Prisoner B-3087

I found myself wanting to know what was next for the main character and how he would handle it. I was concerned it was too much for my 10 year old son, but it stimulated the most interesting conversation. I feel it is a great description to remember the holocaust.

This is a good book. I like the first person point of view of a child/teenager. Of course, it is realistic and will put you in a melancholy mood because it is about one of the saddest events in history: the holocaust.

This so sad????????????????????????????????????eye opener. So sad so so so very sad. Other than that this book was amazing and really taught me the horrors of the holocaust, we must never take this historical event as a joke and remover the people who have lost their life.

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This book was unreal. Some parts brought tears to my eyes, others were tears of happiness. The part that really gets to me was that all this is true. Jack did witness these things, and survived them. He was spared, and he has the tattoo to prove it. B-3087
I hate you Adolf Hitler

This so sad????????????????????????????????????eye opener. So sad so so so very sad. Other than that this book was amazing and really taught me the horrors of the holocaust, we must never take this historical event as a joke and remover the people who have lost their life.

???????

This book was unreal. Some parts brought tears to my eyes, others were tears of happiness. The part that really gets to me was that all this is true. Jack did witness these things, and survived them. He was spared, and he has the tattoo to prove it. B-3087
I hate you Adolf Hitler

I bought this book to read because it was suggested reading for my 13 year old nephew. I'm not sure it was appropriate for him to read. At certain points it was very graphic language. I meant to ask him if he was okay reading it but haven't gotten the chance.

This poignant story, based on the experiences of Yanek Gruener, would be the perfect starting point for MG readers just learning about the atrocities of the Holocaust. While full of sorrow, Yanek's story is full of hope as he faces adversity head on. It may be hard to believe that Yanek is able to keep his head up and not wish ill on his fellow inmates as he suffers in one camp after another, slowly dehumanized, but "hard to believe" and "impossible" are two different things, and I not only find it possible, but I also highly admire Yanek, and all those who experienced this wicked time in our world's history. I would say that, while this isn't a joyous story by any means, it is in fact less depressing than others I've read, such as Night, by Elie Wiesel, and that is why I think it'd be a great starting point for MG students. It gives just enough information about the events of the timeframe to pique reader interest, but not to scar the still fragile minds of 6th and 7th graders through tough descriptions and imagery. Instead, this book readies young minds for a deeper study of the topic, which they will face in high school. The writing of this novel is easy to understand as well, another reason this would be a great choice for MG readers.

Yanek Gruener is 10 when the Nazis come to occupy his hometown of Krakow, Poland. Slowly but steadily over the next two years the Nazis strip the Jews of rights, close their shops, steal their valuables, until finally sending them off to the dreaded "relocation centers" or concentration camps. Over the next four years, Yanek is shuffled between 10 concentration camps. He is starved, beaten, separated from loved ones, and worked almost to death; but still he survives. This harrowing tale gives the readers a first hand look at horrors no person, let alone child should endure; based on the true story of Jack Gruener.

Like the previous novels, this read was absolutely heartbreaking but infused with a strength and resilience that is undeniable. I found another strong character in Yanek, facing not only the brutal fight to survive in what is arguably the most horrific experience in modern history, but the battles he wages with himself between keeping and loosing his own humanity in his fight to survive. Gratz's ability to depict such harsh subject matter in a way which is so layered and nuanced with other important lessons is truly remarkable, making his reads that much more powerful. 

Gratz is for sure on my auto-buy list, and I HIGHLY recommend you do the same! 

The story Prisoner B-3087 takes place in Poland. Yanek Gruener, the main character, is a young Jewish boy that lives in Krakow, Poland. The story is set in the same time period of Hitler’s reign and the Holocaust. Yanek is a young boy who is deeply interested in films and theatre. He often fantasizes of moving to America one day and becoming a film star. Yanek is very close with his whole family, including his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He often has put on shows for them with just a light, sheet, and cut out figures. Yanek and his family are aware of the Nazi invasions that are happening all over Europe and they know it is just a matter of time before they meet them face to face. It isn’t long before they hear the loud noises of war approaching them closer. Before they know it, Krakow is overrun and under Nazi control. When the Nazi’s took over Krakow, they enforced new laws that would make life harder for the Jewish population. Due to the new laws and struggling of the Jewish people within Krakow, Yanek’s father is forced to shut down his shop which makes it harder for them to survive. Most of the Jewish population started getting shipped out by the truck loads to concentration camps, Yanek’s family were among them. He was forced to survive on his own within Krakow until he got taken to a concentration camp as well. During the next three years Yanek is transferred to 10 different concentration camps before the U.S. and their allies infiltrate the camp and rescue the people in it.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning or reading stories during the time of the Holocaust. I recommend this book because it gives the readers an insight to life during the Holocaust and the conflicts and hatred the Jewish population had to overcome within their own society. While the story is based on a rather gloomy and dark subject, it has good information about the topics and specific insights to how they survived the Holocaust, as it is based on a true story. This is a good book for middle school, to high school students to read and understand because they can differentiate the life a young Jewish boy from the holocaust from their lives today.

Have you ever wondered how life was during WWII? Ten places where you were starved, tortured, and worked until you limbs fell off? Do you think you could have survived? But Yanek Gruener, a Jewish boy, had to at least try. Everything and everyone he loved was stripped away from him by Nazis. Then he is taken prisoner and tattooed B- 3087

Even through everything, he still is strong, powerful, and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. He’s been transferred ten times, each getting worse and worse. It’s a powerful story about embracing who you are and to always persevere. It states in one of the passages “I kept my head high and watched, vowing never to forget.”

The theme of the book makes me feel inspired and motivated. It makes me think that if he kept going with keeping his head up through all of the pain he went through, then I can too. This book is outstanding! I definitely recommend that you read this book if you are interested in WWII. It has a lot of facts and it shows what life of a prisoner is like.

Matt
7th Grade Student

The Nazi atrocities towards anyone they believed to be their inferiors is something that students must continue to learn and study if we hope to avoid something similar in the future. Yet, it is such a tricky subject to approach when children are younger. The need to protect a child's innocence wars with the need to inform. Often this can result in a story that only hints at what happened, forcing children to infer the truth, if possible, or leaving the tougher questions for their teachers and parents to answer. Alan Gratz's Prisoner B-3087 is one of the few novels that fully informs but does so without scarring or scaring its young readers.

