Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. But in just the blink of an eye, their city was invaded by the Germans beginning WWII. For now, Yaneck 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, and concentration camps or were killed on sight.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

With the stress of no food and constant hiding, Yaneck 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 aspect of the war leaves a feeling of being unsettled. Yaneck'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 synagog with his friends and family. He loves his mom and dad and looks up to them as the war continues Yaneck begins to doubt his father's constant hopefulness and positivity and wonders who is really right 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 your parents for the first time is a struggle for Yaneck especially in war-torn Poland.

Yanek is terrified once he knows that his parents are taken. His whole life has spiraled and he has no family left, he reached his lowest point. He is ready just to give up and turn himself in to the Nazis but, he knows that's not what his parents would want for him. He returns to work every day and tries to live still but in his heart he is hurt and terrified, not knowing what has happened to his family. When he gets deported away from his job to a camp a few weeks later, he was expecting it, and was ready for it, yet it was still so surreal and he didn't know what to do. He had been imprisoned the past couple of years, but he looked the part once he went to the camp. Yanek finds Uncle Moshe in the camp and he says, "Your parents, Oskar and Mina. They are dead and gone now, Yaneck, and we would grieve for them if we could. But we have only one purpose now: to survive. Survive at all costs, Yaneck. We cannot let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world." (Page 70) Once Yaneck hears this he drops into a sad, depressed, and motivational state. He doesn't know what to do, except survive. From then on he knows that he is going to be a no one, with no voice, and no family for as long as this all lasts.

Yanek was taken from Plaszow Concentration Camp to work in the Wieliczka Salt Mine. He is taken underground one mile deep down an elevator. He walks very far through pitch-black tunnels and dark water that covers the floor. Even if Yaneck was thinking about finding a way out through the dark tunnels, the guards reassured all the prisoners that they couldn't because they would get lost and starve to death with no one to find them. He is then taken to his room where he finds uncomfortable bunks with no blankets or pillows waiting for him and is left with three other guys. The guards wake him and the other prisoners up at dawn to mine. Yanek Spends much time chipping away at the walls mining as much salt as he can making sure that he goes fast and efficiently enough to stay alive. One prisoner who was a Judenrat at the Krakow Ghetto was noticed for what he was and was killed by the other prisoners out of anger. Yanek stuck to his mining job in order not to stick out.

Yanek gets taken to Trzebinia where the guards make the prisoners do work to work, not for a purpose, over and over again. Yanek says, "We were the ball, to be kicked around for their sport." (Pg 108) Yanek is furious, he is so mad that the guards do this and no one sticks up for themselves. He hates that they make him and the others work and work for tireless hours for no point and then just kick them around. He knows that everyone wants to and he thinks that they could all work together to defeat the guards. When someone finally fights back yes Yaneck thinks but when the prisoner fighting back gets shot in the head, Yanek is in fear. He is in fear because innocent people around the dead prisoner were taken to be hung in case they were "a part of his plan." Yanek accepts this and vows never to fight back because he doesn't want innocent people to suffer for his mistake.

Yanek and other Jews were pulled from Trzebinia and taken on a cart. It smelled like puke and pee. Yanek realized why the train smelled when he had been on the train for days with no bathroom. All of the prisoners were defeated, sleeping the whole time. They had no food or bathroom. When another train car pulled up next to them, they realized they could see where each other was going as their location was on the top of their train. Yanek and the other Jews on his cart were headed to Birkenau. Yanek had never heard of it but the other Jews had and they knew they weren't going there for work, in fact when you go there you don't work. You go there to die. As they pulled up smoke was coming out of the crematorium chimney as they were burning the Jew's dead bodies that they had gased. Yaneck thought this would be his defeat and he was done. They go inside and are all taken to a room with shower heads, some Jews are praying, some are crying, and some are banging to get out. After a while when it sounded like the gas was going to come out to kill them, cold water came out instead. They were alive. He was then tattooed, he was no longer Yanek and from now on he would be known as B-3087. He was then taken to awful, hard, and dirty barracks where he got a night's rest. In the morning he woke up and his work detail would be building more barracks. He was fed the same meekly soup and stale bread and was yelled at by the same Anti-Semitist guards. He was given nothing, but he was alive and he would try and live on.

Yaneks Figurative Journey

Yanek has reached his lowest point while he waits for the gas to kill him in the Birkenau gas chamber. He was in a way hallucinating. he had reached such a low point that he cried. But then he started to make up stories in his head. "I laughed out at that, and a prisoner standing over me looked down at me like I was insane. Maybe I was. The Nazis had finally broken me. It was all a big joke. I could see that now. There was no rhyme or reason to whether you lived or died." (Pg. 128) He was making up stories in his head and he laughed at the fact that he was going to die. After no gas came out of the shower heads, he realized he was alive. He kept reminding himslef of this and repeating it, he was alive, he was alive. He was glad to be alive and have survived everything that he had been through from the Krakow Ghetto, being deported, and all the camps he had been to up to this point. He tried to go up from the determination of the fact that he was alive. When a 13-year-old boy had a small, secret bar mitzvah in their barracks one night, Yanek reminded him that they were not going to let the Nazis rip them from the pages of the world. Those wise words helped the boy but also reminded him that he was alive and he could do this.

