Prisoner B-3087

Amon Goeth is a Nazi guard who enjoys murdering the prisoners for fun. Yanek and the other prisoners keep count of how many prisoners Amon kills each day. He tries to steer clear of Amon by working in the tailor shop, but that job soon ends. Yanek is sent to work on the barracks, but this puts him in danger’s way, as Amon starts killing barrack workers who move too slow. Uncle Moshe trades “his daily rations to a kapo” (73) to get Yanek a different job away from Amon.

Yanek’s new job is cleaning out the Kraków ghetto. He is filled with sadness and nostalgia to be see the ghost of his former hometown. He is tasked with clearing out his former apartment building. He sneaks up to the pigeon coop that he shared with his parents and finds their old belongings. He puts on his father’s coat and finds that his mother has sewn money inside their jackets. He sews the money into his uniform using the skills he acquired working as a tailor.

Yanek show Uncle Moshe the money he found, and Uncle Moshe hides it for them. He uses the money to buy them extra food, like old bread and mushy carrots. Yanek is hopeful that he and Uncle Moshe will survive off of this extra food. These hopes are shattered after he comes back from working to hear that Uncle Moshe was murdered by Amon. Now Yanek is alone without family or extra money.

Yanek is being worked too hard and not given enough food. He realizes that he won’t last long under these conditions. As he’s lying on the floor without enough energy to make it into bed, he sees a loose floorboard. He realizes that there’s enough room for him to hide under the floor to rest his body and avoid work. He shows two boys his age the board and asks them to hide with him. They agree. He knows it’s risky to invite the boys because it goes against Uncle Moshe’s advice, but he “just couldn’t keep the secret from someone else who could use the help too” (90).

Yanek and the other boys hide under the floorboards during work duty. They grow stronger as they sleep and talk. One day Amon walks by with his dogs, and they realize they will be murdered if he finds them. They climb out before he finds them, and the ordeal makes Yanek decide to “never hide under the floorboards again” (94).

Yanek and a group of 50 prisoners are taken away to work in the salt mines. The salt mine is deep underground and makes Yanek feel claustrophobic. It’s cold underground, and the work is difficult. One day a man is murdered by the prisoners for being a former Judenrat.

The Nazi guards order Yanek and a group of other prisoners to carry heavy rocks from one end of a field to another. The labor is backbreaking. Once they move the rocks, the Nazi guards ask them to move the rocks back to their original position. This is the first time Yanek realizes the Nazis are playing games with their lives. There is no purpose to their work except the Nazis’ demented pleasure.

Yanek is mad at the guards for their abuse, but he’s “even angrier at [his] fellow prisoners” (109) for taking the abuse without fighting back. One night a prisoner retaliates after he’s hit by a Nazi guard. The guard murders both the man and random prisoners as well. Yanek realizes that standing up for yourself means other prisoners will have to pay. He understands that this is why no one fights back.

Yanek and the other prisoners are forced onto a train car by the Nazi guards. They are crammed in with “no food, no water, and no way to go to the bathroom” (115). The train ride is long and freezing, and the man standing beside Yanek dies. The train stops beside another train car, and a passenger in the other train tells Yanek that they’re headed toward Birkenau. He’s filled with dread to learn that Birkenau “isn’t a concentration camp. It’s a death camp” (121).