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In Alan Gratz book Prisoner, the main character, Yanek and his family currently live in their home city, Krakow. As him and his family members gather around the dinner table and watch the news all they can talk about is what Hitler is doing to the people of their culture. ""The British and the French have already declared war on him", my father said... "Enough politics," my mother said."" As Yanek's mother attempts to change the topic, breaking news interrupts all channels to tell everyone in Krakow that, "...The German army has reached Krakow!" This heartbreaking news not only put all Jewish people's lives in danger, but this was just the beginning of what was to come.

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During September 1939 Hitler made up an convincing and manipulating excuse to send fire to Poland. "German soldiers, dressed as Poles, had attacked a radio station in the border town of Gleiwitz and spread false information. It gave Hitler an excuse to attack Poland." (Anne Frank House) Hitler wanted to invade and send fire at Poland but, didn't want it to be out of the blue, so he made it seem like Poles attacked Germany to deceive the truth that it was made up. This means that Germany was able to come up with an exploit to attack Poland when Poland did nothing wrong.

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In just the span of two years, Krakow went from being a happy and free place, to a place where, "The Germans ruled Krakow." (17) Jewish people were all being moved out of their homes and put into apartment buildings so that the Nazis could keep track of them all. It had gotten so bad that, "There were 14 of us in a flat that had been cozy for three." (16) Yanek goes on to share what this feels like by adding that, "It was far too crowded at home." (16) From the start Jewish people were being treated awfully, forcefully being confined and left with little to no space; this being the start of the insanity many of the Jewish people would begin to grow.

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SS Colonel Julian Scherner was in control at the time in Krakow. By this time Krakow had become a full on ghetto for the deported Jews. By March of 1941, "The SS and police had expelled more than 55,000 Jews..." (The Krakow Ghetto During The Holocaust) The Jews were then moved into the Krakow Ghetto, where they had been, "enclosed by barbed wire fences..." This being said, although Jewish people hadn't been put into concentration camps yet, they were being placed in closed areas, under close watch by the Nazis. Also, by 1941, "The Germans established several factories inside the Krakow ghetto..." In just the span of 3 years, there had been multiple factories in the making specifically made to hold Jews.

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As time went by, the British were yet to come and save the Jewish, only allowing things to get worse. The Nazis would plan to deport seven thousand people and they, "choose who will go and who will remain." (40) In other words, as if matters such as people who haven't, "eaten meat in a year." (40) weren't already bad enough; families would now be getting torn apart and separated for only God knows how long. As this manner slowly began taking place, Yanek started to lose family members, for they were taken to concentration camps. Eventually, Yanek became one of these people, clueless of where he was being taken to.

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Plaszow camp was established in 1942 intended in being, "a forced labor camp for Jews." (Holocaust Memorial Museum) The original place being made for two Jewish cemeteries. By 1944 Plaszow had reached its largest capacity ever, being over 20,000 Jews. However, here at Plaszow, "Thousands were killed there, mostly by shooting." Interestingly enough, by 1944 the Soviet army approached and, "the Germans prepared to dismantle the Plaszow camp. " This was a very sneaky and secretive thing of the Nazis to do, and it is assumed that they did it to avoid bombs being dropped there because, "Germans attempted to remove all traces of the crimes that had been committed in the camp. They ordered that mass Graves at Plaszow be opened the the bodies exhumed and burned." In the process of being the camp being dismantled, Jews were being transferred to, "Auschwitz - Birkenau killing center and murdered there."

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There is little to no information on the specific Salt Mine Yanek was placed in at that time. However, The Germans invading Wieliczka barely happened two years before Yanek came. By the summer of 1942, "there were about 8000 Jews in Wieliczka." (Muzeum i Miejsce Pamięci w Bełżcu) In addition, by August, the Nazis had demanded even more Jews from near by villages to be sent here. After gathering 6000 Jews at "Bogocki fields. About 5000 of them were transported to the death camp in Belzec, 500 - to the forced labor camp in Stalowa. The rest were taken to Niepoimice Forest and shot."(Muzeum i Miejsce Pamięci w Bełżcu) This being said, it is evident that the Nazis were treating the Jewish people; living beings, like animals as if they were a herd and bringing them all together so they can be shipped away to the slaughterhouse.

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By 1943 Yanek had been moved to another concentration camp, however, this one being a salt mine. This chapter gives us readers perspective on how many Jews there really had been confined in these places having over, "Three hundred kilometers of tunnels." (99) and "nine levels." (99) This could mean that the Jews on the lowest floor, farthest away from daylight were stuck there for months and maybe even years. Lastly, the picture refers to the statues Yanek saw in the mine. "statues!. Dozens of figures all carved out of salt." (100)

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Here at Trzebinia camp, Yanek begin to notice how the Nazis goal was to weaken, torture, then kill the Jews out of pure hatred. An incident of such being when Yanek and his group had to move rocks from one pile to another, they then were yelled at by a guard, "I said move this pile back to where it was!.. You will move it to where it was, then you will move it again!" (107) This confused Yanek because they, "had just worked all morning to move this pile across the camp." (107) People such as Yanek were being not only forced into labor, but to do useless tasks!