Yaneck was taken over to Aushwetz from Birkenau because they needed more workers. There was a sign above the gate that said, "Arbeit Macht Frei" Which translates to "Work makes you free," But Yanek knew that this was a lie and he couldn't believe any of it. Once in line, Yanek saw many people coming off buses from "the real world". Yanek felt bad for them because they didn't know what would come. Yanek thought that he must look like a monster to these new people as he was lean and bald and his face had sunken in. Yanek lied to the guards deciding death or life at the front, about his job, his health, and his age. Because he knew that was the only way that he would survive and be able to live in Aushwetz without being sent straight to the gas chambers and then having his body taken to the crematorium. After a little while at Auschwitz, Yanek sees a guy in the bunk next to him die. He feels bad even though he never knew him but he was used to death at this point and he says "Death and I were old friends" because he had seen so much of it in the span of a few years. When Yanek sees this guy lying in his bed dead, a kid around his age named Fred says to see if there is bread in his pocket, he does, there is, and he and Fred eat it. Yanek hesitates to talk to Fred and tell him information because of what Uncle Mosche has told him. He had said not to stick out and not to know anyone. Yanek needs a friend, and once he finds out how much he and Fred have in common, they click. Yanek thinks it is nice to have a friend and someone to talk to, but when Fred gets sick and can't get out of bed, Yanek has another heartache. He had finally found something in common with a kid his age and he was hung, hung right in front of him because he couldn't get out of bed. Yanek tells him that he can, he can get out of bed, he can live, and he will help him. But, it was no use and the guards came and hit Yanek for being late to roll call and speaking out of turn to help his friend. Yanek recited a prayer and vowed never to forget him because he made him feel like he knew someone and could talk for once. Yanek and other prisoners heard bombs and planes and there was talk of war getting closer. Yanek silently cheered them on hoping that they would be free but he didn't want to get his hopes up. Then Yanek was told that he and many many others were going to walk to Sachsenhausen. Yanek didn't know where that was or if they were even walking there. Yanek and others walked, they walked and walked in the cold for days. No shoes, barely any food, and thin thin clothes. Many died of starvation or freezing to death. Yanek was cold but he had to keep going and he watched as many people fell to the ground in death from weather or starvation. Then someone started to sing a song and many people followed. They were all singing in all different languages and Yanek joined not knowing why the Nazis were letting them. They eventually arrived at their next location.

After Yanek walks for 14 days in the death march, he finally makes it to Sachsenhausen. Yanek thought that if they put him to work right away he wouldn't make it, he would become a Musselman. Yanek was luckily given a day to rest and he was very grateful for that. He was fed the same old watery soup and stale bread but he was grateful that he had something. When he started to work he realized how much of a joke this camp was to the Nazis. He was randomly taken with a couple of other men by Nazi soldiers. Where were they going he thought, was this the end? But it wasn't, he was strangely taken to sing for the guards and SS officers so that they could laugh at them in entertainment. Yanek had seen many other "jokes" happening. like the Sachsenhausen solute where prisoners have to sit in a squatting position with their arms out and when they move they get shot. Many of these cruel games resulted in death, not all but most. The guards at Sachsenhausen also just killed so many people that they lay on the floor. Yanek sees so many dead bodies around the camp on the floor and he compares them to fallen trees. They are so common that it's like when you walk through a forest and see a fallen tree, you don't think much of it.

Yanek Was taken to Bergen Belsen after Sauchehausen. At first, it was going pretty well. He was given hardy soup and warm bread and could rest for one week before he went out to work. He was continuously given better meals, which were not amazing but better than broth, and they didn't do as cruel things as the camp before. Yanek thought that this would be the camp where he could wait out the rest of the war but, when he comes into contact with Moon Face, he wants to leave. Moon Face was a soldier who was a very well-known Anti Semitist, and a murderer. He would pick on many prisoners for doing something as simple as looking at him "funny" even if they weren't. When Yanek was given the opportunity to maybe leave the camp by doing a naked race, he stayed strong and tried to look unbothered on the outside but on the inside, he was physically and mentally drained. But on the outside, he looked strong enough to the guards to leave the camp which was a relief for Yanek as he was able to get away from Moonface.

Yanek was taken to Buchenwald after Bergen Belsen. They did many awful jobs walking rocks up and down. If a rock was too small then death, and if a rock was so big that you went slow up the hill then that was also death. This camp had a zoo, a zoo for the guards and their families but, the animals were treated even better than the Jews. Yanek felt like an animal, worse than an animal. Yanek then thinks, "Cruelty to prisoners the Nazis could abide. But not cruelty to animals." (Pg 209) Yanek knows how poorly the Nazis treat him. The Nazis hear are maybe even worse than before and they bring him back to thinking about the times with Amon Goeth. This camp had a "which," it was the SS officer's wife. She was even worse than the guards and she scared everyone making sure that they didn't treat her poorly. Yanek pushed through the awful treatment at this camp knowing that the allies were to come soon, hopefully.

