Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Prisoner B-3087, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Determination and Luck
Anti-Semitism and Cruelty vs. Humanity
Connection vs. Isolation
Coming of Age, Trauma, and Remembrance
Identity vs. Anonymity
Summary
Analysis
A few days later, Yanek is put back to work in Plaszów, and Moshe is no longer there to help get him a job outside the camp. The work is brutal, and sometimes Yanek can barely get up out of his bunk. When he returns one evening, he collapses in the barracks and cannot even carry himself to his bunk. He desperately yearns for someone to help him, but he knows that they barely have energy to spare for themselves. He thinks how much he misses Moshe, and how much he needs a friend.
Even though Moshe counselled Yanek not to form any connections with any other prisoners, Yanek starts to feel the isolation and the despair that comes with a lack of support. He recognizes that he needs someone to help him in place of Moshe—even though Yanek is mature beyond his years, he’s still a young boy who needs companionship and parental guidance.
Themes
When Yanek starts to get up from the floor, he notices a loose floorboard. He pulls the board loose and finds a space wide enough to sit inside. He thinks that tomorrow after roll call, he could disappear into it instead of showing up for his job—they would simply think he had been reassigned. Yanek feels “Moshe’s hand, helping [him] up.” He thinks to himself that he is not a Muselmann yet.
Gratz illustrates how luck can spur determination. Yanek is lucky to have found the crawl space under the floor, but it also lights a spark in him that makes him determined not to give up. Thus, his continued survival is a combination of both determination and luck.
Themes
The next morning after roll call, Yanek shows two boys from his barrack, Thomas and Isaac, the hole in the floor. He knows he should look out for himself, but he understands that they could provide friendship, and he could give them the help that he himself had so desperately needed. At first, Thomas protests that they would be killed for hiding, but Yanek points out that they’ll be worked to death otherwise. So the three of them begin to hide together during the day, sleeping and coming out only for roll call.
Yanek recognizes that reaching out and supporting others can afford prisoners life-saving benefits, which is why he chooses to reach out to Thomas and Isaac despite Moshe’s warning. This decision does in fact become crucial, as they are able to rest and regain their strength by hiding together.
Themes
Yanek explains that the more he, Thomas, and Isaac hide under the floor, the stronger they get. Gradually they sleep less and begin to talk about food, their homes, and their families. One day, however, they hear voices above in the middle of the day. Isaac looks out through the cracks in the wall, seeing Goeth and his dogs heading for their barracks. Knowing that the dogs would smell them instantly, Yanek makes a split-second decision to get out of the crawl space along with his friends and to replace the floorboard.
Gratz illustrates how connecting to other prisoners is lifesaving for Yanek because it allows him to regain his strength as well as parts of his identity. In talking about their homes and their families, the boys afford one another the ability to remember and express the most meaningful parts of their lives.
Themes
Get the entire Prisoner B-3087 LitChart as a printable PDF.
Yanek, Thomas, and Isaac come out of the barracks just as Goeth is entering. Goeth demands to know where they are going. Yanek explains that they were sent on a work detail to the south side of camp, trying not to shake. Goeth glares at Yanek but then walks by them. The boys run away as quickly as they can. Yanek thinks that in trying to survive, he’s come very close to dying, and he resolves never to hide under the floorboards again.
The combination of Yanek’s determination and luck once again comes into play. Yanek’s insistence that they hide has allowed the boys to regain some of their strength. He also shows his bravery and fortitude in leaving the crawl space just in time and in lying to Goeth. However, Yanek is exceptionally lucky that Goeth does not choose to kill them on the spot here—and so he chooses not to test that luck again.
Themes
