Prisoner B-3087
By:Alan Grats
Jack Gruener (Yanek) AKA Prisoner B-3087
The setting for Prisoner B-3087 takes place in Krakow, Poland in 1939. The main character of the story is Jack Gruener. Jack and his family are all of Jewish descent and he and his family are trying to survive an invasion from the Nazis. One day while Jack and his family are eating they hear a voice telling that Krowkow is being invaded by the Nazis. One by one all of the Jews start to get taken out of their houses by the Nazis.
Then before they know it big groups of Jews are being taken away. Later when his family gets taken away to die he realizes that he has to support himself in life now. Jack Gruener was born on 1927 in Krakow, Poland. He was only 10 years old when the Nazis invaded. Jack was an only child when he was born.
His Father was an entrepreneur that owned a shoe shop. The rest of Jack's family owned a bakery and a fur shop. Jack had dark wavy hair with large brown eyes. Jack had a love for reading about America, doctors, and medicine. He had a fun loving personality and liked to entertain his family by using his slide projector to show wild west movies. The night Poland was invaded by the Nazis he was showing his family his own created slide show.
Recurring themes
Two of the themes of the book were survival and tragedy. Jack was driven by anger and fear of loosing his freedom, heritage, and his religious affliction. His religious affiliation. His religious creativity to express who he was a stripped away and he was told to wear the Star of David as an Arm Band to identify he was a Jew. His sense of community was stripped away by the Nazi's ability to contain all the Jews into a Jewish Ghetto by forcefully bricking an entire community together by taking their pride and dignity away through segregating the Jews from all other people. Further tragedy was felt when all Jews were not allowed to attend school, libraries, movie theaters , supermarkets and a curfew was imposed. If these rules were not adhered to by the Jews the penalty was death.
As the familiar big grey military trucks pulled up and Jews from a joining apartment building rounded up and herded, there was no allowance for carrying personal effects. No suitcases, no extra clothing, no food only the clothes on them. Wherever the final destination was they would have to do without. Jacks family so far was not selected to serve the quotas for the concentration camps. They were told that because they donated many valuable items to the German soldiers such as their radio, jewelry, and zloty which was their currency. Jack explored the trap door leading up to the roof and discovered the neighbor's pigeon coop. Jack thought this would be ideal for him and his family to hide out and free up his flat for the Rosenblum's. Mother sat on the roof and sewed hidden pockets into the lining of our coats; inside were the remaining valuables and money we had was hidden. The roof entrance was secured with steel bars.