Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. But in just a blink of an eye, their city was invaded by the Germans beginning in 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 to resettlement or deportation yet. One-by-one, many Jews were relocated to other Jewish Ghettos, work camps, concentration camps, or were killed on site.

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 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 looks up to them, but as the war continues, Yanek begins to doubt his father's constant hopefulness and positive attitude, and wonders who is really right - his father or his 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.

After being taken on his way back from work at the Tailor shop, Yanek gets deported by the Nazis and is sent off from the Krakow Ghetto to a labor camp in Plaszow. He is dropped off at the camp, along with a moment of harsh treatment, and is changed into a prison uniform. As he is marched out to the Tailor shop, he spots uncle Moshe and impulsively tried to catch his attention, getting someone else in trouble.

Yanek and the other prisoners are loaded in a truck and are sent off for another job, outside of Plaszow. He is dropped off at Wielickza, and realizes that he is in a salt mine, and sees a bunch of carved statues and the salt cathedral. Yanek sees someone familiar, but he gets no information. He and all of the other prisoners work for the day, hitting the salt walls with pickaxes, until they all hear a shout and see the man dead with salt rubbed into his wounds, possibly by another prisoner, out of revenge. Yanek was questioning his current situation. Why did they let the Nazis persecute them treat them like worthless scapegoats, they basically outnumbered the Nazis with how many prisoners there were, he thought. He had a burning fury to fight back, but it quickly deflated when he witnessed a fellow prisoner died when he attack one of the guards. The resistor was shot not even a moment after.

Yanek was moved out of Krakow to Trzebinia, his job being to move big, heavy piles of rocks all day. Him and any other prisoners was beaten if they were too slow, or if the rocks were too small. Yanek was trying really hard not to show any kind of fear in front of the Nazis, and that it was like they could smell fear. After feeling exhausted and getting a bunch of bruises, Yanek was met with bewilderment as the SS officer ordered to have the rocks moved again. Yanek grows furious with the way they were treated and wanted to fight back. He didn't want to go like a sheep to the slaughter. His anger is quickly replaced with fear and meekness as he witnessed a man die after he retaliated, getting two other innocent people killed in the outcome.

Yanek and his fellow prisoners are rounded up and piled up into a cattle-car on a train, being transported like livestock. He was bunched in their for half a day, more prisoners being loaded inside before they left. Yanek didn't know where they were going, but he hoped it was better than Trzebinia, seeing the outside of his home for the first time. When they stopped at their final destination, he saw ordinary people outside, who merely taunted them. The train left again and they stopped next to another car the next day, now finding out they were possibly going to a death camp, which frightens Yanek. a man next to him gives him the advice of standing under the exhaust vents. Yanek questions if it's for survival, and the man says, "No. You won't survive. None of us will. But if you stand under the exhaust vents, you won't suffer as long before you die."

Figurative Journey

During the first time Yanek gets to the camp, he's mentally at his lowest point while he's there. It was the most horrible place he's been at yet. He keeps thinking of the lack of rhyme or reason to weather he would live or die, also thinking of the possibilities of other people dying as well, saying "You could play the game perfectly and still lose, so why bother playing at all?" Yanek then blatantly shoves his way through the crowd to be the first one at the shower head, pleading and shouted out in a moment of hysteria and insanity, praying as he mourned for death to finally come upon him. In the end, it wasn't gas - but freezing water. Yanek laughed and cried in a sense of relief and getting the chance to live even a while longer, feeling reborn. He was alive. Yanek and all the other prisoners celebrated and hugged each other as they were granted a last-minute reprieve.

Yanek and his fellow prisoners were told that Auschwitz needed workers and new prisoners joined alongside them on the march. He could tell they were new, still having clothing and belongings. Yanek felt a sense of sympathy for them since he had been here for so long and caught onto the Nazis deceit and motives, but he new people were completely oblivious to what was laying in wait for them. Yanek and the prisoners are soon sent back to their barracks when Yanek meets a boy about the same age as him, Fred. When Fred asked where he was from, he was hesitant to answer truthfully, remembering Uncle Moshee's caution and advice to remain anonymous. But the longing feeling of wanting to talk to someone was strong, the feeling of being human. He answered and soon started to to bond and talk about their families and their wishes. They had a lot in common: They both lost their families, they once lived in Krakow, and they also love food. The bondage may have brought some feelings of humanity, it brought on even more pain for Yanek in the aftermath. Fred becomes sick and is unable to move, and is beaten around by the capo for not getting up on time. He is dragged out and hanged in the middle of the camp. Yanek mourns the loss of the only person he could call his friend at the camp, and vows never to forget.

