Prisoner B-3087: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

The Americans immediately take the survivors away from Dachau. They travel by train to Munich, where the Allies will house them temporarily. When Yanek is shown his new room, he asks how many people he has to share the bunk with. The soldier replies that he’ll have it to himself, which shocks Yanek. He’s further amazed when the soldier give him a blanket, a pillow, sheets, a washcloth, a cup, and a toothbrush. Yanek cries as he picks up the toothbrush, remembering the day at the water pump when he’d marveled at the luxury of this simple object. He feels that the Americans are granting him his life back.

That night in the dining hall, Yanek sits in a chair at a table for the first time in six years. He looks at the silverware reverently. Yanek is amazed at the food they are brought: roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and rolls. A man at the table starts to cry, and the Americans don’t know what to do. Yanek asks him to pass the salt, and the man looks up and starts to laugh through his tears. Yanek wonders if the Americans, or anyone, could ever understand how amazing this simple meal was.

As they eat, Yanek thinks back to the day the war began, eating with his family in his old apartment in Kraków. He remembers Mina, Oskar, Uncle Moshe, Aunt Gizela, and the rest of his family. He also thinks of Fred, and the boy who had been hanged, and all the other people he watched die. He thinks that he’ll always carry the dead with him. Despite the joy of liberation, Yanek knows that there is also a great deal of sadness in the room.

A few days later, Yanek is walking through Munich, still amazed that he can walk freely, when he spots Mrs. Immerglick. The woman bursts into tears, saying how good it is to see him. Yanek reminds her that the last time they saw each other, she yelled at him for bouncing a ball in the hall. Mrs. Immerglick laughs and says that she wishes she could go back to that moment and start again. She tells him that her son survived, but no one else. She also tells Yanek that his cousin, Youzek, is alive and in Munich. Yanek is amazed to learn that he still has family alive.

Yanek immediately goes to Youzek’s address, where Youzek welcomes him through tears. They exchange stories: Youzek and his wife, Hela, had survived by hiding with friends. They lived in an apartment with another family named the Gamzers who had survived the same way. Yanek meets the Gamzers: Isaac, Barbara, and a 12-year-old girl named Luncia. Isaac asks what Yanek plans to do now, and Yanek explains that he likes movies and that he might try to get a job as a projectionist.

Youzek suggests that Yanek should go to America to build a new life, explaining that there is a program for Jewish orphans to immigrate to America. Yanek starts to grow excited about the idea, remembering the old American movies he loved. He registers for the program and fills out forms, changing his name to Jacob Gruener. He calls himself Jack, like the American soldiers called him. The process takes years, during which time Isaac and Barbara become like second parents to Yanek.

Yanek’s papers finally come through in March of 1948. Though he is sad to leave Youzek, Hela, and the Gamzers, he is determined to go. He arrives at the train station, which will take him to a ship to the United States. It is almost a decade since the Nazis had rolled into Kraków. Yanek had lost his mother and father, uncles, aunts, and other cousins. He thinks that he’ll always miss and remember them, but that there is nothing left in Europe for him now. He steps on board the train. He thinks that he’s spent the past nine years doing everything possible to survive—now, he can begin living.