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 know, 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 the 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 Jews were relocated to other Jewish ghettos, work camps, concentration camps or killed on site.

Yankek'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 the constant 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 very normal. He attended school, played with friends, and went to the synagogue with his family. He loves his mom and dad and look up to them but as the war continues 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.

Yanek got deported from his home into Plaszow/The Krakow Ghetto. He lost his parents and all of his family he is in a stage of shock and he feels worthless and he has no one he is very scared but he is determined to live. Yanek now has to do everything himself and he is drowning in his emotions he is very frustrated to. While walking in Yanek sees his uncle Moshe and uncle Moshe said "But we only have one purpose now: survive. survive at all costs, Yanek. We cannot let these monsters tear us apart from the pages in the world" (pg.70) Yanek gets very emotional after taking to his uncle and he needs to be perfect and he cant give up and he will do whatever in his power he can do to be able to survive.

Yanek woke up to do to road call and him and 50 other prisoners got loaded onto a truck and moved to the Wieliczka salt mine and when they arrived they saw a bell tower and they preceded to go in with others prisoners that are just ariving as well they then go in an elevator all the way down into a black cold mine and the kappos showed them around and told them what they have to do. Their job takes all day and they have to miss dinner and go to sleep for just a little bit. One day while at work a man is murdered by the prisoners for being a former Judenrat and that was all Yanek could think about.

After a short time of mining salt at Wieliczka Yanek got taken to Trazebinia concentration camp where it was way worse than the salt mine and yanek and the other prisoners were forced into labor for long periods of time like moving rocks from size to side just for them to move it back the next day. on page 108 it says "The Nazi were making us work just to work. This was all a game to them, like a hand of cards or a soccer match" Yanek got so angry that he kept think with anger if everyone just attacks all of the Nazis they would win and they would be free and then out of an anger another prisoner decides to attack the Nazis just like yanek did but then the Nazis captured the man and beat him and hung him.

Yanek and the other prisoners are marched out of the camp and into a cattle car. They went up onto the ramp and entered and all of the prisoners got packed in so tightly. Yanek and everyone was squished gasping for air Then One man had a panic attack and a guard shot him for outside immediately. Yanek got very lucky by being next to a ventilation grate so he can get air. It was about a 3 day ride and lots of people were dying from starvation, lack of food, and being tired and were still standing because of how squished they were. Then on the was they see another cattle car and they start screaming to each other about where their going because the cattle cars said where and someone from the other car told them about how they were going to a camp were they will get killed at.

Figurative journey

when yanek arrives at birkenau a holocaust camp the worst place yanek has been yet he goes to the shower head on page 128 is says "go on, do it! I dare you!" I laughed again. "what are you waiting for?" I cried. "kill me! I give up! you win!" while waiting for the gas Yanek had a panic attack he was at his lowest he is over everything and he decides that he doesn't want to play their game anymore he is done because he had to go threw all of this Persecution because he was a Jew. Just as Yanek was about to give up water starts coming out of the shower another quote on page 130 says "But when water came out of those showers, not gas, it was like I was born again. I had survived, and I would keep surviving. I was alive" After the water came out Yanek was so happy he was celebrated we was no longer historical he was alive after all of that happened Yanek changed his perspective he had survived through all of this and he was so strong and he never gave up he was an worrier and he wasn't giving up anytime soon "I am alive" Yanek kept saying.

Yanek had been at Auschwitz for a short amount of time and then one day the kapos told them that sachsenhausen concentration camp needed more prisoners and that they would be transferred them and so they walked out and they started walking and it was in the winter and it was freezing and they marched for about for 9 days and they only got a half loaf of bread for the march and they didint know how long they would be marching for and their was snow on the ground and some people did not have shoes so their feet would freeze and they would have to stop and if you were to fall behind you would end up being shot on the way and left behind and they had not many brakes and when they took a brake to sleep they would pile on top of everyone to try to stay warm but lots of people would not even end up walking up.

Yanek arrived at Sachenhausen concentration camp being so weak and so tired and not eating and when he gets their all the nazi's were talking about was the Berlin Radio tower they saw from afar but Yanek didn't even care were he was at that point he was so tired and he didn't care if he died as soon as they got into the camp they were fed soup and a little peace of bread Yanek ate all of the soup but he saved the bread just in case something were to happen to it so when he went to bed he held it very closely. The next day he got woken up very early by the kappos and he went to take a shower and yanek brushed his teeth and got memories about how even the simplest things felt like a treasure to him. After that on the way to rode call he ate his piece of bread he had saved. Death was the ordinary for Yanek it was like falling trees in the woods When someone died it was ordinary and common and they only would get moved if they were in the way. one man got forced to squat until he died and the other threw himself into the fence and died the nazi's would go inside and warm up and eat big meals In front of them to torture them and punish them by making the prisoners box each other.