Yanek and his fellow prisoners are led on a long and treacherous journey to Sachenhausen, gaurded by soilders. They walked for days in the harshly cold elements, killed if some were too far behind. Yanek made sure to stay away from the back of the group, picking up his pace when he heard the cracking of a gun close behind him. A fellow prisoner, a boy around the same age as Yanek seemed weak and was falling behind, barely able to keep up on his feet. Yanek felt sympathetic for the him but his mind reminded him of Uncle Moshee's advice. Reluctantly putting it aside, he risked helping the boy for the cost of his own energy while carrying him. Just before Yanek was losing too much stamina, a man came up and assisted in holding the boy as well, which Yanek was thankful for. Although, when they settled to rest, he immediately left. When Yanek grew restless with hunger, he reached into his pants to retrieve the last bit of bread he had on him, only to find it missing; he had lost it, caught up in the middle of helping the boy. Yanek was furious and intrusively thought of stealing the bread from him, telling himself the boy would die anyway, but he resisted. When the next day came he reached out for the food in the boy's pocket, only for him to wake up and being hostile towards Yanek, not even thanking him for saving his life when he left.

Yanek arrives at Buchenwald after being transported to another camp. He was relived that he was finally rid of Moon-face at Sachsenhausen, but he could also immediately see how horrible Buchenwald was. The fearful expressions of terror that was evident on their faces was enough for him to know that, seeing them scared at all times because they knew that death might come for them at any unsuspecting moment. Yanek was assigned a job similar to the one he had a while ago, in the stone quarry, which was life or death depending on the sizes of rocks one would carry, making prisoners compete against each other for the safest ones. "Another fine joke from the Nazis" Yanek remarked at their euphemism. Prisoners were also required to pull wagons and were whipped as if they were feral animals instead of humans, but even animals were treated with better quality than that, as seen in the Buchenwald zoo near the camp, where wife's and children came to watch. Sometimes even the kids watched them like they would with animals. Yanek watched as SS officers would mess around with the prisoners and make them fight for raw meat, just for the fun of it. They all feared the brutal commandant and his witch of a wife. Yanek avoided them, and tried not to get the witch's list. One day, while Yanek was in the middle of his daily ritual, he witnessed two SS officers tie a large buck to the fence and taunt it. Yanek was furious about this, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it, and as he watched them get scolded for it, it didn't make sense. "Cruelty to prisoners the Nazis could abide. But not cruelty to animals."

They are yet again packed inside of a train, standing in their tight spaces. Yanek watched as people passed away during the trip, but he barely even acknowledged it this time around. He had seen it so many times that he had became numb to such an occurrence; "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 strewn about like so much human firewood, that I almost didn't care anymore." (page #212) Yanek had given up the possibility that any camp he was sent to would be any better than the last. Nor better, nor worse. They could all hear the loud planes passing and bullets inside of the train, exploding numerous areas nearby. Yanek thought of one of the bombs falling down on them and killing them all, wishing to be put out of his misery, much like Fred. Yanek and the other prisoners arrived at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, no fear or expectation inside of them, leaving behind multiple corpses in the car. They had been assigned their barracks, and Yanek immediately fell into a stupor while heard others talking about the allies coming around soon. Yanek was stopped by a Kapo one day, calling him out for losing one of the buttons on his shirt. He was later punished with twenty lashes, having to count them in German. He unfortunately made mistakes in remembering the numbers and the punishment was restarted every time. He was later dumped at his barrack, unconscious.