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1939 being the beginning of Hitlers work; this affected many places including Trzebinia. It was known that, "In the early days of the occupation, the Germans broke into the Jewish stores and apartments, robbing them of their possessions. " (The Jewish Community of Trzebinia) It was also said that in just the span of a year, "their movement was restricted and their properties were plundered... The Jews were forced to move to a number of streets, which eventually became the ghetto." (The Jewish Community of Trzebinia) Furthermore, by the spring of 1942 the deportation of the Jews began, and by June 7th of that same year every Jew had been deported. However, 2 years later in mid 1944 a labor camp had been set up to, "develop the existing ammunition factories." (The Jewish Community of Trzebinia)

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On the way to this concentration Yanek had been informed that, "You don't go to Birkenau to work, you go there to die." (121) This put Yanek into a state of great disappointment for the rest of the train ride, after having, "survived the work gangs in the ghetto. Baked bread under cover of the night. Hidden in a pigeon coop, Had a midnight bar mitzvah in the basement of an abandoned building..." (126) and plenty more to survive, "The Nazis were going to take all of that away with their furnace!" (126) Yanek and the people of that train ride had to all go through not only the wave of emotions a person expresses before their known death; but they also had to experience undressing and walking into the gas chambers, awaiting their death. All of these anxious moments just for freezing cold water to come down on him and the rest of the prisoners. Yanek had survived after all.

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Sam itzokwitz, was one of the millions of Jewish people to be deported to Auschwitz. In one of his recorded interviews with the Holocaust Memorial Museum he goes on to explain what the Gas chamber was like. He tells of the chamber being, "A hallway.. with two chutes, two chimneys going all the way to the top, with perforated metal... Had holes about a quarter of an inch all around." He then talks about how he knows what the doors to get inside of the chambers were made out of, because he was forced to build them during his time in Auschwitz. "Three bolts three iron bars were laid over then screwed tight." Lastly, in order to check if everyone had died, "they had a little peephole with four or five layers of glass in between, and bars so no one could break it, and they would turn on the light to see if the people in their were dead or not."

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After Yanek and his group were moved to Auschwitz because they needed more workers to replace the dead ones they encountered Jewish people who are new to the camps. Entering this camp puts Yanek in the state of realization of how inhumane he had become on the outside. "The new prisoners kept their distance from us veteran prisoners... They looked at us with wide eyes and pulled their children from us.... We were skin and bones, with shaved heads... Our eyes were sunk into our heads and our ears stuck like donkey ears and we must have smelled wretched." (147) Mind you these are people after 4 years of pure abuse and suffering. Yanek also includes, "To these people just off the train, we all must have looked like escaped metal asylum patients with our shaved heads and our wooden shoes and over sized blue and gray striped uniforms. " (147) This put Yanek at the realization that although he was still a human, he no longer looked the part of it; it hadn't caught up to him until just now that he had changed both mentally and physically.

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This camp opened in 1940, and it was known to be, "the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps." (History.com) It was estimated that more than 1 million out of the 6 million Jews had died here at this camp. Jewish prisoners were used as slave labor, and many of them were exterminated in either gas chambers, or shot dead. Many of the prisoners who not killed immediately were, "employed as slave labor in the production of munitions, synthetic rubber, and other products considered essential to Germany's efforts in World War II." This being said, many of the Jews praying to be saved in WWII had to help Germany!?

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Yanek and the rest of the Jews in his role call, which according to him, "had to be five thousand of us..." (174) The Death march had been over a 9 day walk from Auschwitz to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Although Yanek could not watch TV or listen to the radio he was told by an SS officer that there were no trains to take the Jews to Sachsenhausen, which was a sign that they were being used for war. However, throughout this whole entire trip, each Jew had, "..half a loaf of bread, and told us it was to last us the whole trip." (167) Half a loaf of bread is what Yanek had for an entire trip, and there was no water either. This frustrated him and many other Jews because, "The Kapos and Nazis had fires to keep them warm." This being a very selfish and greedy, yet expected move of the Germans.

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Once making it to Sachsenhausen, Yanek and the rest of the Jews got to rinse themselves off and were rewarded with bread alongside this. After a few hours of sleep everything had gone back to normal, except as they were taking role call, "..one of the prisoners near the end of the line broke off and ran... In a stumbling, broken run, the prisoner threw himself on the high voltage electric barbed wire that lined the fence." (190) Out of hopelessness this man unwillingly ran as soon as he got the chance, not to escape, but to kill himself.

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This camp had been around for a while and so the Germans decided to use it for the event of the Holocaust. However, this camp began holding Jews 3 years before 1939, when the real action took place. In that time, "the camp held 1,600 prisoners." (Holocaust Memorial Museum) In just a year later, this number sky rocketed up to 11,100 prisoners. In addition to this number, "Almost 6,000 Jews arrived in Sachsenhausen in the days following the Kristallnachts riots." (Holocaust Memorial Museum) This meant that 17,100 Jewish people were kept here. This camp managed to keep this population range all throughout the war.