Yanek was tooken to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly after he got their the prisoners were separated into 2 groups by the looks of them they put the weaker prisoners in one group and the stronger in the other lucky yanek got into the stronger prisoner group unlike the others who got shot. The kappos were calling them skeletons and said that they are no good to be working so he told them that they would have a week off work and they would rest in their barracks and eat after that the prisoners went to eat and they can the thickest and most richest soup and the best bread they have had everyone devoured it but it wasn't that good because later that night they all got sick because they were not used to eating all of that food so the next day yanek traded his soup for bread. After their week was up they got sent back to work and while working this kappos that the prisoners called moon-face called yanek over and punched him right in the face and it seemed to Yanek that Moonface was targeting him every time he was him he would get beat so Yanek knew if he wanted to survive he would have to get out so all of the prisoners lined up to race and only the strongest got moved to a different camp so yanek ran as fact as he could and after that he ended up getting moved.

when yanek arrived he immediately noticed how all of the other prisoners and scared and wide eyed everywhere they go no matter what. Yanek got assigned to the stone quarry where he had to carry stones up a hill on his back and if you got tired you would be shot or if you picked up one to small they would call you lazy and shoot you. Picking the right size stone was a joke for the Nazis. Their was a zoo in the camp and yanek noticed all of the well fed family's in clean clothes when they came to see the zoo watching the prisoners like they were animals to. At roll call all of the prisoners had to watch the animals eat nice juicy steaks and yanek said that he would fight a bear for the steak as they got fed watered down soup and molded bread. One day the Nazis droped a piece of raw meat in the mud and let to prisoners fight over it as another little game they came up with. Yanek also mentions the commandments wife she was worse than everyone they called her a witch and she sent a man away for having a simple tattoo. another day the Nazis tied a deer antlers to the fence and watched and laughed as it couldn't get out and yanek wanted to go numb and run over and unite it to set it free but he knew he would be killed. At roll call a few days later they got told they will be moving because the Nazis killed so many Jews that they were running out of Jews.

Yanek has to take a train to gross Rosen and on the way their he rips of his star of David and gets it dirty so they don't think he is a Jew because they lost all of their documents. On the way their Yanek almost have up he said "I had been surrounded by death for so long, seen so many men die before my eyes, lived with so many dead bodies piled and stacked and strwen about like so much human firewood, that I almost couldn't care anymore" (pg.212) while on the train they could hear and feel bombs dropping everywhere and Yanek wished that he would get him by one but as soon as Yanek arrived to the camp and got of the train his instinct of survival kicked in again and he knew that he would not give up. When they got their the gave them their barrack assignments and put them to bed. As soon as they woke up the next morning they were put to work Yanek built more barracks. Still though yanek still thought about an amazing free future. A couple days later yanek got stopped by a kapo and poked his club into his chest and asked where is his button and yanek said that he must of lost it so the kappo said that the penalty is Twenty lashed. So yanek laid down on a log and started counting "one" in German said the kappo so they started over after many whips yanek messed up his works and kept having to count until he got it right so many whips later yanek couldn't even keep count but it was over. A couple nights later while the prisoners were sleeping all of them woke up to bombs and shaking and they fell all through the night but yanek went back to bed knowing the allies were getting closer and he was not going to give up.

Yanek was marched to Dachau. He entered through the gates that said Arbeit Macht Frei When he got there, the whole camp was chaos. Many of the prisoners we're getting typhus and he was hoping and praying that he wasn't going to get it because he heard the gunshots and he knew that the allies were near. One night he went to bed as usual but he woke up in the middle of the night and so did all the other prisoners, they heard bombs and gunshots this must be the Allies they thought. Yanek and many other prisoners decided that they wanted to leave the barracks and see what was going on. They were all surprised when there were no soldiers but, yanek still thought that this may be a trick. Then he saw other guards coming in but when he saw that the caps of the guards were green he knew that they were the Allies. They were going to be free. Some prisoners ran up to them, others hugged each other and cried but Yanek fell to his knees and cried on the floor. "Whats your name?" He told me. "Yanek." I told him. "My name is Yanek." "Everything is going to be all right now Yanek," he told me, and for the first time in 6 years I believed that he was right." (Pg 245) Yanek was liberated by an American soldier and he thought that he was the luckiest kid in the whole world.

After getting liberated by the Americans, yanek and other Jews were taken to Munich. yanek Was taken to a room with box and he was filled with gratitude and joy when he found out that he would have a bed to himself that has not only sheets and a blanket but also a pillow. He and the other prisoners were so happy because now they had simple things like washcloths toothbrushes and a cup to drink out of. They were then fed a big meal, a real meal with turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and something as simple as passing the salt made everyone cry. Yanek may have been the best version of himself but he was still remembering the loved ones that he had lost. Yanek loved walks because he was able to go wherever he wanted whenever the Nazis had taken that away from him. One day when he was on his walk he ran into an old neighbor Ms. Imerglick from the Krakow ghetto. He remembers that she wasn't the nicest woman but he was still so happy to see her, She apologized for how she had used to treat him and they had hugged with joy. Ms. Imerglick then mentions yanek's cousin. Yanek didn't know he still had a living family let alone his cousin and his cousin's wife! He got their address then went straight to their house. They were so happy to see him and they also had another family with them the Gamzers. They had said that they waited out the war in hiding and Yanek stayed for dinner as they shared stories of their experiences. They then told Yanek that he must sign up for the American program to migrate to America. Yanek then signed up then 3 years later he moved there.