Yanek and the other prisoners were sent away when the guards grew bored of them and sent them to Bergen-Belsen, via cattle car headed for north. Some died from starvation or suffocation along the ride there, and sometimes the Nazis toyed with them by making them fight for food. When they were unloaded at their destination, the commander looked displeased with their appearances, yelling at the guards about it. The commander proceeded to pick off various men from the group, to which Yanek thought he would die if he wasn't picked, but to his surprise they ended up being executed for looking too weak. He was glad he wan't chosen. Another surprising thing he heard was the fact that they weren't given work and were sent straight to their barracks, and on top of that they were given food as well. Although, their stomachs weren't able to handle such a hearty meal. One day, a kapo called him over and smacked him in the face with a shovel without warning. The prisoners called him 'Moonface'. Yanek was continuously picked on and beaten by Moonface for trivial reasons, maybe even no reason at all. When Yanek heard that the strongest and healthiest prisoners would be able to be transported to another camp, he did his best and ended up being picked. Another cattle car and a camp awaited him, but he was just relieved that he had gotten away from Moonface for good.

The prisoners were marched another three days before reentering Germany. Czech citizens continued to help them as much as they could as they passed by before they were back in Germany. Yanek tried to save his bread for as long as possible, but he felt too horrible to march another few days. Not any of the prisoners could. on the afternoon of the sixth day, they were put on another train, separating the Poles and Jews in two different cars. Hours passed by during the train ride, and Yanek was having trouble staying awake. That was until he heard a loud explosion from the back of the train from allied planes dropping bombs on Germany. The train stopped as part of the train was hit with one of the strikes, destroying all of the prisoners' documents. When Yanek heard of this, he came up with a risky idea: to tear off his Star of David and try to sneak into the other group. He gave them a fake name in order to pass as sounding more Polish, but that was all foiled by one man who ratted him out for seemingly no reason other than the fact he was a Jew. Yanek pondered on why the man would do such a thing as he figured there would be no gain or difference in doing so. They were given new documents to replace the ones they lost, all so they would keep track of how they were killed. The day after arriving in Dachau, most of the prisoners were sick with "camp fever", spreading around rapidly. Yanek stayed cautious and made sure to keep clean and stay away from those who would have it, which was difficult as they were all kept in less than spacious barracks. The Nazi's didn't expect the sick to work, they didn't make any of them work as there wasn't any work to be done. Dachau was in chaos and they knew the war was almost coming to an end. Some nights they would hear explosions from outside, deafeningly loud and shaking the ground under them. But once it was morning they were all surprised to see that were no guards in sight - they had all fled in the night. Someone alerted the nearing of soldiers approaching the camp, and Yanek immediately knew this was his end. But once he saw their American flags and uniforms, he was overjoyed to see that the allies had finally come for them. All of the prisoners celebrated and shook the hands of the soldiers, finally having their freedom. A soldier came up to him and told him that everything would be alright, and for the first time in six years, he believed him.

As soon as they could, the American allies took Yanek and all the others out of Dachau. They had been taken away by train in horrible conditions so many times, that some of them were hesitant to come along, but the Americans assured them it was over, showing them hospitality by giving them food and blankets for the ride into Munich. The prisoners were so surprised because they hadn't experienced such luxury in years. Even though they were normal, everyday objects, the prisoners were beyond bewildered. That night at the dining hall, they were met with a table and chairs, which Yanek mentions that he hadn't seen in a long time, and they shared a meals. Yanek then remembers his old life back at Krakow his family. He remembered Fred. He remembered the man who fought back and all those others who had died before his very eyes, taking the places around the table. But they were all lost. He thought at first. That was until he stumbled upon Mrs. Immerglick, walking through the Munich Neighborhood. He'd come to find out that his cousin and his cousin's wife, some of Mrs. Immerglick's family, and another family that they'd taken in too that had also survived. Yanek also came to know that he would be able to move to America, remembering all of those movies he'd watched in Krakow. It was hard for him to leave, but he had spend years trying to get to America, and he was determined to go. He boarded a train, off to the coast onto a ship to the US. He promised to keep in touch with his new family. A decade had passed since Krakow was conquered by the Nazis, that long since he'd seen his parents, uncles, aunts, and many other family members. But they long gone and it was time to move on. For nine years he had done everything in his power to make it this far. Now it was time to survive.