The Reader

Describe what happened the night the church was bombed, as explained in Chapter 8,

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The prisoners were happy to be able to stay somewhere warm inside the church. They all slept, but soon the bombs began to fall. At first, the fire could only be heard in the church, not seen, but when the steeple fell, the flames engulfed the rafters and set fire to the pews and pulpit, eventually causing the entire roof to collapse. When the roof collapsed, the walls acted like a chimney, so that rather than suffocating, many of the prisoners actually burned to death. The mother and daughter survived only because they had fled into the narrow gallery, which was practically untouched by the burning beams, and they were able to stay through the night without being burned.