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-Semetic 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.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

With the stress of no food, and constant hiding, Yanek I 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. 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. e loves his mom and dad and they look up to them but as the war continues Yanek begins to doubt 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)

Yanek was vary emotional in these chapters of the novel. He had little to no motivation when he showed up to the Plaszow concentration camp until he saw his Uncle Moshe. He got some sense talked into him about how his parents and that he needs just to survive now shows this in the text here "Your parents, Oskar and Mina. They are dead and gone now, Yanek, and we would grieve for them if we could. cut we have only one purpose now: survive. Survive at all costs, Yanek." (pg 70) in this part of the novel it shows that Uncle Moshe wants Yanek to push through all these emotions and to survive and fight.

Yanek is taken to a Salt mine that is not a good place at all where the mine is miles deep and they put salt inside the prisoner's wounds this mine also works the prisoners so hard that they died from working to hard.

In this part of the story Yanek is stuck and forced into this cattle car with a large number of other people while getting loaded onto the cattle car they get snow thrown at them but Yanek uses it as his advantage to drink water while on the car they were so cramped some said they could breathe so they got shot and killed right in front of Yanek's eyes.

Figurative Journey

At this point of the story, Yanek's mindset is at its lowest point the novel yet all he thinks is that he is going to die and he is going insane laughing out loud at his own jokes about him dying on page 128 he says "Maybe someone was standing on the hose, I thought crazily, and I started to giggle." in this part of the novel he has completely lost it and was ready to accept his death but at the end of the chapter no gas came just water and he ended with "I was alive" his spark was back

in this part of the story emotionally Yanek makes a new friend and tells him his real name and they bond so much that they get too close so the friend gets sick and can't work so Yanek risks getting killed by the guard by staying with him trying to get him to also work but when the guard came he started beating his friend up and took him to the roll call and hanged him so emotionally Yanek watched another friend die

Yanek had the death march to Sachsenhausen in this part of the story and the march was very cruel they were walking long distances with extremely little amount of food also some people with Yanek didn't even have shoes once he arrived at the camp they let him have a one day break then was straight to work they were forced to play games for the nazis and box each other Sachsenhausen was also covered with death and lots of dead people and a way a lot of people died was dying from the Sachsenhausen Salute which was squatting with your arms out forward and if you fell they would beat or kill you

When Yanek arrived to Bergen-Belsen they got a whole week of rest with rich meaty soup that was fresh with bread during that break, the soup hurt their stomachs so Yanek traded the soup for bread so he toasted it and it made his stomach feel better but once it was time to work again Yanek met a guard that had a grudge against him so he would punch him at random times for looking at him funny so Yanek made it his mission to leave Bergen-Belsen

at this camp in the story, Yanek has a zoo for the families for guards' family and Yanek realizes that he is being treated worse than animals because the guards were tying the deer to the fence and those guards were later punished for that by taking privileges away from the entertainment centers

in this part of the story, Yanek is brought to a new camp to work but upon working he runs into a capo and the capo saw he was missing a button on his shirt so he was punished with 20 lashings he had to count in german but since he didn't know how to count in german he had way over 20 lashings but yanek also heard rumors around that the allies are close and closing in

At Dachau, Yanek wakes up to all the guards being gone the camp is liberated and Yanek escapes but he was lost and doesn't know where to go he still sees himself as a prisoner still and does not know where to go with everyone else so emotionally he is lost and does not know what to do

this part of the story is where Yanek went when he was free, at Munich, he waited for three years to get his papers to move to the United States but when he moved he was soon drafted to the Korean war for two more years and when he got back to the United States he found a girl that he ended up marrying and had a family later down the line