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Yanek's Literal Journey

Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. But in just a blink of an eye, their city was invaded by the Germans beginning WWII. For now, Yanek and his family remain in Krakow. For a little while they stay in their flat with several other families. Anti-Semitic rules have been put in place that persecute Jewish people, taking away any rights they had. Over time, walls are built up around the ghetto to contain the remaining Jews who have not been taken for resettlement or deportation yet. One-by-one many Jews were relocated to other Jewish ghettos, work camps, concentration camps or were killed on site.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

With the stress of no food, and constant hiding, Yanek is living in fear of being caught by the Nazis. His emotional state is one of constant terror and panic at what awaits him at every turn. The unknown aspects of the war leave a feeling of being unsettled. Yanek's early life as a 10-year-old boy before the war was very normal. He attended school, played with his friends, and went to the synagogue with his family. He loves his mom and dad and look up to them but as the war continues Yanek begins to doubt his father's constant hopefulness and optimism and wonders who is really right- his father or Uncle Moshe. "I still worried he was wrong, but the fresh bread made me forget all my troubles. For a little while at least." (pg. 25) Doubting your parents for the first time is a struggle for Yanek especially in war-torn Poland.

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9-12 Yanek gets moved to a work camp and meets Amon Goeth

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

Yaneks parents get resettled and soon after so does the rest of his family all that's left is him until he gets taken away to a regular concentration camp. After being deported from home Yanek finds his uncle it's still alive and is at the camp he is. He tells him that he must not stand out and pretend he is a nobody. He then tells them their last purpose is to survive. This was obviously very hard for a Child around 12 years old to process. I cannot imagine how that would feel to have to do that and see what he is already seen.

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Chapter 13, Yanek was transferred to the salt mine. Even in the dark and scary times he could see the beautiful things in the situation while trying to survive. 

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

Yanek is transported to another camp called Wieliczka. This place is a salt mine. In the mine Yanek Finds a underground Cathedral made entirely out of salt the room he is in brings him happiness and joy. He is told that he has to mine the salt for his job. After a long day of work he returns to his bed with no pillow or blanket with around 100 other Jews. He returns to the Dark World that he is stuck in because of his religion. It would be incredibly hard to be punished just because of your religion and it would probably be extremely confusing for a child.

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

Yanek gets transported to Trezbinia, this is one of the hardest to withstand because they make you work just to work in the jobs that are pretty much useless. Jobs are also tiring. Yanek that no one is rebelling or doing anything to change the way they're being treated. Eventually somebody decides for a bell during rollcall but ends up getting beat by an officer. Many other people along with the guy that got beat gets because they think other people were involved.

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Birkenau, Ofiar Faszyzmu, Brzezinka, Poland

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Birkenau, Ofiar Faszyzmu, Brzezinka, Poland

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Birkenau, Ofiar Faszyzmu, Brzezinka, Poland

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

Yanek was at his lowest point when he thinks "I laughed out loud at that, the prisoners looked down at me like I was insane. Maybe I was. The Nazis had finally broken me. It was all a big joke." (Pg. 128) At this point in the book he is at his lowest and believes he is going to die just like his family. He is ready to accept his death and even laughs when he realizes the scary truth about the camp. It was a death camp, death all around him. You didn't know if it would be you or the person next to you but you just had to pray for survival. When water comes out instead of gas he gets a newfound will to survive, "I had made it this far hadn't I? I was alive" (Pg. 132) He sees everything around him in the death camp but even still he feels that he is lucky just to be alive. Not many people survived in that camp so the fact that he is alive is more than he can say for others. So even with shoes that are too small and no bed he feels grateful that he is at least still alive.

Yanek's Literal Journey

Yanek faces death in many different ways, for example on the train people were dying from Suffocation because of how many prisoners were packed on to each train. He also gets made fun of and mocked by the other people while he's getting off. He was being treated horribly again all because of his religion. He already lost a lot of people at this point in the book as well. he was being treated like that by the other people, like an animal in the zoo or a circus, all because you don't share the same beliefs. They didn't even treat him like a real person, like he was nothing but gum on the bottom of their shoe.

