77 pages • 2 hours read
Alan GratzPrisoner B-3087
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Bread
Bread is a symbol of survival for Yanek and the other prisoners of the various concentration and death camps. Bread allows the prisoners to physically survive, but it is also a symbol of hope. When the Nazi guards first take over Kraków, Yanek and the other Jewish people begin starving. The Nazis give them only a dismal number of rations. The biggest treat and sign of hope for Yanek occurs when his father takes him to Uncle Abraham’s bakery in the middle of the night. By day Abraham is forced to bake bread for the Nazi guards, but at night he makes secret loafs to sell to Jewish families. Yanek contemplates how before the war bread was a staple of life that was often taken for granted, but now it’s a coveted sign of what was once good in the world.
In the concentration camps bread sustains life. The prisoners are given the scarcest amounts of bread to live on, but it’s enough to keep Yanek going. His desire for bread also brings him to some of his lowest moments. When he meets Fred, the two boys steal bread off of a dead man. This makes Yanek feel ashamed, yet he also realizes that bread only means something to the living. He once again feels shame when he contemplates stealing bread from the young boy during the death march.
The Pigeon Coop
When the Nazi guards start invading the Jewish homes in Kraków and kidnapping families, the pigeon coop becomes symbolic of a false sense of security. After Yanek’s apartment is broken into by the Nazi guards, his mother is too afraid to function. Turning the pigeon coop into a home on the rooftop helps her feel safe; the pigeon coop is hidden from the Nazi guards and protected by a steel lock on the rooftop door. The space provides a temporary reprieve from the violence and trauma outside. However, the pigeon coop only gives the illusion of safety. This refuge’s original purpose—as a cage for birds—foreshadows the family’s inevitable fate and dehumanization by the Nazis’ hands. Yanek’s mother and father are killed beyond the coop’s walls, while Yanek is eventually kidnapped from the streets.
Animals
Animals symbolize the dehumanization of the Jewish people. Yanek first realizes that animals are treated better than he and the other prisoners while in Plaszów. While in line for roll call, healthy German shepherds walk alongside their Nazi masters. The dogs are well fed and cared for, unlike the prisoners. Yanek encounters the same realization at Buchenwald. The concentration camp houses a zoo, and Yanek quickly sees that the animals are “fed better than the prisoners” (206). Yanek understands that the Nazis care more for their dogs and exotic pets than they do for their human prisoners. This realization demoralizes Yanek but it also inspires him to beat the Nazis and survive.
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By Alan Gratz
