Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. But in just the blink of an eye, their city is 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. Including, forcing Jews to wear the Star of David, a Jewish symbol on a wristband. Over time, walls are built up around the ghetto to contain the remaining Jews who have not been taken for resettlement or deportation yet. The place they live in is now known as the Krakow ghetto. One by one, many Jews were relocated to other Jewish ghettos, work camps, and concentration camps, or were killed on sight.

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 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 very 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, but as the war continues Yanek begins to doubt his father's constant hopefulness and positivity and wonders who is 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 his parents for the first time is a struggle for Yanek, especially in war-torn Poland.

The journey of Yanek's emotions starts when his parents get "resettled" and soon after, so does the rest of his family. All that's left is him until he gets taken away too. During a regular day at work, Yanek is snatched up by the Nazis, and taken to the concentration camp in Plaszow. After being deported from his home, Yanek finds that one of his family members, Uncle Moshe, is still alive. He tells him, "Listen closely. Here at Plaszow, you must do nothing to stand out. From now on, you have no name, no personality, no family, no friends. Do you understand?" He tells him not to make himself known. "But we only have one purpose now: survive."

Yanek is transported from Plaszow Concentration Camp to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. While in the mine, he finds this beautiful room made entirely out of salt. He says, "It was a temple, a chapel, no, an underground cathedral." This beautiful room brings him to light again, even in his dark world. He said there were statues, an altar, rails, and everything a Catholic would need to hold a service. He returns to his bed, with no pillow, no blanket, no mattress, and in the same room as around 100 other Jews. And he returns to the dark world that he is stuck in because of his religion.

Yanek travels from the salt mine to Trzebinia. This camp is one of the most difficult camps to withstand. They make you work, just to work, and the jobs they give you are pretty much useless. Not only are they useless, but they are also tiring, and cruel. He gets angry, and upset that no one is rebelling, or doing anything to change the way they are being treated. One day at role call, someone finally decides to fight back. He starts beating the German officer! He then gets shot down, by another Nazi. Not only does the man who fought back die, but many other innocent people die because they were accused of being evolved.

Yanek is moved from Trzebinia Concentration Camp, by a small cattle car. (above) He is held at gunpoint and herded into the car like an animal. The car is packed in tight with over a hundred Jews and prisoners. A few people smush him. Cries of people who say they can't breathe ring out through the car. The train starts to move, and Yanek can't breathe. He needs air. He finds a small grate, and moves past people to get to it. He finally reaches the grate, and breathes fresh air. The train keeps chugging, until after a while it stops. Some Polish children are outside. They start taunting the prisoners, saying how they are going to die. Yanek falls asleep. He awakens to someone on a train beside him asking where they're going. Yanek then finds they are going to a death camp. Death camps have crematoriums, or a sort of oven to burn Jews to death. He starts to panic. Everyone is panicking. After a while, it dies down. Most people are sleeping. Some people are leaning on Yanek. He tries to wake someone who is on him, but he feels that the man is not breathing. He is dead. A dead man is leaning on him! He tries to pull away, but he can't. He is stuck. He sees snow, on the grate he is by. He has to get free. He needs that snow. He pushes as hard as he can to that dirty disgusting snow, which tastes so good. Water! He is drinking water! He falls back asleep when the train finally stops. He has arrived. They keep them there for almost three hours. Until they finally welcome them to their camp.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

Yanek arrives at the gas chambers. He starts to panic. He has a breakdown, and begins to think about all he has been through. "I stayed frozen to where I sat, not knowing what to think. Why were they waiting now? Maybe someone was standing on the hose, I thought crazily, and I started to giggle....I laughed out loud at that, and a prisoner standing over me looked down at me like I was insane. Maybe I was." Yanek starts to go a sort of crazy, that he has never been like before. He begins to yell, and shout, "'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!'....Water rained down on me. Freezing water so cold it made me scream. Water! Not gas! I was going to live!" Yanek switches in a matter of seconds from his lowest to the highest that he has ever been during these sad, unprecedented times.

Yanek is sent to Auschwitz, a work camp where some new arrivals appear by train. Families are separated. After some time there, Yanek is being brought to a new camp, through a march known as the "Death March". It is a 9-10 day walk from Auschwitz, all the way to Sachsenhausen. The conditions are cold, and the only food they are given is a half loave of bread. The ones without shoes have a very rough journey, cold feet, and rocky ground. The ones with shoes, are not much better. The Nazis had brought the prisoners with them for a few reasons. It can include them not being caught, for their many committed felonies. It could be that they thought they could use them for work, to win the war. It could have been that they could use them as hostages to keep them safe. Jews were "housed" in little tents, in harsh weather, with no source of warmth but each other. The amount of people who died on the march are around 250,000 prisoners.