Geared towards children through grade nine, Prisoner B-3087 is written in such a way that readers of all ages can appreciate Yanek's story and learn varying lessons from it. For those older readers, including adults, the full horrors of Yanek's experiences are difficult to believe and to stomach. Yet, for younger readers, they will be able to gloss over the more morbid details and focus on Yanek's personal narrative about keeping his sense of identity and his will to survive. Each element of his story is important and vital for starting discussions, but it allows those discussions to be age-appropriate in a way few novels about the Holocaust are.

This is not to say that Yanek's narrative is not without its sense of the macabre. No story about the Holocaust can be without discussions of the gas chambers, the chimneys, the starvation, the cattle cars, the humiliation, and the sense of isolation that the Nazis utilized so well. Yanek witnesses and experiences things no one person should ever have to see in his or her life time, and he does not hide those experiences. Yet, as If to ease the emotional turmoil of his story, it is Yanek's profound sense of identity and his all-encompassing drive to survive upon which a reader focuses his attention. It is this desire to live which leaves a reader filled with hope rather than despair.

One grows up learning about the atrocities of various concentration camps - Birkenau, Bergin-Belsen, Dachau, Auschwitz, and too many more to name. The thought of someone surviving one of those locations is difficult to imagine, but to have survived living in ten different labor and death camps is unfathomable, which makes Yanek's story so effective. If anyone has a complete understanding of the Nazi methodology and mindset, it would be someone who understood how to play their games and did so to survive almost unbeatable odds. Even though Mr. Gratz mentions that there is a fictional element behind his tale, Yanek's story is still one of profound courage and strength of mind. The facts remain that Yanek Gruener survived not only the Krakow ghetto, he survived not one but two death marches, multiple journeys by overcrowded cattle car, labor camps, death camps, sadistic camp commandants, fellow prisoners, total starvation, and the mental and physical games the Nazis employed to further subjugate their prisoners. He not only survived but continues to share his story with others as a lesson in fortitude and human depravity. This is ultimately what makes Prisoner B-3087 so effective for readers of any age.

Amazing and having yanek survive a lot of cruel payment and without his family no one to be loved by. I would recommend this book to any one over 5th grade. I personally loved how it was based off a true story, a young boy who lost his family had to man up and survive, from hiding under floor boards to riding a train crammed with people and to ten concentration camps.- Christopher Brake

...but hard to read. The torture and cruelty that the young boy witnessed and endured was difficult to read about. If you are interested in the events surrounding the Nazi concentration camps the book is well written, but be prepared to be disturbed by the inhumanity of the Nazi.

What an excellent book! Reading this book took me through so many emotions! Knowing what I do about the Holocaust and visiting Germany a few years ago brought this book alive for me. I was in tears as I read about Jacob (Yanak's) life in each concentration camp. His will power to survive was remarkable. What a memorable book telling about life during this terrible nightmare. The opening words moved me so much. I shared this book with my 5th graders as I read. They had many questions, but could understand the power of wanting to survive. Thank you so much for writing this emotionally powerful story.

Prisoner B-3087 is another winner of a book by author Alan Gratz! This fiction story is based on the true story of Jack Gruener who was 12 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland. Jack, then known as Yanek, lost everything he had and everyone he loved but managed to survive 10 concentration camps. Living in a pigeon coop, sleeping under floorboards, trading for food, being squeezed in a cattle car, and seeing people killed are just a snippet of what happened to Yanek. The holocaust was horrific and there is no way around those details. The fact that anyone at all survived is a miracle. Yanek found hope and didn't let the Nazis win. This book is a realistic voice for middle grade kids to hear the voice of another young teen struggling to survive.

I'm going to tell you from the start this review contains spoilers. It's a story driven by a young boy's desire and need to survive. But of course, the spoiler is implied by the very nature of this book. Prisoner B-3087 by North Carolina author Alan Gratz, is based on the true story of Jack Greuner, an Holocaust survivor.

The book opens in 1939 in Kraków, Poland. Yanek Gruener (much later he changes his name to Jack) is ten-years-old and his father doesn't believe that Hitler's invasion of Poland will last for more than six months.

His family soon finds out how deadly wrong he is.

In magnificent prose that combines accurate details from Yanek's life with historical research, Alan Gratz has woven together a painful-but-true portrayal of a young boy's determination to survive which carried him through ten concentration camps in six horrific years.

Within three years the family goes from rationing; to losing jobs, their synagogue, and access to schools; to being sealed off within the walls of the ghetto. Life is horrible, but at least Yanek has his family around him. After his secret bar-mitzvah, he is terrified when the sick and elderly are killed. He thinks,
I was a man and I wanted to do something. Something to stop the Nazis. To save my family. I asked myself over and over again what I could do to help, but I had no answer. p.50
He argues that his family should not give in to the Nazi's demand to be "selected" and buys more time for them all. But one day he comes home and witnesses his parents being brutally herded away by the Nazi soldiers.

Yankee is sent to the Płaszów concentration camp and is amazed to find his Uncle Moshe who gives him survival instructions:
From now on, you have no name, no personality, no family, no friends. Do you understand? Nothing to identify you, nothing to care about. Not if you want to survive…We have only one purpose now: survive. Survive at all costs, Yanek. We cannot let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world. (pp. 68, 70)
As Yanek is packed into cattle cars and moved from one concentration camp to another he learns what he must do to survive:
Don't share your portion of bread with someone, even if that person might be kept alive by what you have.
Don't miss a roll call. You will be beaten.
Don't show fear. The Nazis' dogs will attack.
Don't befriend anyone.
Always obey orders.
Don't think for yourself.
Don't question orders even if it means moving back-breaking rocks from one side of the yard and then back again.
Don't fight back. If you do, you'll be killed.
Don't complain when you are forced to sing and entertain Nazi soldiers feasting on a dinner. Look away so your stomach won't grumble and you won't be shot.
Yanek clings to the smallest "comforts" in his pursuit of survival:
I stood at the water pump, scrubbing my body. It was bitterly cold out, but I didn't care. I would scrub my body, I decided, each and every morning, no matter how cold it was, no matter how tired I was. I was alive, and I meant to stay that way.
…I paid careful attention to where I had been tattooed. Too many others had let their tattoos get infected, and that had taken them to the camp surgeon. You didn't want to go to the camp surgeon. Ever. I even rubbed my teeth with my wet fingers--we had not toothbrushes or toothpaste, of course, but it felt important to remember what it was like to be human. (p. 136)
As the war ends, Yanek's will to survive does not:
The war had come to Dachau, and any moment a shell or a bomb might fall on our building and kill us all. So many times I had wished for a bomb to fall on me, to end my suffering, but now I prayed that no bomb would hit me. Not now, when I was so close to the end! If only I could survive a little longer, I thought, just a little longer-- (p. 242)
As I said in the beginning of this review, it is obvious that Yanek Gruener does survive. So, it's not a spoiler to quote the last lines of this memorable book:
I stepped on board the train and didn't look back. For nine years I had done everything I could to survive. Not it was time to live. (p.256)

In 1939 Krakow Poland, Yanek Gruener lived a good life with his parents in their small apartment on Krakusa Street. He was just 10 years old, and loved entertaining his aunts, uncles and cousins with made up stories from watching American movies. When the German army invaded Poland that year, his life changed forever.

