Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. But in just a blink of an eye, their city was invaded by the Germans beginning WW11. 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.

Yaneks 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 to 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.

Yanek has a roller coaster of feelings and emotions. His family was taken from him. They may be dead or somewhere being tortured and alive. He is ready to give up and just let the Nazis kill him. Yanek realizes that this is not what his parents want him to do. So he keeps on fighting and wanting to live. Yanek gets transported to a new place, Plaszow. He is ready to give but he sees his Uncle Moshe. Uncle Moshe tells him, "Your parents, Oskar and Mina. They are dead and gone now, Yanek and we would grieve for them if we could. But we have only one purpose now: to survive. Survive at all costs, Yanek. We cannot let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world." (pg 70) Uncle Moshe bribes an SS officer for Yanek to be able to get out of the camp away from Amonth Goeth. Yanek and other fellow prisoners were loaded into a car. A million thoughts go through Yanek's head. He is wondering if the car is going to stop and the Nazis are going to shoot them all on the spot and leave them by the side of the road. Instead, Yanek is back in a place that looks very similar. It was his home. The Krakow ghetto. Luckily Yanek was assigned his flat area. Yanek runs upstairs back into the pigeon coop. He puts on his father's jacket to remember him and his mother. Yanek feels something funny on the inside of the pocket. It was pockets his mother sewn on after their flat was invaded by the Judenrat and Nazis. Yanek grabs this money and keeps on looking for other valuables. When he gets back to camp he finds his uncle Moshe and show him all of the valuables he has found. Uncle Moshe tells Yanek he will find a safe place for it and buy food once in a every while. His uncle buys him a fresh loaf of bread and one night a mushy carrot. Yanek was so grateful. One night Yanek was looking around for Uncle Moshe. Yanek asked Amonth Goeths kill count of the day. He says 1 and it was your uncle. Yanek is so heart broken and in disbelief. The money lost and all of the extra food is now gone.

One morning, Yanek was loaded onto a truck and taken to a new place. This new place was Wieliczka Salt Mine. Yanek was taken down an elevator 1,000 feet down, walking through many channels, pitch-black water covering the bottom. The only source of light is the helmets. He reaches a Cathedral. He thinks to himself there is still beauty within this terrible ugly world. The next morning comes. He was going back down all of the elevators and channels and going back to work. While he's working the Kapo screamed with confusion. There lay a dead body with salt within all of the wounds. It was the Judenrat. The other prisoners had to drag the dead body and drop it into the water below them and get back to work.

Yanek is tired of all of these jobs he has to do for the Nazis. He reaches the Trzebinia the guards are horrible. They make Yanek and all of the other prisoners move rocks back and forth for no reason just to work to work. Yanek sees all of the violence these guards have towards all of the prisoners. If they don't like how you look at them you could be beaten or just killed. Yanek has so much fury and anger. He wants all of the prisoners to gang up and over through the guards at the camp. One prisoner steps up grabs one of the guard's clubs and hits him with it. That prisoner was shot on the spot right in the head. Then the guards said that these other people were involved and hung them. The Nazis where blaming a bunch of Jews who were scapegoats. Yanek has so much fear that he may die for no reason just because of someone else's choices. Yanek accepts that the guards will just beat you for no reason and just keep on going and not giving up.

One day Yanek and a whole bunch of other Jews were loaded in a cattle car. It smelled like pee and other feces as well. In such a small space, tons of Jews were loading in. Luckily enough Yanek got a good spot, by the ventilation. This ride took 4 days with no food and water. There was no bathroom so Yanek realized why the train smelt like that. When the train came to a stop, it was at an ordinary place with ordinary people. Little kids were shouting at them saying how they were awful people and how they should die already. They were throwing snowballs at them. Yanek was lucky enough to get some of the snow to drink. The train starts moving again with snow dripping down. Yanek tried to raise his arm but there was a person on it. This person was dead. Finally, they met another train and they asked each other where they are going. The other train said Birkenau the death camp. Yanek had never heard of Birkenau but other Jews knew they said that you go there to die not work. There was smoke coming out of the chimneys from people being burned alive. The cattle car waited outside while this smoke came out of the chimneys. Everyone was kicked out of the cattle car and brought into a room where they had to take off their clothes and go into a room with shower heads. It was a gas room and all of them thought that they were going to die. Then cold water came out of the shower heads. It was like a rebirth.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

Yanek's lowest point of the story is when he is waiting for the gas to start shooting out of the shower heads. "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) Yanek was so much in his mind and he started having hallucinations and making up stories. Then he came back and realized his still alive and to keep on living. He was glad to be alive. At night, it's a boy's thirteenth birthday so it's his bar mitzvah. It made Yanek remember his bar mitzvah. Yaneks was in a basement with his father and uncles and a family friend. Yanek thinks how this boy should have one too. He tells the boy he shouldn't be ripped from the pages of this world. The boy resites the Torah.

