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
After the deportation, rumors spring up about what had happened to the Jews that were taken: that the Nazis killed them with in gas trucks and then used their bodies to make soap. Life in the ghetto continues, however. Those who can work are less likely to be taken away, so Yanek finds a job in a tailor shop.
Even though the rumors are horrific, they are not far from the truth. Gratz continues to foreshadow the overwhelming brutality and inhumanity that many Jews experience at the concentration camps.
Themes
One day after work, Yanek happens to go by a friend’s house instead of going straight home. When he heads home, he sees men and women being deported along the way. Yanek hides, hoping to escape the same fate. Among the crowd, Yanek thinks he sees Mina and Oskar, but he isn’t sure. He dashes all the way home and finds his cousin Sala. She explains, sobbing, that the Nazis picked up Yanek’s parents while they were going to get bread.
Here, Yanek starts to experience hardships firsthand, as he’ll likely never see his parents again. The loss of his family at such a young age is a deep trauma in and of itself, and going forward, Yanek will be forced to take on a great deal of responsibility for himself now that he is alone.
Themes
Yanek is devastated—his family is gone. He wonders if he should give himself up to the Nazis, but he knows that his parents would not want him to do so. He feels a sense of determination rising within him and resolves to survive rather than give up. At 13 years old, Yanek is on his own, but he affirms that he will make it.