Change began with small things such as being ostracized at school but, gradually, the changes got worse and worse. Soon, Yanek and his family were hiding out in a pigeon coop on the roof of their building to avoid night raids and beatings by the Nazis. They managed to stay together for 3 years, before Yanek lost his entire family and was sent to the first of 10 concentration camps.

In one of the camps Yanek was tattooed with the number B-3087 and, in chronological order, Gratz takes readers to all the places where Yanek was sent when he was just 13 years old. These camps included Plaszow (1942-1943), a barracks at the Wieliczka Salt Mine (1943-1944), Trzebina (1944), Birkenau (1944-1945) and Auschwitz (1945).

With the Allies approaching the Nazis forced their prisoners on two different death marches, which ultimately led Yanek to spend time at Sachsenhausen (1945), Bergen-Belsen (1945), Buchenwald (1945), Gross-Rosen (1945), and Dachau (1945). Along with his hopes and fears Yanek tells of the beatings, starvations and other horrors he endured in these camps and on the forced marches, while the goal of survival kept him alive.

“Prisoner B-3087″ is based on Jack Gruener’s life, and is an important look into the dark past of World War II. We need to remember what happened during the Holocaust while never forgetting those who died, and those who survived.

Recommended for readers aged 12 and older.

Listed on the ALA (American Library Association’s) Best Fiction for Young Adults list (compiled by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

Prisoner B-3087 is one of countless Holocaust books that I've read and it definitely won't be the last one I'll read. The author, Alan Gratz has taken the true story of Ruth and Jack Gruener and changed a little bit of the story to make it a novel for kids. This story is merely a stepping stone about learning about WWII and the Holocaust, the author doesn't dismiss the horrors. Gratz describes the atrocities of the Holocaust with few details making it a good place for younger readers to start learning about it. This book will help provide younger readers with a sense of what people went through that were kids just like them.

Readers who are already familiar with the Holocaust may not want to read this one because of the targeted audience. I think that Yanek's story may not be new to knowledgeable readers but it's still a worthy read. It's remarkable how one person could survive TEN concentration camps and still live to see another day. To carry on with your live after all that is truly something spectacular and I applaud Ruth and Jack Gruener for never giving up. Readers of Prisoner B-3087 may feel that the author is rushing with stories about each concentration camp and is holding back details. I'm pretty sure that this was done intentionally due to the audience but I would have liked to have read a more thorough account.

Prisoner B-387 is a gripping account of the Holocaust that is based on a true story. I quickly read through this book due to the fast-paced and it's relatively short length. I believe that the most fascinating part of this book was the Acknowledgements where Gratz informed the reader about Jack and Ruth Gruener. I said it before, but I can't get over how strong-willed and brave you had to be to survive 10 concentration camps. I truly, truly, truly can't commend those two enough because I couldn't imagine living through such horrors. Above all else, the thing that I'm taking away from this book is slightly more knowledge about the Holocaust and a heightened desire to learn more about the Grueners and others like them. Thank you Scholastic for providing me with an e-Galley of Prisoner B-3087 in exchange for a honest review.

I only wished the six years that Yanek a.k.a Jakob lived in the German camps could have went as fast as this book went for me. Jakob was a Polish Jew when the Germans invaded his town in 1939. One moment it was happening far away and the next it was at their doorstep, the changes were happening quickly. Some individuals were leaving and others decided to stick it out, thinking the Nazis wouldn’t be so bad or that the war would end soon. Unlike Jakob, I would have wondered about leaving. His family decides to stay only to face their lives quickly disappearing. His father’s business closes, Jewish children have no school, their friends are disappearing and food is being rationed. For me, that would have been signs to start walking. For Jakob’s family, they stayed and they soon became invisible when they ventured outside. If only, they could stay that way in the years to come but we know things only got worse. Way worse! As Jakob tells the story, I felt this energy and this urgency in the writing. The tempo is fast and lively for a story that is bleak and dark. Jakob moves the story along and he wants us to know about his journey, his trip through this tunnel of darkness, to know what it was like for a child like himself as he witnesses the world as it changes because one man has the power in his hands to do the unthinkable. The story is moving and powerful and tells so much about this time period in such a short book. It’s real and the story is not pretty. Schnell! Schnell! (quickly, quickly,) this book moves along as Jakob is transferred to more than a handful of concentration camps during WWII after being taken from his home. In the Afterword in the final pages, the author writes “while the story of Jack Gruener is true and remarkable – this book is a work of fiction.” She writes that the stories about Jack are true but she has “painted a fuller and more representative picture of the Holocaust as a whole. All this was done with Jack’s blessing…”She writes additional information about Jack’s personal experiences and what he did after the war to round out that section and bring the book to a close.

It’s real: “The crematorium. Little flecks of gray fluttered down all around us, collecting on puddles of water in the yard. I watched a little girl in a blue dress catch one on her tongue like snow. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was the ashes of the people who had come before us.”

Based on the true story of Jack Gruener, Alan Gratz has created a fictional account of Jack’s time spent in ten different concentration camps during the Holocaust. His depictions of the ghettos, train cars, camp barracks, death marches, torture, and death are very honest. He has described horrid conditions that no human should have to witness, let alone live through, without sensationalism.

Yanek Gruener is a Jewish boy growing up in Poland in the 1930’s when the Nazis take over. Under their rule his life changes dramatically as he undergoes one tragedy after another. Although he manages to survive ten concentration camps and two death marches, Yanek is not always optimistic. After awhile, the death he sees is just commonplace. He is terrified of it, determined not let it take him, but accepts it because there is no other option. At times he wonders if it is better to dead.

