Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. but in a second it is invaded by the Germans. For now, Yanek and his family stay in Krakow they stay in their flat with a bunch of other families. Yanek had been living in that flat for a long time before Yanek found out that you could get on the roof. When he gets up there he realizes that there is this pigeon coup. Yanek then immediately tells his parents that they could all live there to stay away from the Germans who abused them in their flats. After a while of living in the pigeon coup, more family of Yaneks moved in with him and his parents.

Yanek´s Figurative Journey

After being invaded by the Nazis Yaneks life would turn around. He was now constantly over the German watch and couldn´t do most things he used to be able to do. After he was already moved into the pigeon coup he was going to go through the worst thing yet. One normal day in the camp Yanek´s parents were at their normal jobs and were taken by the Germans. During this time Yanek had gone down to the Jewish food place he noticed no people were walking around like usual so he assumed that there was another German kidnap to a different camp. As Yanek was walking around he saw the Germans with the Jewish people behind them now Yanek knew his suspicions were right. He ran behind a house he then turned around to look at the Germans and he saw two people in the middle who looked a lot like his parents and his heart started racing. As he ran up the stairs to his pigeon coup he thought this couldn´t be real when he got up there his biggest fear came true those people where them.

Yanek´s literal journey was when he was working at the tailor shop in Krakow and he heard that Plaszow a work camp very close to Krakow needed more workers. Then one day he was working he was stolen by the Nazis and taken to Plaszow in a truck to work.

Yanek´s Figurative Journey

Once Yanek got to Plaszow he was sad and undetermined but when he saw Uncle Moshe he was very joyful and screamed his name to let him know he was ok. Then one of the Nazi soldiers was angry and hit one of the prisoners in the back of the head with the butt of his gun and he learned the unspoken rules of the camp. The text states ¨ Your parents, Oskar and Mina. They are dead and gone now, Yanek, and we would grieve for them if we could. But we have only one purpose now: survive. Survive at all costs, Yanek. We cannot let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world¨ This shows how he now wants to survive for his parents that passed due to the Nazis.

Once Yanek got to the salt mines they took him and all the other Jews into the salt mines. Yanek noticed the beautiful structures made of salt, like a chandelier and more. Yanek then notices even in the terrible life Yanek lived there were still beautiful things in the world. ¨After so many months and years of dirty streets and peeling paint, of gray uniforms and spartan barracks, it was astounding that there could still be beauty in the world.¨ This shows that Yanek had been surrounded by so much agony it was nice that there were still some things in the world that weren't all messed up.

Yanek has been taken to Trezbinia and feels angry about the things he has to do at Trezbinia because everything he does is useless. The Nazis made all the Jews all the Jews move rocks back and forth to punish them for being Jews they also make them dig six feet holes and maybe get killed and put in the hole or they just fill it up again. The text states, " I was an animal to them, a pack mule. But beasts were never treated so poorly. Working animals were expensive. They had value. I was a Jew. We were lower than animals." At this moment he felt like he was worth nothing and would feel worse killing an animal than them.

Yanek is taken on a train, a train that has them so packed that most of them can´t breathe for long periods at a time and they had no water. So no surprise some of them started dying but Yanek was near a vent, to avoid death he started breathing out of the vent and started eating snow to get water. After a long time on the bus, the guy next to Yanek died and he was getting smothered even more by the dead guy leaning on him. Yanek was at a point where he thought there was no way he was gonna survive this terrible truck. Before finally the truck halted to a stop and Yanek had survived again.

Yanek is taken from Birkenau to be taken to Auschwitz.

The herd of Jews walked down the road and across fields till they finally got there and on the front, it said in German " Work will set you free." He also saw new prisoners with luggage that had just got off a bus. The new prisoners were wearing nice clothes that you would see a normal Poland citizen wearing and they looked at the veteran prisoners like they were montser. The juxtaposition between the new prisoners and the old prisoners was that the new ones had no clue what was going to happen to them and they thought it was kinda a Vacation. The old prisoners knew what would happen to the new prisoners and they all kinda felt bad and tried to make some of them understand.

Yanek is taken from Auschwitz and put on a death march to get away from the Allies who were getting closer. Yanek felt terrible during the march he felt like every step was him getting closer to death. During the march, he notices a kid his age falling behind. Yanek started thinking, should he let the kid die or should he help him? He was having mental with himself but there was no time to think so he went to help the kid when he started to the kid on his shoulder he realized he would basically have to carry him. He then knew he had picked the wrong option but he was already to deep to just drop him.

When Yanek arrives from the death march he is put in a role call and then inspected. The officer who inspected him told him that they were not suited to work and that they would be on a week of rest. During the week of rest, they are given this very meaty soup and a nice loaf of bread. But the soup didn't sit well with Yanek at all. He had cramps all night and could barely fall asleep so tomorrow he traded his soup for an extra loaf of bread. One day after the week of rest Yanek was working and a kapo called him to the kapo and punched him straight in the face this was just the start of the torment the kapo nicknamed ¨Moonface¨ would bring him. For the next couple of weeks, Moonface would just keep abusing him and tormenting him. He then knew he would have to escape him and after a while, he finally got his chance. All the prisoners would race to see who could work at a different camp. Yanek then ran as fast as he could and the nazis knew they would be moving him to the other working camp.

Yanek arrives at Buchenwald and he sees the look on the prisoner's faces and he knows this place is not one of the "good camps." Yanek knew this camp was bad the moment he walked in and saw German people looking at animals and prisoners the German people were looking at like animals. Yanek knew this was the worst camp yet. Yanek was then set to his barracks and wasn´t wrong this was one of the worst camps yet. The German people looked at the Jewish prisoners like animals because they basically were animals they were treated like animals, and they were inside even worse cells than the animals. Yanek hated this camp the most he had ever hated a camp he thought again death would be better than this.

Yanek is taken on another train ride to the next camp. On this train ride, Yanek isn´t phased by the death around him. It is like seeing leaves on the ground in the fall. Yanek just tries to sleep through but that would be difficult because he is starving he feels empty. BAM! A bomb comes so close he can feel the vibration but Yanek isn´t scared, he wants the bomb to hit the train so he can wake up from this nightmare.

Yanek is now being taken on another death march to get away from the Allies who were getting closer once again. During the march, they passed Czech villages that helped them but putting food on their doorsteps and more stuff like that just to help them but once they passed through the Czech villages there were no more people helped. They were now on German land everyone now closed their curtains and were cold to the prisoners. After a while, they stopped to rest. Yanek couldn´t stand it anymore he needed food. He saw the enemy kapo he hated, the kapo that made him leave the last camp ¨Moonface¨ he had a huge bag of bread and he needed food he then used the last bit of courage he had to ask Moonface for food. He then asked he reminded that he was the prisoner he used to abuse in the last camp Moonface then put a knife to his throat. After a minute he let the knife of his throat and through a piece of bread. Again Yanek survived.

One morning Yanek wakes up and there are no guards to be seen, Yanek thinks its a joke and is still really tense due to his trauma. Then Yanek see soldiers marching up to the camp but these are the Nazi they have different uniforms and helmets. Before he finally saw the tank coming behind the soldiers. Its the Americans!! Finally Yanek´s was being freed from the terrible acts he had been a victim to.