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 look up them but as the war continues Yanek begins to doubt his fathers 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 your parents for the first time is a struggle for Yanek especially in war-torn Poland.

Throughout these few chapter many terrible things happen to Yanek that make him feel alone. His parents both got taken off the streets and soon after his aunts, Uncles,and cousins. He was all alone and had no one to care for him. A couple days later the Natzis snatched him up while he was still at work and taken to Kraków-Plaszów, a nearby labor camp, that needed more workers. He felt alone and no worth. Soon after he arrived he found Moshe at the same camp and they secretly talked together and Moshe told him that now he is a no one.

Yanek soon arrives to the wieliczka salt mine where they gave him a tour all around the mine. The kapo shows them the room where they will be working along with shovels and carts. The Kapo warns them that its possible for them to slip away but will never find there way out with no food but salt and salt water. They soon go to another camber with kings and queens carved out of salt, Yanek wishes that they could come alive and save them, Yanek feels hopeless. After they arrive to there barracks he sees 2 men confronting a guy that he seen on the ride there that looked so familiar to yanek. Yanek realized that the man used to be Holtzman judenrat police man that raided his flat. Yanek feels enraged. The morning they woke up and start working they soon hear a Kapo scream in terror, Yanek looks around and sees holtszman head caved in from a shovel with salt in his wounds.

Yanek is sent to the Trzebinia concentration camp, where the conditions are terrible. When he arrives, the camp is overcrowded, and the prisoners are forced to sleep in cramped, dirty spaces. Yanek is put to work in a factory, doing hard labor that wears him down every day. The food is terrible, and the prisoners are constantly hungry

Yaneks literal journy was very harsh, Jewish people were loaded into cattal carts on a train with hundreds of Jews where some died of suffocation and starvation. Yanek described the cart smell like throw up and many more nasty things. They were being shipped like materials with no worth,They didn't have any water or food for the next couple days. The ride was long and hot, but Yanek was lucky to get fresh air from the cracks. The man next to yanek dies right on yaneks shoulder.

Yanek figurative journy

Yanek is at his lowest point on page 128-130 after he arrvies to Birkenau, The Jews have to sit in the cart for half of a day and finally there hauled into a room that they think its a gas chamber. Yanek realized that he could not survive this, He started laughing and yelling "you win kill me " and begging for death until water coming spraying out. Cheers happen all around, Yanek realized that he's lucky to make it this long and wont give up.

when Yanek arrives at Auschwitz, the camp is terrifying. The guards are harsh, and the prisoners are treated like animals. He’s forced to march with other men through the snow, and they’re barely given enough food to survive. Yanek says the barracks are crowded and disgusting  with barely any space to sleep. Every day, the prisoners have to work all day under brutal conditions, with the constant fear of being beaten or killed. The whole camp smells like death, and Yanek doesn’t know if he will make it out alive this time.

yanek just arrived to sachsenhuasen after walking the death march for ten days, Yanek would rather die than be alive but the natzis finally let them rest after feeding them some soup and bread but they wouldt just yet let them rest they made them wait awhile before they could go to their baracks. Morning soon rised and they were matched out to wash up then they took roll call in the freezing weather.

yanek is once again being shipped off. This time to Bergen-belsen, They went though cattle cars again many prisoners died of suffocation and starvation but not yanek he pulled through he wasn't ready yet. The natzis dropped three loaves of bread in the cart just to watch the Jews fight for it, When they arrive to the camp the commandant picked the weakest Jews and brought them to the side and shot them, He ordered all the other Jews to go to the barracks.they soon got fed rich soup and warm fresh bread,with a week full of no work.

Throughout this chapter many terrible things have happened to yanek. Yanek arrived to his new camp he got assigned to, As he got there he seen all the prisoners faces and they all look surprised,There faces are permanently stuck looking surprised , Yanek knew this camp would be one of the hardest ones he realized that this one is different it had a zoo and a Cinema, for all the natzis family. There was a women called "Witch" Her and her husband owned the camp, She went around with a check list and did roll call but she seen a Jew with a different tattoo and yanek never seen him after that day.

Yanek arrived to Gross-Rosen after a long train ride there, Once again a bunch of people dying from starvation and suffocation. Yanek hears bombs going off all around him and planes flying. Yanek is just waiting for a bomb to be dropped on the train, He could not take it anymore he's at his lowest. Once they started working making more barracks and thinks soon there will be " A bright,shining,beautiful future,where I didn't wear blue and gray stripes,where I eat 3 full meals a day,where I can have friends again" he hopes it all ends now.

Yanek’s hope is almost gone, but then a small flicker of light he finds that even in the worst moments, he still has something inside him to keep going. The brutal camp forces Yanek to toughen up and protect himself. It’s like he’s climbing up a mountain of pain and exhaustion, but every step he takes feels harder than the last. In the middle of this Yanek has moments where he thinks on what has happened to him, how much he has lost, and how his world has completely changed.

When the Americans arrive, it's like a burst of sunlight after years of darkness. Yanek is overwhelmed with emotions he’s exhausted, shocked, and almost doesn’t believe what he’s hearing. After all this time, after everything he’s gone through, the moment of rescue feels too good to be true. For a moment, he wonders if it’s just a dream.

But it’s real. The Americans have come to free him and the other prisoners. For Yanek, this moment is the end of his journey through pain and fear, but it’s also the beginning of something new. It’s like a heavy weight has been lifted off his shoulders, and for the first time in so long, he feels hope.