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. Yanke's early life as a 10-year-old boy before the war was very normal. He attended school, played with friends, and went to the synagogue with his family. He loves his Mom and his Dad and looks up to them but as the war continues Yanek begins to see his father's constant hopefulness and positivity and wonders who is really 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.

Through Yanek's journey from his home life to his life after the camps he had a lot of traumatic events and scary situations. Yanek lost his parents and the rest of his family so he was left alone and had to be independent. The things he had to witness were violent like people dying from being hit so hard and other things.

Yanek had a lot of sadness and trauma from the war and everything he had been going through. When Yanek got to his camp, he felt a lot of stress, feeling trapped. One of the Judenrat police overused his power and made all the darkness that he had in Krakow come back. Another Jew killed the Judenrat and then rubbed raw salt on his wounds.

In chapter 16 Yanek had a very eventful experience getting taken by a cattle cart to another camp. In the beginning, he got into the cattle cart and realized that it was going to be a brutal ride with everyone squished together causing people not to be able to breathe and pass away. Yanek had no room to move, his arms were squished to his sides. Luckily Yanek was sat next to an air vent which helped him ventilate air around him.

figurative journey

Once Yanek arrived at the gas chamber he was directed to go to the shower heads. When Yanek was standing under the shower head something came over him and he felt the need to start yelling that he wanted to be killed. On page 129 yanek states, "Go on!', I yelled at the showerhead. 'Go on, do it!' I dare you!' I laughed again. What are you waiting for? I cried. Kill me! I give up! You win!". This shows that Yanek was begging for the shower head to turn on with gas and kill him because he was sick of the torture he was going through.

In the time Yanek was in this camp he thought it wasn't going to be so bad and he would make it through successfully with no issues. When he first got there he had a week to rest and let himself start to feel good again. Yanek was happy because he got good food. But then a person named moonface started to target him and he was miserable. Moon Face was a Perpetrator and guard at the time. His ti e there got worse and worse eventually he just needed to get out. So Yanek had to do a brutal race to get transported to another camp.

In chapter 25 Yanek arrives to Buchenwald. He was struggling right away because they had to go down and carry the rock quarry and do curl work. This camp had a zoo where the animals were treated better than the prisoners. The guards were getting beaten for mistreating the animals at this camp and yanek was upset because the animals were still getting treated better than prisoners. This showed how poorly the jews were treated just because of the guards Persecution.

In chapter 29 Yanek and the other prisoners get liberated and are no longer prisoners. Yanek feels relieved that his long journey is over. Yannick was talking to one of the allies and he felt so relieved because he told him his name and he had not told anyone his name in such a long time. The next morning when they walked out there was no guards and they seen all of the Americans the prisoners were filled with joy and so happy have went through so much we're finally done.

after Yannick was transferred to the Trzbinia camp he felt fury, fear, and acceptance. Yanek at first felt fury and anger because the nazis would make them carry huge rocks to one side and if he felt they weren't big enough they were hit and Forest to carry them back over. The Nazis was also try to aggravate them and make the prisoners fight so they could kill them. Hanuk was very upset and vindicted after all that anger he was ready to fight back. Eventually the Nazis started killing them for the other man's actions of fighting back so after that Yannick felt very fearful being innocent. Yannick eventually accepted the fact that there was nothing he could do so he just stayed hidden.

In chapters 19- 21 Yanek is taken to Auschwitz. While he was there he made a friend that he was excited about because he had no one to relate to or talk to since his family had left. Yanek didn't know if he wanted to be Fred's friend or not because of the things that his Uncle Mosche had told him. Eventually after them being friends for awhile Fred started to get sick and wasnt able to be as active as they wanted him to be. Eventually Fred was hung and killed which was very devastating for Yanek because he had already lost all of his family and Fred was the first person that Yanek really related to and felt like he got along with.

Yaneks literal journey to Sauchsenhausen was a long walk it took 10 days to get there in the cold. They were only given half a loaf of bread for the 10-day trip. They called this walk the death March because of the number of people who died during it. They would die from being frozen and frostbite or if they walked to slow they would get shot. Yanek seen a boy struggling to walk so ge decided to carry him but it didnt turn out as planned because yanek started losing energy and not feeling good. His bread was also taken while he was carrying the boy so he had no food to eat later that day.