Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. but in just the 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 jules have been put in place that persecute the 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 away for resettlement or deportation yet. One by one many Jews were relocated to other Jewish ghettos, concentration camps, and work 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 continual 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 normal. he attended school, played with his friends, and went to the synagogue with his family. he loves his mom and dad and looks up to them but as the war continues Yanek begins to drought his father's constant hopefulness and positivity and wonders who is right, his father or uncle Moshe. "I still worried he was wrong, but 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.

When Yanek stayed at a friend's house, the one time he left the pigeon coop, his parents were "relocated" while they were standing in line for rations. When he got back, his parents were gone, and his entire extended family had been taken except for his cousin, Sala. When Yanek went to work to make uniforms for the Germans, he got taken from his job, into a truck, and taken to the PLAZOW CONSINTRATION CAMP. When he gets there, he finds his uncle Moshe and he calls his name but when that happens the guy in front of Yanek gets bashed in his head with the back of a gun because the guards thought that that guy was Yanek and he was killed for talking.

during a daily role call one day, Yanek was pulled from the line and put in a truck with many other people and he was driven away from Plazow and taken to a salt mine. there were 50 other men with him in the car but he recognized one of them, it was the guy who raided his house and he was a part of the Judenrat, he invaded his friend's apartments with the nazis and he stole stuff from everyone and killed them if they did not listen. when they got out of the truck, they were taken down a mile underground and dragged through caverns and crouched through narrow paths and then they arrived in a pitch, black room where they could not see anything but what was in front of the capo's headlight.

at the beginning of this chapter, Yanek has a lot of rage because he is moving rocks back and forth but can't fall over because he will get shot if he falls. then near the middle of the chapter, he is furious because no one is standing up for themselves and just getting beat but when one guy grabs the club and beats the guard with it, he gets shot and suddenly Yanek feels fear because he knows what can happen if he fights back and then the camp worker comes out of his office and picks six random people to be hung and accused them of trying to escape with him and Yanek now accepts the fact that he can't fight back because if he does, he will get himself killed, but also innocent people.

Yanek and the other Jews at Trzebinia were taken into a cattle car by gunpoint and then they were taken away from Trzebinia, away from Plazow, and away from Krakow to a place called Birkenau. Birkenau is more of a death camp than a work camp some people said, when they got there, they sat in the car for half a day, and then they were whipped inside to a room with vents that were probably the gas chambers, so he and all the other Jews started freaking out that they were going to die, but then, cold water began to fall from the shower heads and they where released of the thought of death.

Yaneks figurative journey

Yanek got off the train and was taken to a chamber and he thought that he was going into a gas chamber and now he was begging for death and was saying" Do it, I dare you" to the nazis to gas them but when the water came out out of the shower heads he had felt like he had been reborn and that he had survived and how he was going to continue surviving as long as he could by cleaning himself every day at the water pump and by following the rules and not trying to stick out too much.

he was transported by cattle car to this camp but it stopped at some point because they were dropping bombs and he could feel the heat from the bombs because they were so close and they stopped. They thought they would get bombed because they were so close, but they started moving again, and when they got to the camp they were put to work immediately. later at this camp he got told by one of the capos that he was missing a button and he got 20 lashes but he had to count them but he had to do it in german.