77 pages • 2 hours read
Prisoner B-3087
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Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 11: “Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp 1945”-Part 14: “Munich 1945”
Chapter 26 Summary
As prisoners die in the train car beside Yanek, he admits that he “almost couldn’t care anymore” (212) about the loss of life because it has become too common and overwhelming. Bombs fall all around the train, and when Yanek survives yet again, he has a renewed determination to live.
He follows Uncle Moshe’s advice and keeps to himself. One day a guard sentences him to 20 lashes for missing button on his uniform. After the beating he is thrown into his barrack. He can’t move due to the pain, but he recommits to living through this experience.
Chapter 27 Summary
This death march is littered with dead bodies, and Yanek wonders how people on the outside are OK with all this death. How “could they not see what was happening?” (223). They walk through German-controlled Czechoslovakia, and it’s clear that the Czech people hate “their Nazi overlords” (224). They leave food on their windowsills to feed the passing prisoners.
Moonface is now marching alongside the prisoners and scores the Czech donated bread. Yanek is so desperate to eat that when they stop for the evening he asks Moonface is he can have some of his bread. Moonface initially holds his knife close enough to Yanek’s throat to draw blood, but he soon puts his knife away and gives Yanek some of his bread.
Chapter 28 Summary
The prisoners are loaded onto a train according to their background. Yanek is put onto the Jewish train. Rumors spread that everyone on the Jewish train will be sent immediately to die. Yanek rips off the star on his uniform and decides that he will pretend to be Polish when they get off the train. His plan would have worked except that a Polish prisoner tells on him and he’s sent back with the other Jewish prisoners.
Chapter 29 Summary
Typhus spreads rapidly at the new camp. Despite the cramped and unsanitary living conditions, Yanek doesn’t catch the illness. As the bombs grow closer, the camp devolves into chaos. The Nazi guards don’t even force the prisoners to work. It seems they’re just waiting for end of the war.
One morning Yanek and the others wake up to find that the Nazi guards have abandoned the camp. The American soldiers enter the camp to liberate the prisoners.
Chapter 30 Summary
The American soldiers take Yanek and the other prisoners to safety. They give them food, shelter, and comfort, and Yanek thinks about all his loved ones who didn’t survive.
Yanek realizes that his cousin Youzek is still alive. He lives with Youzek’s family and hears about a relocation program where Jewish orphans can live in America. He applies for the program and is admitted after years of waiting. Meanwhile, he grows closer to his cousin’s family and the Gamzers, a family that helped his cousin survive the war.
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
As the bombs grow closer and the end of the war approaches, Yanek must struggle against an apathy that makes him want to give up. He witnesses more death and endures crushing starvation, but hearing the bombs renews his sense of hope. His desire to beat the Nazi guards and greet the American soldiers propels him to keep going.
Moonface is a character who complicates Yanek’s view of goodness in humanity. When Yanek first arrived at Bergen-Belsen, Moonface was a violent guard who assaulted and killed without reason. However, when he walks alongside Yanek and the other prisoners during one of the death marches, he shows Yanek inexplicable compassion by sharing his bread. This act of goodwill by a man who has previously shown Yanek violence reminds him that there are small graces even amid so much devastation and tragedy.
The novel ends with Yanek and the other prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp being liberated by American soldiers. Yanek is thankful to have survived, but he is also devastated by the loss of his family and friends. He acknowledges that his loved ones will always live on in him, and he resolves to move on with his life for those who lost theirs.
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By Alan Gratz
