Prisoner B-3087 is a book about the holocaust, and about how the main character Yanek moves from camp to camp and experiences many horrors. He has to go through 10 camps before he is freed by american troops and moves to the states to live the rest of his life. There are many quotes in this book that have quite a bit of weight, but I picked two that I felt needed to be talked about.
It was all a big joke. I could see that now. There was no rhyme or reason to whether we lived or died. One day it might be the man next to you at roll call who is torn apart by dogs. The next day it might be you who is shot through the head. You could play the game perfectly and still lose, so why bother playing at all?” ―Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087, Page 128 A major focus on the theme of futility is present in this book, as other prisoners are killed indiscriminately around him. He struggles to keep faith as regardless how hard he tries, everything and everyone falls around him. Everyone he meets in the camp dies, no matter how hard he tries to hide or protect them. Likewise, whenever he establishes accustoms himself to a camp or learns its ways, he is moved to a different one to suffer all over again. This was why prisoners went meekly to their deaths. I had been so resolved to fight back, but I knew then that I wouldn't. To suffer quietly hurt only you. To suffer loudly, violently, angrily--to fight back--was to bring hurt and pain and death to others.” ― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087, Page 111 As the first quote displayed the theme of futility, this shows the theme of hopelessness, as even if even if a few people escaped misery, the majority will suffer. One of the reasons that the camp prisoners broke so quickly was how violently the Nazis punished those who protested by shooting randomly into crowds into prisoners. This took a toll on prisoners, as after having experienced a few of those mass executions, their will to fight was crushed.
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My book is about a kid named Yanek, who is dragged through a Jewish ghetto and ten separate concentration camps. He faces starvation, slave labor, and being surrounded by death, but he survives. The topic that I’ve chosen affects people like Yanek, survivors of these camps who had nowhere to go after the war, Israel was one of their options, but it sure has its problems
In 1917 the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, hoping to gain favor with the Jewish population by establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. They honored that declaration, and between 1920 and 1939, the Jewish population of Palestine increased by over 320,000. However in 1936, nationalist Palestinian Arabs revolted against the British. This was stopped by the British with the help of Jewish militias, but this increased tensions between the Palestinians and the Jewish population. Then ww2 happened, after the war Britain realized that Palestine was getting out of hand, and handed the issue to the newly created UN. Their solution was to cut Palestine in to two separate states, one for Jews (which had a population surge due to immigration form holocaust survivors), and one for Palestinians. though shortly after, the Arab-Israeli war broke out. Israel won, and claimed a third more land than they started with. after more conflict, they took massive swaths of land, which the UN quickly took from them to maintain peace, All the while Jewish immigrants are arriving after the holocaust. A series of Intifadas began, as Palestinians protested the Israeli occupation of their land. these quickly turned violent, and the Israelis silenced them with overwhelming force. A wall was built and violence continues to this day, with no end in sight, the Palestinians using suicide attacks, and other fear-mongering tactics, while Israel uses illegal weapons and extreme overkill in retribution. If you survived the horrors of the holocaust, and you were told that this was your best option for rejoining society, would you do it? Would you escape one war just to walk right into another one? this was the issue that many holocaust survivors faced. Prisoner B-3087 is inspired by the story of Jack Gruener, a holocaust survivor who survived 10 different concentration camps. He lived in Poland before the war, and watched as rules and restrictions were placed on Jews until they were forced into ghettos. Considering that the book is based on Yanek and other survivors' personal accounts of what happened, it is safe to say that the historical information is reliable, although some events may have been exaggerated in the making of the book. When the book begins, Yanek and his family are talking about the invasion of Poland. Yanek's dad believes that the war will end quickly and they will not be affected. "Mark my words: This war won't last more than six months". Not long after, church bells signal that the city has been captured. This is accurate, as Germany swept across Poland faster than anyone expected. The story then follows the family as they are forced into a Jewish ghetto. Where they are given rations and have to follow any rules the Nazis put in place. after a while his parents are taken to a camp, and he follows soon after. Real Yanek actually went to 10 camps, but some of the details of the treatment were taken from the stories of other survivors. The most important and depressing detail about these camps is how the guards seem to forget about the humanity of the prisoners. "It was all a big joke. I could see that now. There was no rhyme or reason to whether we lived or died. One day it might be the man next to you at roll call who is torn apart by dogs. The next day it might be you who is shot through the head. You could play the game perfectly and still lose, so why bother playing at all?” As Yanek works his way through the camps, his resolve begins to deteriorate, and he frequently shifts between determined and borderline suicidal, wanting one of the allied planes to bomb the camp. This phase doesn't last long, as soon after he begins to act this way, the camp is liberated by american soldiers and the story comes to a close.
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AuthorI probably wont post much other than school stuff Archives
April 2018
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