Yanek is taken from Birkenau to Aushwitz. Yanek saw new people from ordinary towns with luggage. The Nazis took the people's luggage promising they would give it back. Yanek felt bad for all of these new prisoners because they didn't know what was coming. While people were being gassed in the chimneys their ashes flew through the air. A little girl opens her mouth because she thinks a just a snowflake. Yanek wanted to tell her that it was part of a human but he didn't have the heart to. As Yanek walks through the gates the Nazis tell them the only way out is through the chimneys. One day, a man next to Yanek dies and a person tells him to look in his pocket for food. There was a little piece of bread left and Yanek split it with this person. Later on, Yanek and Fred introduce themselves to each other. Yanek hasn't done this since Uncle Moshe died. Yanek and Fred starting bonding over things that they have in common, like age and having no family. They start eating lunch together and getting the same work details. One morning Fred is saying he doesn't feel good and how he can't get up. The kapo walks in and tells Yanek to go in roll call. The kapo dragged Fred out and hung him in front of everyone. Yanek tries to fight back the tears and not cry. Yanek has finally found someone who has clicked with and now he's gone. Yanek recited a prayer for a loved one's loss. Another morning passes and they hear bombs drop. The Nazis are in a rush to get them out. That's when the death march started. Yanek cheered a little because he knew that the British and other armies are going to come and set them free. The walk begins. Some people have no shoes and they only have half of loaf of bread to last their whole march. Many people died from starvation and just getting shot. The Nazis showed the prisoners mercy and allowed them to sing a special song in their languages.

After Yanek walks for 13 days with only half of loaf that he lost, he finally reaches Sanchsenhausen. They don't put them to work right away but The guards are terrible. Beating people for no reason. People jumping into the electric fence and having to do the Sachsenhausen salute for just moving at roll call. Dead bodies lying all around like trees in a forest. The little amount of food Yanek gets is just some watery gross soup and a hard piece of bread. Yanek holds this piece of bread like a dragon holds its treasures. Yanek and some other Jews get taken by a Nazi soldier. He's wondering if he's going to die and be shot on the spot. Instead, he takes them to a place where all of the soldiers eat and make him sing. He realizes how much this is a joke to them. They don't care.

Yanek reaches Begen-Belsen, and a man comes in the cattle car and starts picking out a bunch of people. Yanek wasn't picked. He was scared he didn't know what group he was in. Then a bunch of gunshots go off. Those people were the people who were considered not able to work. The man yells and says why would you bring me people who can't work. Then he says a week's break so they can become strong good workers. Yanek receives this delicious meaty soup with a fresh loaf of bread. He hasn't seen this type of meal since the beginning of the war. Since Yanek hasn't eaten any real food for a while it kills his stomach. Everyone's stomach is upset because of how healthy the food is. Yanek starts trading his soup for another loaf of bread because it would be better for him. Then a Nazi soldier calls Yanek over and he starts beating him. He says its because you gave me a dirty look. These beatings carried on every time Moon Face saw Yanek. One night all of the prisoners were called for a new transportation. Yanek wants to live because of Moon Face. The challenge is a race. A race to run through all of the barracks naked. Yanek races through all of the barracks and he is chosen to leave from Bergen-Belsen. Yanek is finally away from Moon Face for good.

The jobs were awful. Carrying rocks and breaking rocks in the cory. Being killed if you grab too big of a rock and you drop it or grab too small of a rock. A zoo located in the middle of the camp filled with well-fed animals. Steaks and fresh vegetables are being fed to the animals. Yanek's so angry he is being treated way less than an animal. The guards are so cruel towards the prisoners even the animals. Two guards tie a leather belt thing around an antler of a deer. This made Yanek's blood boil these guards were torturing these animals. These got in trouble they got their zoo privileges taken away. Yanek couldn't believe the guards were being punished for hurting an animal but not humans. It was the end of the war. There were not enough Jews left so they started transporting Jews from place to place to have enough workers.

