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

Yaneks 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. Still, as the war continues Yanek begins to doubt his father's constant hopefulness and positivity and wonders which is the 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 is in the Krakow ghetto he is coming from work when he decides to go to a friend's house. he looks around for hiding spots in case the nazis try another deportation Yanek sees the nazi officers and hides quickly. Yanek sees a group of jews being deported and then thinks he sees his parents he immedidly is in a state of shock and panics he darts home and breaks down the door truly shocked he sees one cousin crying yanek now puts it together and starts to cry he feels worthless and upset. Yanek is now working when he gets snatched up by an officer yanek gets sent to a work camp and is extremely terrified and has a panic attack, he arrives at the camp and sees his uncle Moshe. he is delighted and screams his name. Uncle Moshe doesn't answer right now but when they get in private he talks to him and says he's the only one left of their family Yanek now feels extremely depressed and now has to work in the camp.

Yanek is at Plazow concentration camp,he wakes up and attends a role call when suddenly him and 50 other prisoners are loaded onto a truck and taken. Yanek sees a bell tower and then gets loaded out of the truck. Then he is told that he's gonna have to work hard duties in a mine. Yanek and the prisoners get into the elevator and go down into the mine. They get assigned to their mines. And are forced to go to sleep with no food. Yanek wakes up and begins his hard work. when suddenly a juderat is dead and is tortured it was all Yanek could think about when he was asleep.

Yanek was not at the salt camp for too long after a little while of mining salt yanek was transported to trzbinia, A concentration camp in Poland. Yanek and the other prisoners were forced to do hard long jobs. Like moving rocks back and forth which was a job that the nazis would assign to torture them. This made Yanek angry when he found out he wasn't moving the rocks for work he was moving them for the nazi's own joy. Yanek kept thinking about the situation he was in which made him angrier and angrier he wanted to speak out to the nazis. But then another man decided to attack the nazis as he had the same idea as Yanek. The nazis captured the man and killed a few other Jews not involved. This made Yanek accept his fate.

Yanek's figurative journey

Since Yanek has now arrived at the camp he is super curious about whats gonna happen. A man says that they are clearing the chambers for the next batch of Jews. Yanek is now super down he's accepting his death and is just in a pool of sadness as he doesn't care about anything at this point. Yanek and his group get pushed into the chambers and Yanek accepts the fate he's basically going crazy at this point and laughing and acting like a lunatic. When Yanek realizes it's just a shower he is insanely happy and doesn't even care about the freezing water he is just glad he's alive along with the other men. Yanek is forced to work and sleep in bunks and live in extremely uncomfortable conditions. Yanek changes his mindset from accepting his death to survival as he does many different things to survive like waiting for the last matches of soup to get the heavy parts of it. This helps Yanek survive and he also wants to feel like a human again, so he brushes his teeth with his fingers and washes every morning, showing his survival instinct. He's also kind around the camp. As he takes place in a bar mitzvah for a young boy and gives him advice to be kind.

Yanek has been at Auschwitz for a small amount of time. But one day his group kapo tells him and the other prisoners that Sachsenhausen concentration camp needed more workers so they would be transferred there . Yanek and his group walked out of Auschwitz which was surprising because Yanek was told the only way out was through the chimneys. Yanek and his group start their journey to Sachsenhausen. The death march is what this journey was called. Yanek describes the walk as miserable it was freezing cold and people's feet were turning into frozen bricks. He also says that people were being shot right there if they were too slow. Yanek says there was not much food and they had to survive the whole walk which they didn't know how long it would be. He said they had to survive off of one loaf of bread. He says they slept in piles of jews to stay warm and it was so cold a man's ear froze to the floor. People were eating snow to stay hydrated ad they were just trying to survive this brutal walk.

Yanek was barely alive when he arrived at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Some of the Jewish people begin to talk about the Berlin tower that they can see from afar. Instead of immediately being put to work the Nazis send the Jews to their barracks and feed them soup and bread . Even though Yanek was incredibly hungry but he saved his bread In case of needed it later. Yanek then falls asleep holding onto the precious bread. Death was ordinary for Yanek and he had always seen it so he was surprised that the camp was full of corpses. Yanek washed up with a water pump and remembered a toothbrush. He also ate the bread from last night's meal. Then they lined up for roll call standing in the freezing mud. When the prisoners began to freeze one man wiped the sleet from his cold face and the Nazis caught him they beat him and made him do the Sachsenhausen salute. This is where they would force prisoners to squat and if they moved a muscle the Nazis would kill them. One man even attempted suicide by throwing himself into an electric fence. The Nazis also used methods to torture the Jews they ate big meals in front of them and made them box each other for their entertainment.

