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
Three days later, Yanek arrives at Sachsenhausen camp. Luckily, the Nazis do not make the prisoners work immediately, instead sending them to the barracks with soup and bread. At night, even though Yanek shares a bed with five other men, he falls asleep instantly, grateful to be out of the cold. The next day, Yanek sees that the camp is filled with corpses stacked on top of each other. Yanek washes at the pump, and he remembers out of the blue the first day his mother brought home a toothbrush for him. He marvels at how amazing it was to own this simple object.
Yanek receives another lucky break, in that the soldiers at Sachsenhausen allow them to rest. If they’d been made to work immediately, this could have meant Yanek’s death after going three days without food. However, Yanek’s memory of the toothbrush emphasizes the lack of hygiene and basic human decency at the camps, as something as basic as a toothbrush now seems like the height of luxury.
Themes
Yanek lines up for roll call, and the prisoners are made to stand for hours in the snow. One man wipes the sleet from his face, and the Nazis order him to give a “Sachsenhausen salute,” forcing him to squat with his hands out in front of him. If he moved, he would be killed. It is only later, when the prisoners have forgotten about him, that the man falls over—unconscious or dead. The guards drag him away. After this, one of the prisoners breaks off and throws himself onto the electric barbed wire, killing himself. The Germans laugh, inviting others to follow.
This incident is yet another example of how the Nazis’ cruelty and injustice knowing no bounds. The prisoner did nothing other than wipe the sleet from his face, and yet he is condemned to die for it. Additionally, the prisoner’s suicide here indicates the extent of their horrific treatment—for him, dying a painful death by electrocution is better than continuing to endure the torture of the Nazis.
Themes
After roll call, Yanek and the others are put to work breaking rocks. At lunch, six young men are pulled away from their watery soup and hard bread. They nervously wonder what’s going to happen, only to discover that they are being taken to the soldier’s canteen. There they are made to sing for an hour as the soldiers laugh and talk and eat enormous meals. That afternoon, Yanek chops firewood, telling himself that every swing brings him closer to the arrival of the Allies. Yanek hopes that the war will end before the Nazis kill him.
Even though Yanek is continually subjected to starvation and humiliation, he is able to keep his determination. He knows that he is not far from liberation, so long as he can stay alive to see it. This knowledge fuels him, and keeping that optimism is crucial to ensuring that he can stay alive.
Themes