Yanek arrives at Sachsenhausen after a long brutal death march. He is cold, hungry, and doesn't care whether he lives or dies. Instead of putting the Jews immediately to work, they sent them to their barracks, with soup, and bread! They let them eat, a day without work. Afterward, they let them sleep, and sleep he did. Yanek thought, "Just being out of the cold felt like paradise." When Yanek had woken, in the morning, the whole camp had been filled with corpses of fellow prisoners. Some in piles, some tossed to the side—nonetheless, many corpses. Before roll call, they were to wash themselves. After the wash, he ate his leftover bread from the night before and went for roll call. During roll call, it had begun to sleet. The Nazis had left the prisoners outside for hours and just watched them. A man had wiped the sleet off his face, and the men had seen. They beat him and made him do the Sachsenhausen salute or a squat. He fell and was dragged away. Yanek never saw him again.

In this camp, Yanek arrived by train again. He said that many people had died because of starvation and suffocation on the journey. When they had arrived at the camp, the commandant took a look at the prisoners and began to scream at the guards. "What did you bring me? Look at these skeletons! How do you expect these walking dead to work?" The commandant then began to pick prisoners. Yanek's heart raced as he didn't know if he was on the alive or dead side of the chain. Yanek ended up being on the good side, and the picked prisoners were shot. This camp was different. Prisoners were sent to their barracks to regain their strength, and they were sent with bread and soup. After a week, they were sent to work, the usual work for camps. One day, a kapo called Yanek over to him at work. Without a word, the kapo punched Yanek in the face! Yanek was confused, he didn't know what he had done. "You looked at me the wrong way," the kapo had told him. Yanek later learned the kapo was named Moonface, and that he was a serial killer before the war. The Nazis had set him in charge when the war had started. Yanek applied for a transfer that day.

This camp was "crueler" than some of the others. One of the tasks that these prisoners have to do is carry rocks up a hill. If you had a rock that was too big, you would drop it and get shot. If you had a rock that was too small, the Nazis would call you lazy, and you would get shot. The battle to pick the perfect-sized rock soon raged on between the prisoners. They also had a zoo, in this camp. The zoo was built so the workers and their families would have entertainment in the camp. The zoo animals, the animals, they were treated so much better than the Jews. They were fed much food, much more than the Jews. They were taken care of much better. One day, Yanek was doing his work at the camp, when he saw two Nazis tie a deer's antlers to the fence. They laughed at it taunted it, and then walked away. Something about that made Yanek's blood boil. He wanted to help the deer, but he just couldn't.

When Yanek arrives at Gross-Rosen, his will to survive is reignited; he is determined to keep living. He begins working, building more barracks, holding onto the hope that with the Allies drawing closer, one day he will have a “bright, shining, beautiful future” filled with three meals a day, a family, and laughter. Yanek works with that vision of a better life in mind. However, a kapo interrupts him, pointing out that he’s missing the top button on his shirt. For this small infraction, Yanek is given 20 lashes and is forced to start over each time he falters in counting them. After the beating, Yanek loses consciousness. He dreams of being in a bright field on a beautiful summer day, but soon dark clouds gather, thunder rumbles, and lightning strikes. The Nazis begin to beat him again. As they hit him, he counts them in German.

The Dachau camp was the last camp that Yanek was brought to. This camp had many diseases, and many people died of diseases. This camp was a bit different from the others because prisoners didn't have to do any work in the camps. The whole place was in chaos. One night, as they were sleeping, the Jews were woken up by loud bombing sounds, until dawn. The Jews had left their barracks, and seen that the Nazis had fled. They saw soldiers in suits, and thought it was a trick, but their camp was liberated, and the Jews finally went to a safe place, after many, many, years.

Yanek is transported to Munich, Germany when the American soldiers liberated his camp. When he arrives, he is told that he is given a bed, all to himself. Sheets, blankets, and a pillow are given to Yanek, as well as a toothbrush, and some other gifts from the Americans. He is then brought to a dining hall, and he is served a feast. Other prisoners are crying, some with tears of joy, some sad. They had made it. They made it through treacherous anti-semitic events, and they had lived. Yanek then finds Mrs. Immerglick, an old neighbor of his from Krakow, and finds out his cousin, Youzek, and his wife Hela, and another family lived too! Yaneks cousins told him to apply to go to America, and he does. He sails off to America, and lives the rest of his life, there.