Yanek was taken to Gross-Rosen from Buchenwald by train. The train ride was awful and he was feeling indifferent about the whole situation when he got there. He Relates the camps to purgatory saying that the camps are all the same, just an awful holding place to be pushed around in. The Nazis had killed so many people that they were running out and no more new people were getting put into the camps. Yanek worked, slept in hard barracks, and ate small meekly, meals as he does in any camp. On his prisoner uniform, he was missing a button. When the guards asked where it went, Yanek didn't know where it went and said it must have fallen off but the prisoners wouldn't take that as an answer. With no button on his uniform, he was to be lashed. He had to count in German how many lashes he got and every time he messed up a number he had to restart his lashes and recount. He bled and hurt so bad but he tried to stay strong because he had made it this far. He went to bed that night physically and mentally drained and hurt. One day Yaneck woke up at Gross-Rossen and the SS officers told the prisoners that they would march to be moved. He had finally experienced kindness when the Czechs were throwing food out of their windows or leaving bread on the porch but, there was not enough for everyone. So, Yanek was hoping that one of the Kapos had some good in them so Yaneck walked up to one to ask for food. It was Moonface, the awful guard that had scared him away from a camp in the past. Yanek then had the choice to ask him for bread or not but at this point, if he didn't get the bread he would die anyway so he asked. When he asked he had a knife held to his throat but was in the end given the bread that he needed so he had a small bite and then saved the rest for later. He had then eventually made it to his next location, cold, hungry, and tired.

Yanek was taken to Dachau after a long march. He was cold and hungry and needed sleep. The camp was in chaos, everyone was sick and running around and there were few work details. Yanek was scared, scared to get sick because as he heard gunshots he knew that the allies were near and if he were to get typhus, he would probably die. after a little while in the camp, Yanek went to bed with his fellow prisoners as usual. But as they all heard gunshots Yanek didn't know what to do. Some people went out to see what was happening, and Yanek went too. There were no soldiers, they were free unless it was another trick. Many people ran back or didn't move as they saw soldiers rushing in. Yanek stood there, scared and fragile but when he saw that the caps on the soldiers were green, he knew that it was the allies. "I fell to my knees and wept. Had I really made it? Had I actually survived the Krakow ghetto and 10 different concentration camps? I had been 10 when the war started now I was 16 for more than 6 years I had been a prisoner of the Nazis prisoner B-3087 now it was all over." (page 245) Yanek was free, so free that he didn't know what to do with himself. surely all his family was gone and he would have no place to go. As some people were hugging each other and running up to the soldiers, Yaneck fell to his knees, and then a soldier came up to him ""What's your name?" he told me. "Yanek," I told him. "My name is Yanek." "Everything is going to be all right now, Yanek," he told me, and for the first time in 6 years I believed he was right." (Pg 245) Yanek might not have known what to do with himself, but he was liberated and now he was free.

Yanek and the other prisoners were happy to be liberated but they were also reluctant to go on the train ride because the Nazis had broken their trust over and over again they didn't know who to trust. It turns out that the train ride was normal and they were taken to a new town called Munich. Munich was great and was a new start for many. An American soldier took Yanek to a big room of bunks and told him which one was his. He then asked how many people he had to share his bed with and was filled with joy and gratitude when he found out the bed was only his. not only that but he had sheets, blankets, and a pillow too! To Yanek this is the world but, there's even more, toothbrushes, cups, and washcloths. On top of that, he had meals, real meals of turkey and gravy and mashed potatoes, he even had a chair to sit on and a table to eat at. Something as simple as passing the salt made everyone cry. Yanek may be the happiest version of himself as the Americans were giving him his life back. Still, then he remembers “The dead would always be with me.  I knew, even when I was surrounded by life again, even if the Americans gave me back all the objects I had lost.”(pg. 251) Saying that the Nazis had taken away the most important part of life, the people he had in it but, he will always remember them. After a little while in Munich, He is going for a walk, he enjoyed walks because he thought it was amazing that he could just walk wherever whenever. When he was on his walk he saw an old neighbor Mrs. Immerglick from Krakow. She had lived across from him his whole life even when Krakow turned into Krakow Ghetto. Even though he remembers that she wasn't the nicest and used to yell at him for bouncing his ball in the hallway. He was still so happy to see her that he ran up to her to hug her. She says that she should have never been mean and yelled at him and she mentions his cousin. My cousin, Yanek thought, Yanek didn't know that he still had living family. Once he found their address he went to see them and was drowning in happiness when he did. They had mentioned that they waited out the war and hid with the Gamzers the family with a husband, wife, and little girl that was standing by his cousins. He ended up applying to move to America and three years later he did.