Yanek's Literal Journey

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 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 os one of constant terror and panic at what awaits him at every turn. The unknown aspect of the war leaves a feeling of being unsettled. Yanke's early life as a 1-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 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 litt while at least." Doubting your parents for the fist time is a struggle for yanek especially in war-torn Poland

Yanek was in the truck and he felt like it was over he was going to die and not see his family ever again. But then he thinks that he has to live so that his entire family does not die for nothing and he can live if he gives it his all and does not stand out.

Yanek was forced to go into a trunk, and he and others went to the Wieliczka salt mine. He went into an elevator and got to work. While he was working, he heard a scream from one of the guards and went to see what was happening. He says one of the Jews died with many cuts and salt forced into those cuts because he used to be a Judenrat at Krakow Poland.

After Yanek was forced to move a big pile of rocks and had to move them back to the same spot, Yanek was furious and thought that even if they had guns and they were weak they could still fight back because of how many people they had. But when somebody did fight back it only got others killed for no reason and Yanek was struck with fear realizing that if they fought back others would die for no reason. Then yanek thought they should die with acceptance so he doesn't get other killed based on his actions.

Yanek was forced onto a train with almost no room with people on all sides crushing him while he was on the train there was a very bad smell with no water but he got some water from the people outside the train throwing snow on the train ventilation. Also during the ride a person died and Yanek had to go the rest of the train ride with a dead person right next to him.

Yanek's figurative journey

Yanek was forced onto a train nervous about where he was going and what was going to happen. Then when he gets to the camp he hears people go here to die not work and after hearing that he loses hope. Then in the shower, he has a mental break down laughing and telling the nazis to kill him but he lives. And because he lived he gets this huge boost of motivation to try and live.

Yanek had to walk to Auschwitz and when he got there he had to wait in line and people were separated into if they were sent to work or death. While at the camp he made a friend but shortly after he fell sick and Yanek had to watch as he was hung just because he was sick he could not work. After a while of working their he and all the other prisoners had to walk almost 11 days just to another camp.

Yanek had to walk for 9 days straight during winter with no warm clothes to get to the construction camp with people being killed for being too slow. Yanek also had to walk all this with just a half loaf of bread through the whole walk with people dying left and right.

Yanek was transported to Bergen Belsen the officers forced the Jews to fight for entertainment. When Yanek got there he was given a week of rest with good food to eat. After the week was up he went to work but even if the camp allowed him to rest he faced a horrible challenge a guy named Moonface. Moonface hurt Yanke every chance he got and Yanek did his hardest to try and get out of the camp away from Moonface.

Yanek inside the concentration camp felt like he was worth nothing while watching the guards treat the animals better than the people as if the animals were 100x better than them. As he watches as guards get punished for hurting the animals it makes him feel even more worthless.

Yanek had strange thoughts like how he was thinking that he thought that he just wanted a bomb to drop killing him and ending this nightmare. But when he got to the camp he got the will to survive and live even if they tried to kill him or tease him he would try his very best until the end. Then near the end, he had a dream where it was a perfect day but a big storm came and Yanek fell down a dark hole trying to grab something but he kept getting hit with tree branches and making a cracking noise.

during the death march, he was really desperate so he ended up asking Moonface for some more bread and because he was so desperate he was fearless, he was fearless he got the bread. At the camp when he woke up and saw the allies walk up towards the camp he felt hopeless like there was no escaping death and he thought that it was the Germans coming back to kill all the Jews in the camps before the war ended. But when he found out it was the allies coming to liberate the camp he was overwhelmed with many emotions and he was grateful for the little things he got like a big feast and a toothbrush.

Yanek was so happy that he was finally free and lived in Munich for a while because he had no family or friends to go to. But he found out one of his cousins was alive and was shocked that he still had a family member, so he visited. He was asked what he was planning on doing after all that had happened but Yanek did not really think about it and had no idea where he would go. But his cousin told him to go to America because that is where the opportunities are so he signed up to go to America and said his goodbyes.