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 of the Jews relocated to other Jewish ghettos, work camps, and 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. 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 in Krakow and Plaszow camp, he had a lot of traumatic events and scary situations. Yanek lost his Mother, Father, and other family members they were taken to camps and Yanek was left alone. He also had to witness some violent events such as a fellow worker getting hit so hard they died, sick people getting shot, and a dog attacking the person next to him. Lastly, Yanek had to experience getting Deported to the Plaszow camp leaving the Krakow ghetto.

Yanek had a lot of darkness and trauma with him from the war and the work camp, and then he found out he was being taken to another camp. Once Yanek got there he felt trapped again being underground made him scared. when he was there there was a Judenrat police who was bad and overused his power and it made all the sadness and darkness that he had in Krakow come back to him. The other jew killed the Judenrat and covered his wounds with salt and the incident adds to the trauma and sadness of Yanek's journey.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

After Yanek was transferred to the Trzebinia camp he felt fury, fear, and then 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 would be hit and then after all other brutal work, they would make them carry them right back over just to overwork them. The Nazis would also try and aggravate them and make the prisoners fight back so they could kill them. All of this torcher made

Yanek was very angry and vindicated. after all that anger he was ready to fight back until somebody else did once they did that the nazis killed him and started killing other prisoners for the other man's actions of fighting back so after that incident yanek felt very fearful. soon after Yanek just learned to accept that fact that there was nothing he could do to fight back and just went back to trying to stay hidden.

In chapter 16, Yanek is taken onto a cattle cart, where he has a brutal journey. At first, Yanek is bunched into the cart so tightly that he can barely breathe the guard's Euphemism that it won't be bad. His arms are squished down from the lack of room. Yanek is sat by a side vent, which he benefits from because he can use that to get fresh air. He had to sit in the cart for almost 3 days without food or water so when it started to snow Yanek used all his strength to try and lift his arm from the tight space between him and the person next to him to grab snow and eat it to rehydrate, at that point anything sounded good. through the long trip, Yanek realized that the man next to him was dead. that shows how long and exhausting the trip was. once they made it to the camp he saw a chimney with smoke coming out of it and he just realized what he had coming.

Figertive Journey

Once Yanek got to the camp he was brought into a gas chamber. He starts to go crazy and yell and scream on page 129 he says"Go on! I yelled at the shower head 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 had given up and was ready for it all to be over. he was so ready to die until water started to pour out of the shower head Yanek was relieved and shocked at the same time. Yanek and the other prisoners started to become overwhelmed with joy and they survived. He was so ready to be dead but now all he could think about was how grateful he was that he was alive. On page 130 he says"I had been so ready to die. But when water came out of those showers, not again was like I was born again. I had to keep serving, and I would keep surviving." this shows that Yanek was so grateful for his life and how fast his feelings changed.

In chapters 19-21, Yanek is taken to the Auschwitz. In his time there he had lots of experiences with one being making a friend. Yanek was unsure when deciding whether to be Fred's friend or not because of the things that his Uncle Moshe told him. But Yanek decided to take a risk because he missed having someone to talk to, so Yanek and Fred started doing everything together. They would eat together, sleep with each other, and even get assigned to work at the same place. eventually, Fred fell sick and one day couldn't even get out of bed because he wasn't able to work they hung him. This was awful for Yanek because he had already had so much loss and now he lost a friend. It was hard enough for them to survive as it is but now with the loss of his friend, it is all just harder to get by.

Yaneks's literal journey to Sachsenhausen was a long walk. It took 10 days to get there in the freezing winter. The Jews were only given half a loaf of bread for the 10-day trip. They call this walk the death march because of the number of people who died. Throughout the trip, people would freeze, and get frostbite, and if they walked too slowly an SS guard would shoot them. during the march, there was a boy who was struggling and about to die so Yanek helped him and it backfired because he had to carry extra weight. He also lost his bread while helping the kid and had no food for the rest of the trip. Eventually, they made it and it only got worse from there.

Throughout Yaneks time at this camp, he first feels it will be great and this is where he will make it through the war and survive. When he first arrived they gave the prisoners a week of rest and gave them good food. Yanek was super happy because he needed to regain his energy and get better. But then an awful guard called Moonface started to target him and he was miserable. Moon Face was a perpetrator and guard at the time. His time there got worse and worse eventually he just needed to get out. So Yanek had to do this brutal race to get transported to another camp. So Yanek felt happy, relieved, scared, miserable, and then lastly thankful that he got to transfer.

Once Yanek got to this new camp, he started to struggle immediately. They had to go down into the rock quarry and do curl work. They had a camp zoo for the guard's family, and even the animals were treated better than the prisoners. One of the guards was beaten for mistreating one of the animals, which made Yanek very angry because still the prisoners were getting abused and hurt by the guards, but the animals were treated better. this showed how poorly the Jews were treated just because of the guard's persecution. So that means guards think of them as less than animals.

In chapter 26 Yanek gets transferred to yet another camp. He gets deported aging by a cattle cart again. Once they arrived they had more dead than alive. After they got into the camp they were put straight to work. As Yanek was working one of the camp guards noticed he was missing a button and he didn't think anything of it but the guard told him that the penalty for that was twenty lashes with a whip. After being whipped more than twenty times he went to the back to the barrecks. that night it was hard for him to sleep because of all his pain but eventually, he fell asleep.

In chapter 29, Yanek and the other prisoners are liberated and no longer prisoners. This makes Yanek so relieved but also scared because he is free but doesn't know where to go; he has no family left and no home. Once he started talking to one of the Allies, he told him his name, and this made Yanek feel so joyful because he hadn't told anyone his name in such a long time. The morning of when they walked out to no guards and then saw all the Americans all the prisoners were filled with joy and so happy even though they missed all their family they were all just happy they made it out alive.

Once Yanek was out of the camps and finally free, thanks to the Allies, he was taken to Munich and then to a room where he had an assigned bunk. This was unbelievable to him because he had been sharing a shelf to sleep on for 6 years and now had his own bed with sheets and a pillow. Then, one afternoon, when he was walking around, he saw his old neighbor. He was so thrilled to see someone he knew survive. After some talking he found out some of his family was still alive. Yanek was so surprised and so happy so go see them. He found out there was a program for Jewish orphans to get their visas approved and go to America. after a few years, Yanek finally left for America.