There aren't enough Jews left. Nazis have to take Jews camp to camp because of how there is none left. Again back in a cattle car. Smooshed in. Tons of dead bodies surrounding Yanek. Death has been so common to Yanek that it doesn't even bother him anymore. When they arrive they receive just a night's rest before the hard work begins. Just a small meal to start the day. A Nazi calls over to Yanek and says "You're missing a button do you know the punishment" Yanek doesn't know and says it must have fallen off after the march. Yanek receives 20 lashes but every time he messes up counting in German they restart. Yanek is in so much physical and mental pain. His back screaming and bleeding in pain. Going to bed on his stomach to avoid hurting his back even more. One day at Gross-Rosen, they were being transported again. Another death march. Yanek has finally experienced some kindness from the Czechs. They were throwing and leaving out food. Yanek couldn't get any food. Yanek sees a soldier with 4 fresh loaves. Yanek tries to keep up with him. He sees his face. Its moon face. At night, Yanek has the courage to go up to moon face and asked him for a piece of bread. He put a knife to his throat and slaces him. Then moon face has some humanity and rips off a piece of bread for them.

Yanek was taken to the Dachau Concentration camp because the Allies kept up with them. It was pure chaos—no work at all. He was cold and hungry. Everyone was sick. Some coughing up blood. No Nazi or soldier did anything to help or treat anyone who had typhus. Yanek was surprised; every day he woke without feeling sick was a miracle. Bombing during the night and day. Gunshots going off. Yanek wanted to not waste the sleep he was able to get. Some people were going and peeking outside to see what was going on. One morning, Yanek and the other prisoners woke up. A prisoner peeked outside and noticed there were no Nazis. Yanek and other prisoners thought it was another trick. They thought the Nazis were going to jump out and shoot them all. They thought it was another mind game of theirs. It wasn't though. Instead, there were soldiers. American soldiers. Yanek fell to his knees he's wondering if this is really over. "Had I really made it? Had I actually survived the Krakow ghetto and ten other concentration camps? I had been ten when the war started. Now I was sixteen. For more than six years I was a prisoner of the Nazis. Prisoner B-3087. Now it was all over." (pg 245) An American soldier walks over to Yanek and asks for his name. Yanek is in disbelief. The soldier tells him it is all over now.

Yanek and other prisoners are very reluctant to go on a truck ride. He is so scared that they are lying but he is liberated after a short truck ride. Yanek finally reaches Munich. They are brought into a room filled with bunks and mattresses. Yanek is brought to a bed and told it is his. Yanek asks the American how many people do I have to serve this with. He says none. Yanek is so much disbelief. He hasn't had his own bed since he was in the Krakow Ghetto. He even had a blanket, pillows, and sheets. When Yanek finally lays in the bed he is so excited he finally has a bed with springs. An actual bed! Yanek even has a washcloth, a cup, and a toothbrush. Yanek starts having flashbacks about how he used to brush his teeth with his figure. Such a small thing is worth so much to him. The Americans were giving him his life back. At dinner time, he is brought to a room with chairs. Yanek hadn't seen or sat in a chair for such a long time and even a table. Everyone ate the same food. Yanek grabs his silverware and looks at it like some type of artifact. They brought out huge plates filled with food. Mashed potatoes with gravy, baskets of rolls, and roast beef. A man crossed from Yanek started crying in happiness he had finally had real food. Yanek asks a man to pass him the salt the man starts crying and laughing and says yes I will pass the salt. Yanek is so grateful. Then Yanek realizes no one will ever understand what they went through. Even through research and stories they will feel or be treated how they were treated. When Yanek is walking down the street. Yanek sees a familiar face. It was his old cranky neighbor Mrs. Immerglick. Yanek is in so much disbelief. It was someone who he knew. Yanek starts talking to her and she says your cousin is alive. Yanek has some family alive. Yanek goes over to Mrs. Immerglick's house he sees a little girl reading a book and not saying a word. Mrs. Immerglick and some other families were in hiding. They told Yanek that he should move to America to make a new life to have a better life. Yanek sends in a thing to the Jewish orphan program. It took 3 years to be accepted. Yanek finally moved to America. The little girl he saw reading the book is who he got married to. The love of his life, Ruth Gamzer.