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At this camp Yanek realizes that he's been at his 7th concentration camp this year. As soon as they arrived here, the commandant said, "No work for a week, until they regain their strength." (197) This meant that the Jews would receive plenty of food, which felt like a dream to them. Once everyone got back to work a week later Yanek learns his lesson after, "looking at a Kapo the wrong way." (199) by getting a big punch straight to the face. The morning after that the Germans inform that only the strongest Jews will transfer camps, and survive; and by doing so you must qualify in a race, which Yanek does.

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This camp held over thousands of people leaving, "approximately 50,000 people" dying in the camps. There had been different operation to this camp, some of these being the "special camp" "star camp" the "Hungarian camp" the "naturals camp" and the "prisoners camp". This is his different groups of people had been separated based off their ethnicity, gender, and their religion. However, many of the concentration camps had their prisoners organized like this. Bergen Belsen was not as popular as other camps, therefore, little information was to be found.

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Right as Yanek arrived he could already tell by, "the looks on the faces of the prisoners... They were scared. Wide eyes... all the time, like at any moment death might come for you." (204) He then gets assigned to the stone quarry, specifically to carry rocks up a hill. Yanek states, "The Jews were chained to the carts like a team of draught horses and whipped like animals." (205) Just the next day Yanek discovers that the camp's commandment's wife built a zoo here, "so his guards and their families would have something to entertain them... The bears at the zoo were fed better than the prisoners." (205-206) This being said, this confirmed that in the Germans eyes, a zoo animal had more worth than a Jew. Yanek's time here gets cut short however when Gross Rosen needs more prisoners since they had run out of Jews because, "The Nazis had killed so many of us." (209)

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Yanek's experience on the train had been nothing more than what he'd already been through. "They packed us in again, so tightly we could do nothing but stand, and gave us no food or water for the trip People died all around me, just like before, but now I hardly took notice of it." (212) These abnormalities had become the new normal for people in Yaneks shoes, still alive. After believing that it couldn't get any worse, Yanek had been wrong, "I was going to be flogged for the "crime" of losing a button... Twenty lashes."(214) By this point Yanek's body had been through so much he couldn't even cry nor show any sign of pain. Just hours later you could hear bombs being exploded just outside the camp, this meant for sure that they'd be moving by tomorrow onto the next camp.

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This camp was established in 1940 and it was known to be a, "Sub camp of the Sachhenhausen concentration camp." (Holocaust Encyclopedia) This was because of the wars, and the bombs were getting too close to the camps. By 1945 it was counted that this complex, "Held 76,728 prisoners. Nearly 26,000 of these were women, most of them Jews. This was one of the largest groupings of female prisoners in the entire concentration camp system." (Holocaust Encyclopedia) This meant that if all the Jews that were being deported that were women, most of them were killed immediately because they most likely didn't appear strong enough to work.

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While on another death march, this time from Gross-Rosen to Dachau, Yanek experience kindness from other humans, although not direct, and it gives him a sense of hope. "The Czechs couldn't share much - there was a war on, after all, and food was hard to come by. But their kindness in the face of the Nazis soldiers and their guns warmed my heart. It was easy to think the worst of humanity when all I saw was brutality and selfishness, and these people showed me there was still good in the world, even if I rarely saw it."(225) The past six years of Yanek's life have been nothing sort of torturous, and all people have done is take and take from him. The significance of this event is that it's one of the first times something good has happened, and others have treated him with kindness. Yanek experiencing this act of goodness was a good change of pace for the normally sad and gloomy life he leads, not by choice.

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As large as this camp had been, it held way over its capacity. "1,500 prisoners were crammed into barracks built to house 250 prisoners. It was a wonder we didn't all have typhus within a week, the way we had to sleep on top of each other." (241) Due to this fever going around, the Nazis didn't have any Jews working here. These points of these camps had literally become to just round up all the Jews and to lock them away from freedom, and life. As difficult as it had been already to sleep all crammed together, all night long there had been bombs and gun fires. This led to all the Nazis, and Kapos and Germans to have abandoned the scene. For this meant that Yanek and the rest of the Jews were free.

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This camp had been established in March 1933, making Dachau the first regular concentration camp, made by the Nazi government. In between the years 1933, and 1945 Dachau's camp was known to have exceeded 200,000 prisoners. In addition, "Scholars believe that at least 40,00 prisoners died there. The first prisoners were put into this camp on March 22, 1933." (Holocaust Encyclopedia) This shows how far back the concentration camps really began. However, it was stated that, "The number of Jewish prisoners at Dachau rose with the increased persecution of Jews. On November 10-11, 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, almost 11,000 Jewish men were interned there." (Holocaust Encyclopedia) This being the lowest amount of Jews there ever since.

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Americans came and moved all the Jews away from Dachau. After 5 years of brutal abuse, and labor Yanek had gotten his own room, a toothbrush of his very own, and sheets and a pillow to sleep on. These past five years turned Yanek into a new man. Anything had meant everything to him now. After settling in his new room, Yanek had found a cousin of his and him and a few others spent their time asking, "How did you survive? How did you make it?" (254) After years of being afraid to even do such as open your mouth and move your tongue to speak, Yanek had did it and this time he got to say whatever he wanted, without a doubt in his mind.