Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. But in just a blink of a 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 Sematic Rules have been put in place that persercute 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, and concentration camps or were killed on site.

Yanek has lost all of his family including his dad and mom and he was gonna try and hide out in the pigeon coop in the krakow ghetto but he thought that if the nazis found him when he was supposed to be cleaning instead of hiding he would be killed. So when Yanek came back to Plaszow he had just figured out that his uncle Moshe had gotten shot by Amon Goeth because he didn't like the answer Moshe had given him about how much work had been done. Also, this sucks for Yanek because uncle Moshe did not tell Yanek where the money was hidden so he could get food from the inside deal uncle Moshe had.

While Yanek was being transported he had no clue where he was going and he was kind of scared and once he got there he thought that they were at some type of monument but when he got inside he didn't realize that everything was made of salt even the walls and when they got done into the deeper parts of the mine Yanek had realized how big the mine really was and Yanek stop thinking because he heard the guards talking and saying even If you tried to escape and we didn't find you, you couldn't get out because the tunnel is 178 miles and if you were found you would be shot to death so Yanek didn't even think about escaping.

In Trezbinia Yanek had a great fury moving piles of rocks back and forth because he thought the guards were just telling them to move things around just for the Nazis own personal entertainment and this made Yanek so enraged he just thought about gathering all the prisoners up and trying to attacks the guards but no one even listen to him and when they were done moving the rocks they just went to the barracks and slept the whole time.

On Yanek's trip to Birkenau, he was quite literally going insane because of being smashed in the wall for days and even a dead man lying on his side but, Yanek was saved when a nazi kid there snow at the train vent and said they will turn you into soap and Yanek was eating it and if he didn't he would have died. Finally, when Yanek realized that he had a dead man on him on the train and couldn't stop moving around he started getting yelled at by the other prisoners to stop moving around so they could sleep.

Yanek's Literal Journey

In Yanek's time here when he got sent to the gas chambers he just wanted it all to be over so when he got in there people said to stand underneath the shower heads because you will die faster. Also when he was in the gas chambers he was begging for death and standing underneath the shower heads but suddenly he realized it wasn't gas coming out it was water and Yanek had realized that he was gonna survive it all.

In this camp, Yanek learns that you will have to tell Doctor Mengele that you are 18 and healthy as can be because this camp Auschwitz is an extermination camp and if you don't you will get sent to the crematorium. Like on page 149 it states "Your'e eighteen and yore in good health". So this basically shows that Yanek is saying you have to tell them you're eighteen and in good health so they don't send you to the gas chambers, the son didn't listen, and, neither did the mother they both got sent to the gas chambers. Finally, the father was asked about his job and he said clerk which barely got him passed to the other side not to the gas chambers.

In this camp, Yanek hates it because he doesn't want to get chosen for boxing But he also loves this camp because everyone in the camp starts to hear Allie bombing getting closer and closer so Yanek starts to think that the camp is soon going to get liberated. Also, Yanek doesn't really like this camp because of the fact that they only do this for entertainment. Finall,y Yanek didn't like this camp because he thought after the death march to Sachenhausen he thought for sure he would become a Mousleman.

In this camp, the officers/SS officers, couldn't believe the conditions that these prisoners were in how skinny and how terrible these prisoners were treated so they got sentenced to 1 week of no work and good food like thick soup with bread. Also during this week of rest Yanek thought this was the best soup he had, had in years of not eating he said it was thick with big chunks of bread and everything like that, but after the first day he couldn't eat it anymore because couldn't eat that much after not eating for that long. Finally Yanek thought this would be the best camp until he was walking to go work and a kapo just turned around and punched him in the Face and the whole camp called him moonface because of all the acne he had and he was wanted for murder before the war had even started.

In Yanek's journey here Yanek had thought that it was gonna be great because there was a zoo and other things but that was the exact opposite while the bears were eating huge steaks the Jewish prisoners were getting fed barely any bread. Also, in this camp, the guards were so terrible they tied a deer's antler to a fence and that enlighten a flame in Yanek's body and he didn't even know why. Also, another job that Jewish people had to do in the camp was sing and drag rocks out of the stone quarry. Finally, even the Nazi citizens could see in the concentration camp and Yanek thought why don't you guys care e thought for sure that they didn't.

In chapter 26 you will find out about how bad this concentration camp really is, and when Yanek lost one of the buttons on his shirt and he got 20 lashes on his back and if Yanek couldn't count to 20 in german then they would start the lashes over and over until he could. And finally this camp was so bad Yanek had a dream about falling through the earth and dieing but then he woke up and thought no he was gonna stay alive and this just shows his will to survive. Finally sence this shows he wants to live he is definetly going to try and survive the rest of this nightmare.

After leaving Gross-Rosen and coming into the new camp named Dachau in the barracks a lot of people were getting the sickness typhus and this guy right next to Yanek got typhus but luckily it didn't get on Yanek. The others who got this sickness and couldn't work were either killed by the disease or killed by guards. After a hard day of work Yanek had been woken up by the sound of American bombings but yanek realized he just had to go back to sleep and wait for roll call in the morning. In the morning there was no roll call and the other jews and Yanek were confused because they didn't see any Kapos and they thought the nazis were playing a trick on them but no they seen American soldiers coming towards them. Finally on page (245) the text states " Everything is going to be alright now Yanek". So this shows that the Americans have sympathy for the jewish people and Yanek hadn't trusted anyone in the last 6 years and finally he did.

After the camp was liberated the rest of the remaining jews were brought into a city called Munich controlled by the Americans here, each jew had a toothbrush a bed to themselves pillows blankets sheets, and much more. Also when Yanek asks the American soldier who he had to share the bed with he says no one it's his and his only and Yanek almost gets brought into tears even though on page (251) The text states "The dead will always stay with me even when regular life is brought back". After this Yanek is walking around on the street and sees Mrs.Imerglick who used to live by him in Krakow just down the hall Yanek goes to talk to her she tells Yanek he has one of his cousins left named youszcek and that they think Yanek should immigrate to America and Yanek goes in the program that the Americans were offering and Yanek gets accepted 4 years later and immigrants to America.