I appreciated how Yanek was portrayed. Written in a first person narrative, it allows the reader to enter the story a little more, but you’re still kept at bay with the very clipped style of writing. At the end, after he and his fellow survivors have been rescued by American soldiers, Yanek notes that “They couldn’t understand our tears, couldn’t know how amazing such a simple meal was to us….We could describe it. Describe in every detail the horrors of the camps and the way we were treated. But no one who had not been there would ever truly understand (251).”

Oh, my goodness. I'm still trying to recover from reading this book. I've read about the Holcaust before but somehow this book paints a picture of it like I've never experienced it before. Not that there is any way that I could possibly understand everything that Yanek (Jack) went through. I'm completely stunned that he survived at all. I'm amazed at the incredible resiliency of the human spirit. But this book shows not only the resiliency of the human spirit to survive but also the depths to which people can sink. I will never understand how people could be so incredibly callus and cruel. The way Yanek and the other prisoners were tortured and abused and murdered defies understanding. I also had not realized that so many were moved so many times.

Yanek Gruener lives in Krakow, Poland when the Germans invade in 1940. After spending two years in the Krakow ghetto as conditions continually worsened, he is taken to his first camp. There he meets the only member of his family yet living, his uncle Moshe. Yet after his uncle is killed, Yanek is forced to find the will to survive within himself, with no help from anyone else. This he manages to do despite facing forced labor, beatings, and being surrounded by violent death every day. As he struggles to survive the most horrid conditions, he somehow he holds on to a smidgen of hope that someday the war will end. But will it be to much?

Strengths: The plainness of the telling here makes this a powerfully emotional read. Gatz has captured the spirit and strength of a young man who struggles to survive despite having lost everything. The images created in the readers mind provide a vivid look at a horrible time in the world's history. A compellingly written story, all the more compelling because it's based on a real person and what happened to him. I appreciated the author's note at the end explaining that this is based on someone's person experiences it has been fictionalized to provide a more complete picture of the Holocaust.

Weaknesses: This is definitely not a book for everyone. Because of the material covered it is full of graphic violence and brutal behavior. I would recommend only for the most mature child readers.

This book is amazing. The first person point of view has you view the experience completely in a different way. Feelings of sorrow and angriness all in one book! The Holocaust was a terrible thing, but now...I can't even start to explain what the Jews had to go through. When the other countries finally made it to the camps and saved the Jews- I was overjoyed to see that they finally had a way out. This book was really amazing to read! I highly recommend you read it!
7th Grader

The story Prisoner B-3087 is an excellent read In he begging it explains how ten year old Yanek's life before the war. Soon the book explains how scary and dangerous living in several concentration camps can be. I don't want to tell you too much about the story, but here are some similar reads if you loved the story or disliked the fact that they explain the rest of his in about a few small paragraphs like I did. Hear are some similar reads. Enjoy!

1. The Moring Star
2. Milkweed
3. The Boy in The Striped Pajamas
4. Number The Stars
5. Those Who saved Us

Josh, 7th Grader

I liked the book prisoner b-3087. It was based on a true story. It truly is amazing that jack survived for so many years in so many different camps. I can't imagine what he went through. I encourage you to buy this book because it is a true story of something that happened in history. I think Alan Gratz is an outstanding writer and he should continue to write books. I know that when I get older I want to be an illustrator, but I think it would be fun to write my own stories.
Hannah, 7th grader
I really like the book and I would recommend it to others because it gives a lot of detail. The reason why I liked it because it was based on a true story. I like how Alan Gratz, the author, took Jack Gruener's story and put it into a story. I like how Yanek Gruener had to survive living and going through concentration camp.
I would really recommend this book to others because it is very emotional and makes you think about what people had gone through. My favorite part of the book is when they were loading the box cars and they were on their way to concentration camp. The author Alan Gratz put a great story together, and I would recommend this book to you.
Nicole , 7th grader
This Holocaust novel by Alan Gratz is, in my opinion, one of the best books I have read in my years as reader. I've seen some good and few bad things about this novel. But overall I rate this book a 10 out of 10 book. First, I liked how the author started the book off with, "If I had known what the next six years of my life were going to be like I would have eaten more." I also like how the author described Jack's hobbies and dreams. I think the author was good at describing the event that Jack had to live and almost dying in the gas chambers. I really enjoyed this novel and I also learned a lot about the Holocaust from your book.
7th grader

My 11 yr. old is currently reading this book, but not for long. I just got this book this morning for her for a school assignment. She has not put it down!! Understand, while she loves to read she is equally active and finds it difficult to read just anything let alone for nearly an entire day. Often she will pause and share what she is reading which I believe is healthy to briefly discuss along the way due to her first experience in learning of these authorities. She and I not long ago watched "Boy In The Stripped Pajamas," and this book is a level up in details of the great Jewish sufferings but certainly appropriate for her age and necessary to learn of. Indeed this is sad to read but is hopeful just the same and Yanek, the boy and main character, is precious and as a reader you find yourself personally bonding with him and hopeful for his well-being and concerned for his welfare in life after the camps. I look forward to reading this book myself once she completes it tomorrow (yes, she's plowing through it in 2 days). This book will hook you from the beginning and hold you tight until the end.

I've read a lot of Holocaust literature over the past ten or so years, but Prisoner B-3087 is a little different to what I normally read in that it is a fictionalisation of a true survivors' story. And what a story it is.

Yanek Gruener isn't even a teenager when the Nazi's invade Poland, but he grows up in the fastest, most brutal way in a Ghetto, ten concentration camps and two Death Marches. Although the writing is fairly sparse and simplistic, in doing so Alan Gratz doesn't try and romanticise, embellish or exaggerate the truth of Yanek's story. It's brutal and cold and epitomises how Yanek survives - by making himself as annonymous as possible.

Although aimed at the Young Adult market, this book doesn't hold anything back - although not graphically described, there isn't any part of the story that is glossed over - from the brutal, random cruelty of the kapo's and SS, the death camps and the unending, hopeless fight for survival.

I read this book in one sitting because I just couldn't stop reading - and admiring the strength and determination of Yanek to survive no matter the horrors that he encountered every single day for years.

There's not much more I can say about this book because it is what it says on the tin - plot wise there are no surprises and it focuses almost primarily on Yanek's journey through the horror of the holocaust.

Prisoner B-3087 is a book I would unhesitatingly recommend to anyone that reads about the Holocaust, and as a book for older teens it is a powerful educational tool - Yanek's story is so unbelivable and yet Alan Gratz brings it alive on the page. Unpretentious, sad, moving and ultimately uplifting, this is a book that will stick with me for a very long time.

