Yaneks 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-Sematic 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 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. Yaneks early life as a 10-year-old boy before the war was 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 drought 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) Doubting tour parents for the first time is a struggle for Yanek especially in a war-torn Poland.

Yanek is at a low point in his life and has lost all of his family. For a short time, he reconnects with Uncle Moshie. Yanek finds Zloty after being on a job in his old home outside of camp. He sighs in relief when he finds a total of 2,000 zloty. Soon after this, while working inside the camp, Uncle Moshie gets killed by Amon Geoth. Yanek is forever devastated by this event. The words of Uncle Moshie are ringing in Yanek's ears. "'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.'" (page 70) These special words help Yanek push through the hard days in the concentration camp.

When Yanek walks through the salt mine, he starts to remember the real beauty of the world. He thinks that some beautiful things can still be in this wartorn world. Yanek stares at the kings and queens, hoping they will come to life and save him. After his first night in the salt mines, he dreams of the beautiful salty figures coming to life to save all the prisoners. He wants the figures to come to life and fight off the treacherous Nazis.

Yanek was starting to get very furious and wanted to fight back against the Nazis. The Nazis are playing tricks against Yanek and the other Jews. Yanek intends to begin with his plan to fight back when another person fights back and gets severely punished. Other people are penalized for men fighting back against crime. People are killed and picked at random because the man didn't follow the rules. Eventually, Yanek realizes he doesn't want to go down with a fight because he doesn't want others killed. He wants to die alone and accepts that he will die not trying to fight back.

Yanek was carried by a cattle car for days on end. While he travels he watches the man next to him die. One morning he wakes up and the man is stiff as a board. He is white and pasty. Yanek immediately knows that this man is dead. Once the train stops at a station, children start throwing snow at them. The Germans are in disgust with these Jews and don't understand their struggle. One kid throws a snowball, goes through Yanek's vent, and hits him in the face. Once Yanek realizes the snow, he licks it off his face because of his thirst. Yanek feels an instant sigh of relief as he tastes this snow.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

When Yanek is taken to the gas chambers, he has a nervous breakdown. He goes completely mad and starts crying then laughing and then yelling that he wants his life to be over. Yanek is ready to die with the pipes rattling and then....water comes out of the pipes. Yanek sighs of relief and even says he is reborn as a new person. When Yanek leaves the chambers he keeps repeating something along the lines of "We are alive." He keeps saying this over and over to himself and others. He even says this to a boy on the day of his bar mitzvah. "'We are alive," I told him. 'We are alive, and that is all that matters. We cannot let them tear us from the pages of the world.'" (page 135)

Yanek meets a boy named Fred in the barracks. They found an immediate connection because of their age and the city they lived in before the war. This connection helped Yanek trust someone again and he even told Fred his real name. The book states, "The boy introduced himself to me as Fred. I told him my name was Yanek. Not B-3087. I hadn't spoken my name to anyone for as long as I could remember. Fred and I shook hands. It was the first intentional contact I'd had with anyone at the camps since Uncle Moshe had died." (page 156) When Yanek enters the concentration camp of Auschwitz, he is told that death is awaiting him. The guards also tell Yanek that the only way anyone will leave is through the chimneys. Yanek feels somewhat humored and a feeling of great accomplishment when he leaves the city through the gates. He feels that he is now invincible and will make it the rest of the way through the war.

Yanek leaves the concentration camp of Auschwitz and has to march for days on end. Yanek is given nothing but half a loaf of bread and no water. While walking he notices a boy close to his age turning into a Musselman. He helps the boy walk for the rest of the day trying to be a good person. When they stop for the night, Yanek realizes he lost the rest of his bread from helping the boy. Yanek goes the last 3-4 days of the "Death March," without any food but the snow on the ground. Yanek realized that he and the other prisoners were becoming unrecognizable. "As we shambled along late that day, I looked at the men around me. We were skeletons. Ghosts. Filthy toothless creatures in oversized, soiled prisoner uniforms." (page 170)

When Yanek was shipped off to Bergen-Belsen, he was lined up, picked from a group of people, and sorted into the stronger group. Yanek watched 75 other prisoners get shot because they were too weak to work. After arriving, the prisoners were told they didn't have to work for a week. They were fed thick, rich soup and large pieces of fresh, warm bread. Yanek realized even when the Nazis are nice they are cruel. The book states, "I scarfed my piece of bread and washed it down with that delicious, meaty soup, but an hour later I learned that even in kindness, the Nazis were cruel. Every one of us woke with the most terrible stomach cramps we'd ever had. Our poor stomachs weren't used to such hearty food." (page 198) This tells the reader that Yanek was happy that he got all this amazing, hearty food but got a stomach ache. Yanek thought he could ride the rest of the war out at this camp except for one person, Moonface.

When Yanek arrived at Buchenwald, he noticed something irregular. Inside the camp, there was a zoo. Some families lived there, living normal lives, just as Yanek had before the war. "The little girls wore pretty dresses and shiny black shoes and ribbons in their hair. The little boys wore shorts and jackets and caps, just as I used to. Sometimes they sucked on lollipops, watching us the way they watched the animals." (page 206) Another thing that Yanek hated about this camp was the work. He was assigned to work in the stone quarry being forced to carry huge rocks uphill. Almost anything you did, you would be shot. If you carried a stone too big and dropped it you would be shot. If the stone is too small you would be shot. There was one job that was even worse and that was pulling the carts. "Some of the prisoners pulled carts instead of carrying stones on their backs, but that wasn't a job you wanted either. The Jews were chained to the carts like a team of draught horses and whipped like animals. Only these animals were also required to sing." (page 205)

When Yanek arrives at Gross-Rosen, he is almost immediately met with terror. A kapo comes up to him and asks Yanek where his button is. Because Yanek was missing a button, he was penalized with twenty lashes. During the long moments of the lashes, Yanek was in miserable pain. When Yanek gets back to the barracks and falls asleep he dreams of a green meadow. There was a beautiful brook and yellow wildflowers. "But then a dark cloud appeared on the horizon. Lightning flashed, and thunder rolled over the hills." (page 218) The lightning knocked Yanek down into a deep, black abyss. He tried to grab ahold of the roots and rocks, but he kept falling. This dream was meant to imitate the in-between of heaven and hell. The beautiful, green meadow was the part of heaven while the hole was the purgatory, or middle part, that Yanek is in. The internal missoury.

When Yanek wakes up to the sounds of bombs he can only think about the things that could happen. He tries to have hope and thinks that the Allies will save him, but he has been hoping for years. When morning comes, no guards, soldiers, or kapos are knocking at their door. Yanek thought this was some sick, twisted trick. Yanek stumbled out into the yard confused about what he should do. He started to ask himself so many questions. "But where would I go? What would I do? My home was in Krakow, hundreds of kilometers away. And what was home anymore? I had no family to go back to. (page 243) While asking himself these questions the American allied soldiers come in through the front gates. He felt a complete sigh of relief and realized, he was finally free.

When Yanek arrived at Munich he was met with kindness and love by the Americans. They gave him necessities but to him, they were generous gifts. He was given a toothbrush. A TOOTHBRUSH! He remembered a time when he thought about how silly the thought of a little thing like that would be. Yanek walks through the town and finds a familiar face. It was Mrs. Immerglick!! "'Mrs. Immerglick?' I called. I dashed across the street to get a closer look. 'Mrs. Immergilck?' The woman turned. It was! It was Mrs. Immerglick, the mean old lady who'd lived across the hall from me in Krakow!" (page 252) This person, whom he hadn't thought about in years, and who was super mean to him, set him a little closer to remembering the past of what life was like before the war.