Gemma's husband. As a gay individual, he was targeted by the Nazis, so he decided to fight back and help rescue the survivors. La Résistance: Josef was part of one, with a group of men.He was part of the resistance in the woods that went undercover to rescue Heroic Bystander: Josef Potocki reveals that he helped revive Gemma with CPR when she was barely alive and lying in a mass grave.

Genocide Survivor: Gemma was a Holocaust survivor, but due to her trauma could only talk about her experiences through Fairy Tale Motifs.

Becca thinks about this as an adult and realizes that there has to be more to the story for her grandmother to change it that much. She points out that most versions of the tale have a spindle and a great sleep.

Genre Savvy: Becca's friend gets freaked out when Gemma says that a mist wipes out most of the kingdom.

In her version, she identifies herself with Briar Rose. Gemma tells her own version of Sleeping Beauty that differs from the traditional version in several key points.

Fractured Fairy Tale: Played for drama.

all take on extremely dark metaphorical meanings here.

Fairy Tale Motifs: The imprisoned princess, the forest of thorns, the enchanted mist, true love's kiss.

It was only by sheer luck that Gemma lived long enough for Josef to give her CPR. Then the Nazis would dump the bodies into shallow mass graves. The Jewish population were put into trucks and driven around, with the exhaust funneled into the holding areas.

Cruel and Unusual Death: How the Nazis treated their victims in Chelmo.

Clean Pretty Reliable: There is a reason why Gemma calls it 'the kiss of life' Josef managed to rouse her from being suffocated, with minimal complications.

Gemma is a complete fictional construction.

Artistic License – History: Jane Yolen sadly confirms in the afterword that no woman in real life ever escaped Chelmo.She soon encounters a man named Josef, who can explain where the fairy tale started and ended, meeting with real life. Over time, Becca starts wondering if there is a reason that her grandmother stuck to that story, and starts to investigate the lady's past. It talks about the Holocaust, about a specific camp called Chelmo and the horrors of the only woman who survived it.īecca's grandmother Gemma died Becca loved her tale of ' Sleeping Beauty', of the princess surviving a great mist.

Briar rose holocaust