I'm not sure I have the words to give this book the justice it deserves. This book was not only moving but inspiring, teaching us as living, breathing humans that no matter what conditions are pressed upon us, we should never give up. The trials we face in our everyday lives are nothing in comparison to the devastating history of those who had to endure the Holocaust.

Based on a true story, a Jewish boy of only ten years, Yanek Gruener and his family find themselves under the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over Poland. They do all they can to stay together and free from the deathly grasp of Nazi hands. Unfortunately, the arms of the enemy were too strong to avoid.

One by one the family was taken to various camps. Yanek was alone to fend for himself until he too was taken. Plaszow Concentration Camp was his first destination before nine other camps. No matter which camp he was taken to, they seemed no worse or better than the one before. They all had three main things in common: work, starvation, death. It was an amazing feat to have survived all that he faced. He rode the cattle cars, walked in death marches, witnessed countless murders, tasted ashes in the air, was beaten, and starved. Despite it all, his one goal was to survive. If he could keep his head down, remain anonymous (aside from his tattoo B-3087), and work hard, he prayed he would make it out alive.

It is hard to imagine a time when this was a reality for so many. However gruesome and terrifying, it is a story that must be told if we are to avoid anything of this nature in the future. Alan Gratz took the details of Jack Gruener's, or "Yanek Gruener" life and added such detail to create a story suitable for students. While this book has many details that make the stomach churn, it is written in such a way to avoid scaring or scarring of its readers. In fact, it is the desire to live Yanek holds on to that leaves the reader hopeful rather than in despair.

This book was written fully suitable for students or adults who wish to learn the truths behind the gates of concentration camps. I have been to Dachau--one of the concentration camps Yanek spent time as a prisoner--and though I left with a feeling of sadness, I still had not fully understood the atrocities that had taken place. Perhaps it is because as a child we are only exposed to Diary of Anne Frank, which isn't a horrible book, but it leaves much to the imagination. Her words end when she is captured. Prisoner B-3087 will have the answers...It is the full scope of the unfathomable.

I received this book courtesy of Netgalley and Scholastic Press. In no way has my review of this book been influenced by either of these companies.

This book is insightful in regards to the experiences of one of the people who suffered the Holocaust. It is presented on a level that younger readers can read and understand, not too graphic but also not lacking in truthful detail. I feel like some of the experiences expressed in this book opened my eyes to just how brutal these events were. I think this is a book that everyone should read at least once.

Prisoner B-3087 defiantly deserves a 5 Star Rating from me. The Author did an amazing job being historically accurate and writing it where it was able to connect with younger readers. Though there were some bits that could've been played out better or just were a run on story. Young Readers looking to learn about what children captured by Nazi Soldiers during World War II would defiantly be interested in this book, as it follows the story of Yanek after being taken and sorted throughout many concentration camps. As a student, I would defiantly recommend this book to my fellow class mates that I believe would be interested in it.

I bought this for my son for a summer book report. He said it was boring so I decided to read it with him to find out what was going on. I have to agree that the main character is extremely detached from the events happening. There is very little description except for the strangest things. It reads as if the authors had researched Wikipedia and then wrote a story. For example: he glosses over the other prisoners and barely says anything about them yet he details how their patches identify them as Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, etc. How is a reader going to appreciate things like that and overlook the people in the camps? The story is absolutely centered on Yanek to the exclusion of everything and everyone else around him. He's not even convincing as a person. When his family is ordered to open the door for the Nazis, he is the only one to act even though he said there were fourteen people living with them. Sure, some were out working, but this still seems strange that this young boy would do this while any adults in the home are just standing around. He later takes charge again while his uncle is ranting and tells him that he can leave and surrender to the Nazis if he wants. Really? A kid is doing that while his father just hangs around doing nothing? Maybe these scenes were written up so that Yanek would seem heroic or something. As an adult reader, they just stuck out as odd outbursts. The thing I found most striking is that the deaths of his family members only merit a few sentences and then he moves on and doesn't seem to come back to them again. I've definitely read better stories than this over-simplified and sterile book.

This book hands down was one fo the best holocaust books Ive ever read in my long lifetime. As a mother of 3 I checked this book out for my oldest kid who is 12. I read the book in under 3 hours. It was perfectly fine in my view and gave off great lesons of hops, endurance and The Holocaust. A little violence if you are a sensitive reader just be cautious. I loved it and you will to!

Prisoner B-3087 is a very powerful and capturing novel. I have read many books about the holocaust but this one makes you feel as if you are really there. It tells the story of an amazing holocaust survivor who had to deal with many things. I couldn't believe the perseverance of Jack to survive. He was determined to not become a Muselmann and through his sheer will he survived a horrific time in history. No one should have ever gone through what he had too. This story made me realize the pain and suffering others went through to preserve the freedom that we enjoy. Their suffering gives us a goal to never let it happen to us. I did learn many things about World War II while reading the book. This includes how the concentration camps ran,and what it took to survive. As you can see i really recommend this book to anyone who is interested in these subjects.

Yanek is 10 years old when the Nazi's invade Poland. He survives the Jewish ghetto, 10 prisoner camps and some death marches. This story is based on the real life experiences of Jacob Gruener. Gratz fictionalized some of the story to include events that are historically accurate, but not experienced by Jacob.

Such an important story that needs to be told, when leaders pit section of the population against each other and play the blame game.

This is one of the only WWII books that you will find that is NOT filled with swear words and vulgar profanity. It does not have ANY. It is extremely decent and written from the viewpoint of a 10-year-old (up until 16-years-old) who experiences World War II as a prisoner, going from one to another of 9 different prisons.

Granted, there is shooting and blood in this book. But it is stuff that really happened. It is not overly descriptive or gruesome; it was reality. This book is best for junior high boys on up.

I was pulled into this book. The author doesn't just describe things--like moving huge, heavy rocks from one place to another--he lets you FEEL it. And then you feel the agony the boy goes through when he has to lug all those rocks back again! I felt this book so much, that when I got done I could appreciate the freedom of life as we now have it. We don't appreciate our blessings!

I think you will enjoy this book, and I think it was well-written.

I hate to be dismissive of such a traumatic and horrendous life event but this book felt like just another Holocaust tale to me. And, while all survivor's stories need to be heard, there is a challenge on the part of the storyteller to weave a tale that captures an audience. This one just didn't do that for me.

