Read the excerpt below from a tree grows in brooklyn and answer the question that follows. most children brought up in brooklyn before the first world war remember day there with a peculiar tenderness. it was the day children went around “ragamuffin” or “slamming gates,” wearing costumes topped off by a penny mask.
based on this excerpt, what is the author’s purpose in writing?
a. to inform
b. to persuade
c. to publish
d. to analyze

Critical thinking questions what factors led to the creation and implementation of operation reinhard? how did the residents of the ghettos respond to mass deportations and what occurred when the residents realized what happened to those deported? what did rudolf hoess’s testimony at the end of the war suggest about the final solution and planned deportation and resettlement? how did operation reinhard differ from earlier nazi actions and how was it similar? was resettlement seriously considered and why was it not used?

Read the excerpt from elie wiesel’s all rivers run to the sea. why were those trains allowed to roll unhindered into poland? why were the tracks leading to birkenau never bombed? i have put these questions to american presidents and generals and to high-ranking soviet officers. since moscow and washington knew what the killers were doing in the death camps, why was nothing done at least to slow down their “production”? that not a single allied military aircraft ever tried to destroy the rail lines converging on auschwitz remains an outrageous enigma to me. birkenau was “processing” ten thousand jews a day. stopping a single convoy for a single night—or even for just a few hours—would have prolonged so many lives. based on the paragraph, the author would most likely agree that it is best to avoid confrontation at all costs. people need to be proactive when they witness an injustice. countries should remain neutral to keep alliances strong. moscow and washington are to be blamed for the holocaust.

Wiesel interrupts the narration that begin with, "a few ss officers wandered through the room, " with a parenthetical insertion. explain the purpose of the insertion.