Prisoner B-3087

by

Alan Gratz

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Prisoner B-3087: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Each morning, Amon Goeth sits on the balcony of his home overlooking the camp and shoots Jews in the parade grounds while listening to music on his record player. Yanek explains that if someone rushed through trying not to be shot, Goeth would shoot at the person on purpose. The best way not to be shot is to have a job somewhere else. Yanek works at the tailor shop, and Uncle Moshe works in a furrier shop. There is always a danger of being killed at roll call, but Yanek learns from Moshe how to be anonymous and avoid this fate.
Amon Goeth’s madness continues to show Yanek how one’s death in the camps can be simply due to bad luck, but there are ways in which determination can provide fewer chances to be unlucky. By working hard at his job at the tailor’s, Yanek is able to avoid this terrible fate. Additionally, at roll call, Yanek’s anonymity continues to afford protection from these random deaths.
Themes
Determination and Luck Theme Icon
Identity vs. Anonymity Theme Icon
When the tailor shop closes down, Moshe trades his daily rations to a kapo (a prisoner put in charge of other prisoners) to get Yanek assigned to a new job outside the camp. Yanek is brought back to the Kraków ghetto, which has been completely liquidated.  The Nazis tell Yanek and the other prisoners that the ghetto must be cleaned to eradicate any Jewish contamination. They are to search for anything of value, and if they steal anything for themselves, they will be killed.
The fact that Moshe can get another job for Yanek outside the camp illustrates the importance of their relationship and the support that they afford each other. Without this, Yanek would be forced to remain in the camp and would be in much more danger from Amon Goeth.
Themes
Connection vs. Isolation Theme Icon
Yanek is overcome by his memories as he walks through the neighborhood, particularly because he is assigned to clean out the apartment building where he had lived. He remembers his parents and friends, missing them deeply. As he climbs the stairs, he starts to smell something putrid from Mr. Tatarka’s flat. When he opens the door, he finds Mr. Tatarka dead in a pool of his own blood. Yanek retches and sobs, running up to the roof to get a breath of fresh air.
For Yanek, returning to the Kraków ghetto and remembering all that he’s lost serves as a reminder of how much trauma he has already endured in the time since he left the ghetto. His visit and these memories also illuminate how much Yanek has grown based on what he has witnessed and experienced in the concentration camps.
Themes
Coming of Age, Trauma, and Remembrance Theme Icon
When Yanek is up in the pigeon coop, he notices Oskar’s coat in the corner. He puts the coat on to try to remember the smell of his father, and he feels a lump in one of the sleeves. Yanek remembers with excitement that there is money sewn into the linings. Yanek rips the seams open and finds 1,000 zloty. He then finds his own old coat and finds another 1,000 zloty. Using an old needle and thread, and his skills from the tailor shop, Yanek sews the money into the lining of his own prison uniform, disguising it well.
This is one of the lucky breaks that significantly aids in Yanek’s survival. Knowing that he could be killed for taking the money, Yanek sews it into his clothes—proving how Yanek reaps the rewards of both determination and luck.
Themes
Determination and Luck Theme Icon
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Yanek continues to work the rest of the day, sorting through clothes and household items. He inspects the clothes to see if anyone else had the same idea as his mother, and he finds a pair of diamond earrings, which he hooks inside his jacket under his arms. The Nazis don’t check the prisoners upon their return—likely because two years of imprisonment and raids had bled the ghetto of anything worth owning. When Yanek returns, he tells Moshe to meet him in his barracks at dinner. And when he asks the score, Moshe replies, “Goeth nineteen, Jews nil.”
Yanek receives yet another lucky break as he looks through more clothes and tries to find more money. But perhaps his luckiest chance is that the Nazis do not check to see whether he has taken anything. This luck is underscored when, upon his return, he is presented with the tragic deaths of 19 people in the camps. While they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Yanek happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Themes
Determination and Luck Theme Icon