This story is based on true events and those events are fascinating, too unbelievable to be true. Yet, it is. The story revolves around Yanek Gruener, a Jewish boy living in Poland in the 1930's. The story seems to be a near miss for Yaken's family and then he describes the desperate last days of his parents before their disappearance, living in a pigeon coop on top of their apartment building. Yanek is captured by the Nazis and sent to one concentration camp, then another, then another--10 different concentration camps in all. B-3087 is his prisoner number, his tattoo the one thing that never changes.

It is a horrifying and harrowing tale, made even worse by Gruener's near death misses and the description of how many Jews met their fate, at the frivolous whims of the soldiers.Yaken survives at all costs--learning to forget the lives and people he left behind, learning to not care about anyone around him. He is focused only on his own survival.

This book is told as a memoir with another author recording the story. Perhaps this made the story feel one step removed for me. An important story to read, but not one that will be on your 'most-affecting' list.

This book was written with a ton of details. It gives a extremely good view on the German concentration camps and what torture the Jews experienced there. The book was very emotional too. I felt extremely scared in some parts. It actually felt like one of the German soldiers was going to kill me! The story seems very exaggerated but sadly it actually happened. I was rooting for the main character the whole time, hoping he would make it through alive.

You’ve probably thought that you hate your life and its horrible when something bad happens; well you’re wrong because the Jews in concentration camp think you have the best life compared to the Jews in Germany on September 1st 1939.

This book takes place in Poland during the time of WWII. The first thing that happens in the book is thagain. That was just the beginning later on men were forced to work for the Nazis. Soon the Nazis started to take people group by group and if the Jews were weak or sick than they would be sent to the left and be sent to the gas chambers witch would kill thousands of Jews at a time and if you were sent to the left than that means then you are sent to the concentration camps where you would be forced to work and if you weren’t good you would be killed.

One day Yanek found a secret room above his apartment and told his parents it would be a good place to hide from the Nazis they agreed with him and they lived there for a very long time until his parents were taken away by the Nazis while Yanek was away. It’s been months since Yaneks parents had been taken away but soon he knew he would be taken away and about a year later Yanek was right. When he was at the concentration camps he thought he would die. Yanek moved and luckily survived many of the concentration camps…Did he survive them all or did he end up like the rest of the Jews?

The main characters in the story are Yanek Gruner, his parents, his Uncle Moshe, the Nazis and Fred.

Yanek: Is a 10 year old boy that lived in Poland that loved to play with his friends and loved school
Uncle Moshe: Yanek’s uncle that was kind, nice and took care of Yanek when they were both at a concentration camp.
Fred: Fred was a boy about Yaneks age that thought alike lot Yanek. Soon they became good friends and loved talking about food with each other because they missed it so much.
Nazis: The Nazis from Germany were very mean and cruel and they hated Jews which is why they put them in concentration camps and killed them.

The theme of this book is determination and survival. I think that it is determination and survival because Yanek was very determined to survive because he knew he was able to do if he believed and was determined enough.
I recommend this book to people who love the history of Germany.I would also recommend this book to people who loved books that have suspense in them. To me I loved this book.

If you have a middle grader who doesn't know much about the Holocaust, or even if they do, this is a book they should read. Based on the true story of Jack and Ruth Gruener, it shares how Yanek (Jack) survived 10 different concentrations camps as well as the Krakow ghetto before World War II ended.

The book does a good job of sharing the horrors Yanek survived as a young boy and teenager (he was 10 when the war started) in a way for kids to read and learn from, but keeps the graphic-ness to a minimum. It is amazing the will to live that Yanek possessed, even when giving in to death would have been a welcome relief. Reading his account will help kids realize the importance of remembering who they are and where they come from whatever the cost.

The book that I had ended up reading for the summer was Prisoner B-3087 and the author of this book is Alan Gratz. This book was published on March 1st 2013 by Scholastic Inc. I had thought the writer had done an outstanding job putting you inside the mind of the actual kid who was in the concentration to try to give you an idea of what had actually happened. I would say that this book isn’t really geared towards one type of audience because I love Fiction and this gave you actual facts about what happened but in a fictional way so I still enjoyed it.
The main characters in this book are Yanek, Uncle, Moshe, Mom, Dad and all the other relatives. Even though these are just the main characters a majority of the other characters end up playing an important role. The main conflict of this book is when Yanek gets sent to a concentration camp. The reason why this is the main conflict is because the Germans wouldn’t help you out at the camp instead they tried to make it worse for you. Some things that lead to the main conflict is first when the Germans had come into Yanek’s town and had just taken over. The second piece of rising action that leads up to the climax is when the town's leaders who were helping out the Nazis told them to send their children to the concentration camps because they will treat them better but none of the parents had listened. The final piece of rising action is when the Nazis had taken Yanek, his mother and father to the concentration camp.
I would recommend this book to everyone because just when you thought it was going to get boring something always happened to keep you into the story. If I were to give this book a rating from a 1 being the lowest and the 10 being the highest i would give it a 9.5. the reason not a 10 is because I felt as if the book was to short.

