Prisoner B-3087

Yanek feels determined to survive yet apathetic after the shower incident. He realizes that his life and the lives of the prisoners are “a game to the Nazis—kill us, don’t kill us, to them it didn’t matter” (130). The Nazi guards forced Yanek and the other prisoners through a line, where their heads are shaved and they’re given tattoos to mark their identity.

Yanek settles into his muddy, cramped bunk and finds a wooden horse that must have been left by a child who died in camp. That night a man asks if anyone will stand for his son’s bar mitzvah. Everyone is hesitant, but Yanek stands, remembering the makeshift bar mitzvah his father gave him. Other men stand after Yanek.

Life at Birkenau is crowded, unsanitary, and difficult. Yanek decides that taking care of his body is the best way to survive. Washing up and taking care of his teeth makes him clean and helps him “remember what is was like to be human” (136). At night the prisoners are forced to use one barrel to relieve themselves. This is a difficult task since there are “two barrels for five hundred people” (138).

Yanek and the other prisoners are awoken in the middle of the night for roll call—an unusual experience. Some men broke free from the camp, and the other prisoners must stand outside in the cold until they are found. Yanek is secretly cheering for the runaways, and his heart sinks when they are brought back bloody and bruised by the Nazi guards. The guards shoot the runaways in front of the prisoners, and then they start randomly shooting prisoners in the line.

Yanek is now at Auschwitz, and he witnesses new prisoners coming into camp. They still have their clothes and personal belongings, and they appear healthy. Yanek feels sorry for them because they have no idea what’s coming. The Nazi guards lie to the new prisoners for amusement, and the new prisoners look down on the seasoned prisoners for appearing so dirty and thin.

Yanek watches as a new family is separated. The man will be sent to work while the mother and child will be murdered. The father is hopeful that they will somehow survive, and Yanek realizes this hope comes from naivety: the newcomers “didn’t know the games the Nazis played yet” (152).

Yanek wakes up one morning to see that his bunkmate is dead. A fellow prisoner who is Yanek’s age, Fred, suggests that they should take the dead man’s bread. Yanek and Fred eat the dead man’s bread and become “inseparable in the camp. We stood together at roll call, we ate together, we tried to get on the same work detail” (160). Yanek knows he’s going against Uncle Moshe’s advice, but it feels good to have a friend.

One morning Fred can’t get out of bed because he’s too sick. The Nazi guards beat him up for not getting out of bed. Yanek tries to stop them, but he knows that he will be killed if he interferes. At roll call the Nazi guards drag Fred out in front of everyone and hang him. Devastated, Yanek makes “another vow never to forget” (163) his friend.