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
Yanek is now at the Trzebinia concentration camp. One day, he and some other prisoners are tasked with moving an immense pile of large rocks from one side of a field to another, all the while being beaten by SS officers. Once it is complete, the officers tell the prisoners to move the pile back. Yanek was transferred to Trzebinia shortly after arriving at the salt mine. He thinks that Trzebinia is worse than the other camps, because the Nazis here like to play games, as if the prisoners are just toys. Yanek fumes as he starts to move the rocks back, but knows that if he allowed himself to be provoked he would be beaten as punishment.
The conditions at Trzebinia exhibit a new angle of the Nazis’ cruelty. While other concentration camps primarily used fear tactics, at Trzebinia they play torturous games with the prisoners. This dynamic reaffirms how the Nazis do not view the Jews and other prisoners as people of any value—merely as a means of entertainment whose lives don’t matter. Yanek, however, continues to show his determination and refuses to be provoked by the Nazis.
Themes
Yanek knows that to them the Jewish prisoners are “lower than animals,” because they’re disposable—more Jews will continue arriving at the camps to replace those who are killed. Yanek furiously thinks that he and the other prisoners shouldn’t withstand this treatment. He thinks that they should not be trying to survive—they should be trying to win. He knows that the prisoners could overcome the Nazis if they all rose up at once, because there are more of them. He vows not to be killed without a fight.
Yanek’s fury is born out of this understanding that the Nazis treat them as “lower than animals,” and as though their lives are worthless. This knowledge is perhaps what motivates his determination a little too much, as he thinks about risking a rebellion against the Nazis. But given that the Nazis are armed while the prisoners are physically weak and defenseless, it’s likely that only quiet acts of resistance and luck can truly ensure one’s survival.
Themes
That night at roll call, another prisoner has the same thought as Yanek. Instead of allowing himself to be beaten, the man strikes one of the soldiers. Yanek looks around to see if anyone will join in, excited at the prospect, but no one does. The prisoner who fought back is instantly shot. The commandant hurries onto the grounds and accuses a boy next to the man who fought back of being part of the plot to escape. The boy protests, but the guards grab him. The commandant continues to call out people who he claims were part of the plot, randomly choosing them in a blind fury. Seven innocent people, including the boy, are brought up to the makeshift gallows in front of the yard.
Yanek is immediately provided with a lesson as to why it is better not to resist: the Nazis are so inhumane that to fight back means not only that the resister will die, but that others will as well. Additionally, this is another example that Gratz provides of how prisoners need luck in order to survive the camps. Even though the boy and the six other prisoners are completely innocent and did nothing wrong, they are randomly chosen to die as punishment for the first man’s rebellion.
Themes
The boy sobs as they put a noose around his neck, arguing that he did nothing wrong. Yanek realizes then that fighting back only means dying quickly and putting others in harm’s way. The boy’s last words implore the other prisoners to remember that he did nothing—that he was innocent. The hangman kicks out the chair from under the boy, and the boy’s body jerks. Yanek watches and vows never to forget the boy.
Just as Yanek knows that he must survive for the sake of his family, he also starts to understand part of the burden of the trauma that he is experiencing. As Yanek continues to mature and approach adulthood, he feels a sense of responsibility to remember others who have died, who are not able to grow up as he is.
Themes
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