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz was an astounding book and it is easy to understand and learn from. The reviewer believes this book is also highly intriguing and recommends it to anyone who wants a great book.
Published on March 1st, 2013 by the Scholastic Press, Prisoner B-3087 was an instant hit. Alan Gratz has written seven other young adult books besides it. These include Samurai Shortstop and Something Rotten. He was a finalist in the 2002 Marguerite deAngeli Contest (now known as the Delacorte Dell Yearling Contest for a First Middle-Grade Novel), and in 2003 he was a co-winner of a memorial grant from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Prisoner B-3087 was based on the true story of Jack and Ruth Gruener. The Grueners were both one of the few holocaust victims that survived to tell their story. The story then inspired Alan Gratz into writing a book.
“Life can’t get any worse than this”. That was what Yanek Gruener, at the time, an innocent and obedient ten year-old Jewish boy, believed. It was said when Yanek crammed into a three person flat with three other families. In 1939, there were so many Jews without homes in Krakow, Poland after the Nazi’s took it over, there were four families to every flat. Little did he know, life could get worse. Yanek didn't know that over the next six years of his life he would become as skinny as the twigs he used to play with. The boy had no idea that in the near future and he would be so used to watching people die that he wouldn’t be afraid of dying himself. He didn't even have a clue that those six years would take and kill almost every person in his family. The Nazi’s would soon take him away from his town and the six years of torture would commence. This part is very interesting because Yanek was not expecting any of this to occur, he went from having a good life with his entire family to living in torture without any of them. It creates a mood in the reader’s mind that makes you feel grateful for who and what you have. That is one of the reasons why it is such a great book.
Yanek experiences what no human being should. Concentration camps. Death marches. Suffocating train rides. Gas chambers. Now, after so many years experiencing this “hell,” Yanek is starting to believe the Kapos when they said the Holocaust was the Jews’ fault. Why else would they be treated so terribly? Then, the Allies begin to bomb around Yanek’s camp and the prisoner believed they are finally saved. But instead of surrendering, the Germans just move Yanek and the other prisoners as far away as it takes. The more they march the more Jews die, so the Nazis win both ways. This happens time after time as Yanek becomes more and more helpless. Gratz explains these horrors in such specific detail that you feel you are inside the scene itself. He is such an expert on the subject because of the Grueners and his own knowledge that you will learn lots about the Holocaust while enjoying a good read. There comes a night when the Allies’ bombing seems different, maybe even closer. Yanek hears the explosions through the three people sleeping on top of him. This time, no soldier is telling them to get up so they could transfer to a different camp. This time, for the first time in a very long time, Yanek has hope. These events promote a suspenseful mindset for you to the point where cannot put the book down. This reviewer has read tons of books where suspense is a huge factor in it but the suspense in Prisoner B-3087 was constant. She could not stop reading until the very end because of it.
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz was an amazing book. Gratz has won awards with the book and he definitely deserved it. The horrific situations Yanek Gruener was in gives the readers a sense of gratefulness for their lives. The specific detail throughout the book gives the readers much knowledge about the Holocaust and made them feel as if they were apart of it. The suspense in every part of the book keeps the readers reading constantly and they can never put the book down. I would rate this book a 10 out of 10 because it makes learning about history exciting and understandable. If you read Prisoner B-3087 I am sure you will be amazed and inspired until the end.

The book Prisoner B-3087, by Alan Gratz, was published on March 1st, 2013 by Scholastic. Alan Gratz is also the author of Something Rotten and Brooklyn Nine. It is a powerful book that describes the life of Yanek Gruener living during WWII in Krakow, Poland. This book has some scenes of death and I don’t recommend it for anyone younger than 9 or 10. Overall this was a very good book and I give it a 7 out of 10.
The main character is a Jewish boy named Yanek Gruener who lives with his family in a crowded apartment in WWII Krakow, Poland. He survives 10 concentration camps over the course of the book and experiences much emotional and physical hardship. Uncle Moshe (Yanek’s uncle) is also a key character in this book. He helps Yanek survive the first concentration camp, Plaszow, by teaching him to keep his head down pretending to be nobody. Fred is one of the few friends Yanek makes throughout the book. Yanek meets Fred at Auschwitz concentration camp and Fred gives him a morale boost which gives Yanek the mental strength to survive. One of the main antagonists was Moonface, a kapo( prisoner of Nazis instructed to keep the Jews in line) in 2 concentration camps that Yanek stays at. He beats prisoners for no reason at all other than the fact that he enjoys it. However towards the end of the book we learn he feels sympathy for the beaten jews because he gives Yanek bread during a death march so that he can survive. Another antagonist is Amon Goeth, the camp commandant at Plaszow concentration camp. He also killed for enjoyment. He would shoot prisoners from his balcony while listening to records.
There are many settings in this book, and most of them are concentration camps. At the beginning of the book however, he is living in Krakow, Poland. He lives in a small flat with his mother and father and a few of his aunts and uncles live closeby. He likes to put on puppet shows for his family that he creates from everyday house items. When the Nazis invade, Yanek’s mother is so afraid of the Nazis coming into their home, that they have to move up to the pigeon coop on the roof of their apartment building. They evade the Nazis for several months, but eventually, everyone gets taken, because they take people while they are out on the streets too. Yanek was the last one taken to a concentration camp. He is taken to Plaszow Concentration Camp where he meets up with Uncle Moshe and he learns that none of his other family members survived. There are guards with guns all around them, and the camp commandant kills many Jews. Uncle Moshe is eventually killed by Amon Goeth for not working hard enough. After Plaszow, they shipped them elsewhere in cattle cars. They traveled in the train for days, with no food, and no water. They stopped when they got to the Birkenau concentration camp. They were taken into a room with shower heads on the ceiling, and the room looked like a gas chamber. The prisoners waited for a long time and when they heard the pipes rattling, they waited for death. Will Yanek die? Will the Allies rescue him before it's too late? Read all about it in Prisoner B-3087!

The title of this book is Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz, and it was published by Scholastic Inc. on March 1st in New York City. Truthfully I thought this was a great book and very well written. I also thought a lot of the information was well researched and very inspiring. At the beginning of the book I was not very interested but after a couple more chapters I was hooked and couldn’t set it down because it was so good.
The year was 1939 in Krakow, Poland. A Jewish boy named Yanek Gruener was with his family when suddenly over the radio they heard that, German soldiers had marched into Poland. A few months later the Nazi soldiers had reached Krakow, and they set up new rules for the Jews such as a curfew and no more Jewish synagogues. They built brick walls on the outsides of every town so no Jews could escape.. In time the Germans even set up food rations and they would take the Jewish men to work at camps far away from their home town. Life was very difficult for Yanek’s family and him but Yanek still had one thing, hope
Over the months Yanek’s family had been picked off one by one. They were taken to work camps and concentration camps and soon Yanek himself was taken. Yanek was moved from concentration camp to concentration camp. Sometimes the Jews were forced to march to their next work camp which was worse because of the cold climate. At the camps, The Jews were forced to work all day in clothes that were too small, they were not fed enough, and they would be killed if they worked too slow. Due to these bad conditions Yanek was faced with the hardest challenge he had ever known, surviving. This book is very similar to a book I read over the Summer called Milkweed. This book was also about the Holocaust and had a lot of similar material in it such as the whole lifestyle of the Jews in the work camps.
Alan Michael Gratz was born January 27, 1972 and is the author of eight novels for young adults. Gratz currently lives in western North Carolina and he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and a Master's degree in English Education, both from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His eight novels include Samurai Shortstop, Something Rotten, Something Wicked, The Brooklyn Nine: A novel in nine innings, Fantasy Baseball, Starfleet Academy: The Assassination Game, Prisoner B-3087, The League of Seven, and The Dragon Lantern: A League of Seven Novel.
I thought this was an amazing book and on a scale of one to ten I would give it an eight. It was very thrilling and extremely suspenseful. I think people who want to know more about World War Two would enjoy this book and young adults.