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Chapters 19-22 The translation of what is on the gate is "Work sets you free"  

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

In the novel Yanek is in the death camp Auschwitz. So far he was doing a good job at following the advice Uncle Moshe had given him, "You have no name, no personality, no family, no friends. Nothing to identify you, nothing to care about. Not if you want to survive." If you had anything that made you stand out you'd be killed, but not only that. If you had friends or family it was difficult to have to accept they would probably die. Yanek eventually met a boy named Fred. He was around Yanek's age and grew up in the same area. Even though Yanek knew he shouldn't, he made friends with him and made a personal connection to him. This was a good thing and a bad thing for the sake that when Yanek had someone who was going through the same hard time it probably helped him feel more human and less alone. However it was also a bad thing because eventually Fred got sick. When Fred got sick Yanek thought he just needed rest and he'd get better but he didn't he just got worse and worse until he couldn't stand. A kapo came and beat him then he was hung for not being able to work. This was extremely hard on Yanek because he lost his only friend and his only chance to escape loneliness.

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Yanek's Literal Journey

Yanek arrives at this camp after a long death March. He is cold hungry it doesn't care whether he lives or dies. Instead of putting the Jews immediately to work they sent them to their barracks with soup and bread they let them eat a day without work. Then the SS officers let the prisoners sleep. He said just being out of the cold felt like Paradise. When Yanek awoke good morning the whole Camp had been almost filled to the broom with corpses of prisoners. Before roll call, prisoners were to wash themselves. During roll call one of the prisoners decided to fight back to an SS officer. He was beaten and multiple people were killed after making him do the Sacshenhausen squat.

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Yanek's Literal Journey

In Bergen-Belsen it was different, the prisoners had a week off from working to gain back their strength. They were given good food, the best they've had in six years. Yanek thought he could survive here and he was happy to be there but that didn't last long. He was just working when a kapo that the prisoners named Moonface walked up to Yanek and punched him. Yanek learned that Moonface was a murder and tried to steer clear of him, but he kept getting assigned to work near him. Moonface started beating him everyday and Yanek knew he wanted to get away and go to a different camp. Once Yanek learned that the strongest prisoners were being sent to a new camp he immediately wanted to leave and get away from Moonface. There was a race to prove if you were able to go to the new camp and Yanek participated. He accomplished the race and now there was a new camp waiting for him. He didn't know where he was going but he was happy to have gotten away from Moonface.

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

this Camp was crueler than some of the others one of the tasks prisoners had to do was carry rocks up and down a hill if you rock was too big you would get shot if your rock was too small you would get shot and you rock was just the perfect size you would be able to carry it up and down again. Also there was a zoo at this camp the animals in the zoo were treated better than the Jews were. They were fed better. One day, Yanek saw an SS guard tie a deers antlers to the fence some other commandant had seen and that officer was never seen again.

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Chapter 28-29 is the last concentration camp Yanek was brought to

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

This Camp was the last camp at Yannick was brought to this Camp had many diseases and many people died of them this campus a bit because the Jews were limited. They killed too many of them one night as they were sleeping Jews were woken up by loud bombing sounds until Dawn. The Jews have left their barracks in the morning and seen that the Nazis fled. They saw soldiers and green suits and thought it was a trick but their campus liberated in the Jews finally went to a safe place. This all happened because of the Nazis and even citizens anti-Semitic viewpoint. I can't imagine what he went through. I remember walking with an old friend of mine then she asked my opinion on something. When I answered she said she didn't want to be friends anymore and I lost a friendship that was valuable to me because we didn't agree on something.

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Yaneks Figurative journey

Yanek is brought to Munich by the Americans after this camp is liberated. He is given a bed to himself and a toothbrush and some other gifts from the Americans. Yanek then goes to a dining hall and is served a feast from the Americans. Some prisoners are crying from joy some from sadness from remembering the ones that they lost. Yanek then goes outside and finds Mrs. Immerglick a neighbor of his from Krakow. Mrs. Immerglick tells Yanek that his cousin is alive. His cousin and his wife tell him to apply to go to America. He does and lives the rest of his life there. I think it affected him in a very positive way, obviously because he is saved but also he thought the rest of his family was dead and he probably felt so much less alone and relieved but also sad for who he had lost.