Prisoner B-3807

Part 1: “Krakow, Poland 1939-1942”

Chapter 1

1. How old is Yanek Gruener in the beginning of the book?

2. What is the name of Yanek’s uncle?

3. What does Yanek say his family would have done if they had known what was about to happen?

Chapter 2

4. What group of soldiers takes over Krakow?

5. What must the Jewish residents use to obtain food instead of money?

6. What places is Janek disheartened that he is no longer allowed to go?

7. What must the Jewish residents wear?

Chapter 3

8. What do the Nazis build that prevents the Jews from leaving Krakow?

9. Why do Yanek’s parents force him to stay inside?

Chapter 4

10. Where do Yanek and his father sneak off to at night?

11. Why is Abraham allowed to keep his business open?

12. Who does Yanek’s father plan on secretly selling bread to?

Chapter 5

13. What is a “Judenrat?”

14. What does Yanek discover on the roof? What does he tell his family they should use it for?

Chapter 6

15. According to the Judenrat, how many Jewish residents have the Nazis requested to take away?

16. What does Yanek’s father sneak him out of the house to celebrate?

Chapter 7

17. How many Jewish residents do the Nazi soldiers collect by force?

18. Where does Yanek watch from as he sees people getting shot in the street?

Chapter 8

19. What do the Jewish people beleive will happen to the people who were taken during the “deportation?”

20. What happens to Yanek’s parents?

Part 2: “Plaszów Concentration Camp 1942-1943”

Chapter 9

21. What is Yanek working as in Krakow when the Nazis kidnap him? Where do they send him?

22. Which relative does Yanek see at the camp?

23. What happens to the person standing next to Yanek during roll call?

Chapter 10

24. What is the name of the Nazi guard who enjoys murdering the prisoners for fun?

25. Who has to trade their daily rations to a kapo?

26. What is Yanek’s new job? What does he have to clean out?

27. Where does Yanek find his parents’ old belongings?

28. What does Yanek find out his mother has sewn into their jackets?

Chapter 11

29. What does Uncle Moshe do with the money Yanek gives him?

30. Who murders Uncle Moshe?

Chapter 12

31. Where does Yanek hide in order to rest his body and avoid work?

32. Why does Yanek decide to “never hide under the floorboards again?”

Chapter 13

33. Where is Yanek taken away to work? How does this place make Yanek feel?

34. Why is the man murdered by the prisoners?

Chapter 14

35. What does Yanek realize about the Nazis after he is forced to carry heavy rocks from one end of a field to another?

36. Why does Yanek realize none of the prisoners fight back?

Chapter 15

31. What are Yanke and the other prisoners forced into by the Nazi guards?

32. What happens to the man standing beside Yanek?

33. What does the passenger in the other train tell Yanek that Birkenau is?

Chapter 16

34. What does Yanek think will happen to him at Birkenau?

35. What does Yanek believe the shower heads actually are? What do they turn out to be?

Chapter 17

36. What is Yanek and the other prisoners given to mark his identity?

37. What does Yanek find that must have been left by a child who died in the camp?

38. What does one of the prisoners ask the other men to stand for?

Chapter 18

39. What are the prisoners forced to use to relieve themselves at night?

40. Why is Yanek and the other prisoners woken up in the middle of the night?

41. What do the guards do after they chase the runaways?

Chapter 19

42. What concentration camp is Yanek now at

43. Why does Yanek feel sorry for the new prisoners?

44. What happens to the family that Yanek sees separated? What will happen to the father? What will happen to the mother and the child?

Chapter 20

45. What is the name of the prisoner who suggests that he and Yanek take the dead man’s bread?

46. Whose advice does Yanek know he is going against by having a friend in the camp?

47. What do the Nazi guards do to Fred? Why do they do this?

Chapter 21

48. Where are Yanek and the other prisoners informed that they will be walking to? What are they given and told that it must last the whole trip?

49. What happens if a prisoner can’t walk or falls behind?

50. How do the prisoners try to stay warm at night?

Chapter 22

51. Who does the by walking beside Yanek remind him of?

52. What does Yanek realize he has lost? What does he think about doing?

Chapter 23

53. Yanek clings to his food “like it was a precious jewel.” What literary term is this an example of?

54. How does the man at the end of the chapter commit suicide?

Chapter 24

55. Where is Yanek on a train to?

56. What happens when Yanek and the other prisoners who are ordered to rest eat meaty soup and bread?

57. What is the name of the guard who punches Yanek in the face for no reason?

Chapter 25

58. What is located in the middle of the new camp that Yanek arrives at? Who is it there to entertain?

59. Who does Yanek realize the animals are treated better than?

Chapter 26

60. What causes Yanek to have a new determination to live?

61. Why is Yanek sentenced to 20 lashes?

Chapter 27

62. How do the people of Czechoslovakia feel about their "Nazi overlords?"

63. What do the Czech people leave on their windowsills for the prisoners?

64. Who holds a knife to Yanek's neck after Yanek asks for some bread?

Chapter 28

65. What does Yanek decide he will pretend to be after he rips off his star? Why does this plan fail?

Chapter 29

66. What disease spreads rapidly though the camp?

67. Who shows up and liberates the prisoners?

Chapter 30

68. What is the name of Yanek's cousin who he realizes is still alive?

69. What is the name of the family that helped Yanek's cousin survive the war?