Yanek is moved from Sachsenhausen to Bergen Belsen where he is fed thicker soup and fresh bread to gain rest. Yanek is enjoying Bergen Belsen as he thinks this is where he will survive until the war ends. But then Yanek runs into "Moon Face" a murderer who is now a kapo. Moon face beats on Yanek and personally bullies him by kicking and punching him every time he sees him. One time he punches Yanek so hard that Yanek believes his nose is broken. Yanek is sure now he needs to leave the camp. One day the Nazis are rounding up prisoners to transfer to a different camp. But to be transferred you must win a race. This race was for the Nazis pure entertainment. But it also proved who was the healthiest and strongest. Yanek was sure he needed to get out of Belsen and away from Moon face. He pushed his hardest on the running even bumping into a bed on the way. Yanek put his all into this race as the Nazis laughed. Yanek was seen as someone who could work so he was transferred he was pleased because he just wanted away from moon face wich is what he got at least for now.

Yanek arrives at buchenwald after spending little time at Bergen belsen. He is assigned to the stone quarry after the roll call. The Nazis made it a game for themselves by killing any Jews who didn't pick a big enough rock. At Buchenwald, they forced the prisoners into hard labor like carrying cattle carts on their backs while singing. On Yaneks second roll call at Buchenwald he sees the Buchenwald Zoo. The camp commandant whose name is Karl Koch created the zoo. The zoo was created for the guards and their families so they would have something to entertain them. The guards would treat the animals in the zoo way better than the people. Feeding them hefty steaks while the prisoners had watered-down soup. Yaneks mentions that one time the Nazis dropped a piece of steak between two men and made them fight over it for their pure enjoyment. Yanek also mentions the camp commandments wife, isle Koch, She was called the witch of the camp. as she sent a man away just for having a simple tattoo Yanek mentions staying away from her as best as he can.

Yanek is tightly packed onto a train on its way to Gross Rosen concentration camp. The war is close to coming to an end so on the train the prisoners can hear bombs. Yanek hopes the bomb falls onto the train to get out of this mess. Then Yanek arrives at Gross Rosen it's here where he's poked suddenly by a kapo. The kepo noticed that Yanek's prisoner outfit was missing a button. The kapo asked where said button was but Yanek told the truth which was he lost it. The kapo tells Yanek that the severe punishment for losing a button was twenty lashes, just for losing a small button. Yanek is then put against a wooden horse and lashed. He is also forced to count the lashes. But when Yanek counted them he didn't count them I'm German. The Nazi guard forced Yanek to count in German and restarted every time he didn't know a number or forgot. Yanek then goes to bed with a bleeding sore back in severe pain.

Yanek arrives at Dachau and realizes the man next to him in his bunk has "Camp fever which is really typhus a deadly disease that spreads quickly. None of the prisoners worked at Dachau because of the chaos of the war. The Nazis knew the war was coming to an end. The Nazis would move the prisoners around so that they could avoid the Allied attacks. There were bombs everywhere one night and all of the barracks were shaking. The prisoners expected the kapos to wake them up in the morning but nobody came and got them. Prisoners woke up and looked out the small windows as they saw no guards they were shocked. They didn't believe one another. Then they saw soldiers, all the prisoners thought this would be the end and they thought they were the Nazis. But then they see the Allies and the American flag on a tank. Yanek is overjoyed with happiness. As Yanek knew everything would be okay.

After being liberated by the American allies, Yanek is transferred to Munich. A city in Germany where the Jews are taken after being liberated. Yanek arrives in Munich and immediately gets escorted to a room with bunks. He asks the soldier how many people he has to share the bunks with. Yanek is told it is all his and very grateful for the bed and makes his bed with real sheets and he feels like heaven. Yanek then realizes he has a toothbrush soap and real objects to be a human again. Yanek is overjoyed with tears as he is incredibly grateful for these items. Yanek then gets to eat, He eats real food with salt and everything. Although he made it he feels sorrow for all the people he saw die, for his family and his friends. He than is walking on the street and sees his old mean neighbor, Mrs. Immerglick. Yanek ran up to her and hugged her as he realized someone he knew was alive. Mrs. Immerglick informs him that Yanek's cousin, Youstf is alive and is with him. Yanek is so pleased that he isn't alone and that someone he knows is alive. Yanek rushes over to their building and meets his cousin. His cousin and his family tell him to immigrate to America as it is a place of opportunity.