Yanek Gruener is a ten-year-old boy living in Krakow, Poland in 1939. He loves being with his extended group of cousins, aunts and uncles and daydreams about moving to America and becoming a movie star. When the Germans invade Poland and take command, Yanek mournfully listens to the church bells of the Wawel Cathedral ring out in alarm and knows his life will never be the same. His father encourages Yanek to be strong, but new laws are put into effect that make life difficult for the Jewish population such as the rationing of food, a nightly curfew of 9 PM, and the closing of Jewish schools. Even Yanek’s wise father is speechless when the synagogue is set on fire burning the holiest of books and a wall is slowly erected around the city to create a ghetto. The Gruener family does their best to survive in their new cramped quarters and finds comfort in just being together, even managing to provide Yanek with a secret bar mitzvah when he turns thirteen. Finally, after many local deportations, Yanek’s parents’ luck runs out; they are taken away and, on the brink of adolescence, Yanek is left to survive on his own. For a short while, Yanek manages to avoid the round-ups by the Nazis and he finds work as an assistant tailor but in 1942, he is loaded onto a truck and becomes a prisoner at Plaszow Concentration Camp. During the next three years, Yanek is transferred to ten different camps, tattooed with the number B-3087 at Birkenau, and experiences daily humiliation and a nightmarish existence as he fights for his survival. For a short while, Yanek manages to avoid the round-ups by the Nazis and he finds work as an assistant tailor but in 1942, he is loaded onto a truck and becomes a prisoner at Plaszow Concentration Camp. During the next three years, Yanek is transferred to ten different camps, tattooed with the number B-3087 at Birkenau, and experiences daily humiliation and a nightmarish existence as he fights for his survival.

Book #101 Read in 2014
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz (YA)

I read this book in one sitting. It is based on the true story of Jack Gruener, a holocaust survivor. Detailed in this book are the pain and suffering he and his family endured throughout World War II. This book is extremely powerful and while graphic at times, I believe high school students could handle this book. Adults will find it a worthwhile read as well. No matter how many books about the holocaust I read, I am still blown away by what the Nazis did to fellow human beings.

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Even after watching different movies, reading different books and visiting different museums about the Holocaust, I never cease to be inspired and shocked of what prisoners endured. I'm thankful to read stories such as this one as they remind me there is hope.

I am of polish background but my family were Catholic. They lived near Krakow. The town they came from was completely destroyed by the Germans. Table could have been one of my relatives too. It was sad reading about the terrible that occurred. Thank you for writing about it.

My 10-year-old nephew is reading this in school, and he asked me to get it for my Kindle so we could read along together and discuss. We appreciated that this was based on a true story, which gave the words additional meaning.

My 11 year old son, who despises reading, loved this book! Every night he was begging for me to keep reading. It spiked his interest in the history and we then watched Shindler's List together. Great educational book for him.

Reading about the Holocaust has become a passion of mine as I was aware of the suffering but not the details. The stories are a part of our American history. This book helps put the timeline into perspective when I read other stories. It's griping and mind boggling. A must read.

This book makes you live what the jews had to go through in ww2 in the ghetto's, salt mines, death marches, trains and concentration camps. This book also gives a glimpse of what happend to jews after they were released from the concentration camps.

This book shows the horrors of Nazi Germany through a child's eyes. It brings the horrible history to life in a way I've never read before. It was frightening and heartbreaking but I couldn't stop reading. You have to know what happens. I hope everyone remembers, like Yanek.

This book makes you live what the jews had to go through in ww2 in the ghetto's, salt mines, death marches, trains and concentration camps. This book also gives a glimpse of what happend to jews after they were released from the concentration camps.

This book shows the horrors of Nazi Germany through a child's eyes. It brings the horrible history to life in a way I've never read before. It was frightening and heartbreaking but I couldn't stop reading. You have to know what happens. I hope everyone remembers, like Yanek.

This book really makes you thing that humans are stupid why did we kill each other it is dumb there is no reason we should all just get along I mean I think wars should just end I'm not a hippie but it's true say B-3087 if you agree

Even though we've seen and read of others who experienced the Holocaust, it still is shocking to think humans had to endure such torture and mistreatment... we all need to be reminded of these times to ensure it never happens again.

This was a heartbreaking story of a young Polish Jewish boy who survives 10 concentration camps during the Holocaust. He endures beatings and starvation, death marches and loss of his loved ones, but using his wits and often just because of luck, he managed to survive. This is a powerful book geared toward tweens and teens, and would be a great book for teachers to incorporate in the classroom.

My 10 year old has read this twice and cannot get enough of it. She is mesmerized by the time period and the tragedy that the jews endured. It is definitely for the more mature reader but not anything inappropriate.

This is the gripping story of a young boy's survival through the brutal camps of the Holocaust. Alan Gratz captures the reader from the first page to the last with this reminder of a historical time period which should never be forgotten.

This is the gripping story of a young boy's survival through the brutal camps of the Holocaust. Alan Gratz captures the reader from the first page to the last with this reminder of a historical time period which should never be forgotten.

Oh Brother! This book is as full of cliches as a Kardaashian show. Basically take a an atlas of a holocaust, in this case the one that occurred from 1939 to 1945, in Europe, and drape a character on to it. This book has every major highlight from events recorded in thousands of books, movies and TV documentaries. Some of the motifs that hang off every branch of the story are: moldy potatoes, watery soup, hiding under the floor, and so on. The angelic father, here, is a shoe salesman and not the typical "professor at University" as most of these accounts go. The most absurd scene and where I stopped reading; was the "roast beef, mashed potatoes, pass the salt" bit of dreck.
Give it a pass.

I feel awful rating a person's memoirs so low, but not as bad as I'd feel if Jack Gruener -- the protagonist -- had written it himself. Especially since this is actually historical fiction, NOT what happened to him.

The book reads like an oral retelling of events: this happened, then this, then the next thing. While that works for a speech, it doesn't come across well as written text. I'm usually an emotional basketcase when reading accounts from WWII, but I only teared up once during this book. Were I listening to Mr. Gruener personally recount his years in the concentration camps, I'm sure I'd be a blubbering mess.

I'm glad that I read this book; I just wish it had evoked some stirring of emotion other than "eh."

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.