Prisoner B-3087

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-8

Reading Check

1. What has Yanek built?

2. What are Yanek’s three favorite types of books to read?

3. Where do Yanek and his father sneak to during the night?

4. Where do Yanek and his parents move to in Chapter 5?

5. What is a bar mitzvah?

6. How many Jews do the Nazis want to resettle from Yanek’s ghetto?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe some of the changes that Yanek witnesses after the Germans invade Kraków.

2. Compare and contrast Yanek’s father’s response and Uncle Moshe’s response to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Kraków.

3. What is a ghetto? Describe how Yanek’s neighborhood becomes a ghetto in Kraków.

4. Describe Yanek’s new living situation after the establishment of the ghetto. Where does Yanek spend his time?

5. Describe the dilemma Yanek and his family face in Chapter 7. What do they decide to do?

Paired Resource

“The Kraków Ghetto During the Holocaust”

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website overview of the ghetto in Kraków
• Based on the novel as well as the above resource, describe how the city of Kraków was impacted by the Nazi invasion.

Chapters 9-15

Reading Check

1. Why is Yanek deported to Plaszów concentration camp?

2. Which family member is Yanek reunited with in Plaszów?

3. What does Amon Goeth like to do from his balcony?

4. How is the man in the bunk below Yanek’s bunk different?

5. Why does Yanek believe he is one of 50 men chosen to work at the Wieliczka salt mine?

6. What does Yanek discover about the man standing next to him on the train to Birkenau concentration camp?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Identify the different colored armbands that Yanek sees at Plaszów. How are the Jews’ yellow stars different from all the other colored armbands?

2. Describe which task Yanek is assigned outside of Plaszów? What items does he find?

3. Summarize Yanek’s plan to restore his strength. Where does he go and who does he invite with him?

4. Where is Yanek sent after working in Wieliczka? Describe what life is like at this camp and what lesson he learns there.

Paired Resource

Amon Goeth

• Britannica provides a short overview of the Plaszów concentration camp’s commandant.
• Using the novel as well as the resource above, describe the ways in which Goeth sought The Dehumanization of the Jewish People. In which ways does he embody the theme of Good Versus Evil?

Chapters 16-20

Reading Check

1. Which group of people were sent into the fires of Birkenau before Yanek’s train arrived?

2. What is the most important item of clothing for prisoners in the camps?

3. What item does Yanek find in his bed?

4. What alternative names do the prisoners give “B III” and the camp storehouse?

5. Which German words are written in the gate above Auschwitz concentration camp? What is the English translation of these words?

6. What vow does Yanek make to himself upon Fred’s death?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe the meaning of “B-3087.” Where does this number appear?

2. What religious event does Yanek join in Chapter 17? Describe the reactions of the prisoners to this event.

3. What unusual event does Yanek witness in Chapter 18? Summarize the repercussions of this event on the prisoners of Birkenau.

4. Describe Yanek’s encounters with the new arrivals in Auschwitz. What happens to the family he speaks with?

Paired Resource

Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps

• This site includes photographs from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum website of both the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (aka “Birkenau”) camps. (Content Warning: Some photos include graphic images.)
• Using one of the photographs from the above website, describe how the conditions of the camp focused on The Dehumanization of the Jewish People.

Chapters 21-25

Reading Check

1. What do the guards give the prisoners to last the entire journey to Sachsenhausen concentration camp?

2. What “small mercy” do the Nazi guards grant the prisoners at the end of Chapter 21?

3. What do the Nazi guards make the prisoners do in the mess halls?

4. After Sachsenhausen, Yanek is sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. As of Chapter 24, how many concentration camps has he been sent to?

5. Who is “Moonface”?

6. Who are the “singing horses”?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do the guards at Auschwitz tell the prisoners that they are being moved to Sachsenhausen? What do the prisoners think is the real reason?

2. Describe the conditions of the “death march.”

3. Why does Yanek choose to help the boy during the “death march”? What moral dilemma does Yanek face after helping him?

4. Compare and contrast the conditions of Bergen-Belsen with other camps. How does Yanek feel about this camp compared to the prior ones?

5. What is the Buchenwald Zoo? Describe its function as well as how animals are treated.

Paired Resource

Buchenwald Camp

• Thirdreichruins.com shares photos and information regarding this camp. (Content Warning: Some photos include graphic images.)
• Based on the information in the above resource as well as in the novel, why did Ilse Koch take interest in prisoners’ tattoos? In which ways does she embody the theme of Good Versus Evil?

Chapters 26-30

Reading Check

1. What does Yanek say his “refuge” is on the horrendous train journeys between camps?

2. Why is Yanek publicly lashed?

3. What are in the wooden crates that the Nazis load onto the train cars?

4. What do Yanek and the prisoners discover about the Nazi guards in Chapter 29?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Which camp is Yanek sent to after Gross-Rosen? Describe the conditions of this “death march.” Which country is he led through and what does he observe along the walk?

2. Summarize Yanek’s encounter with “Moonface.” What does he request and what is the outcome?

3. What plan does Yanek concoct on the train to Dachau concentration camp?

4. What is the Summarize the events of Chapter 30. What are Yanek’s future plans?

Recommended Next Reads

Night by Elie Wiesel

• This Holocaust survivor’s 1956 memoir on his time in Nazi German concentration camps touches on the same themes of this novel: The Dehumanization of the Jewish People, The Desire to Survive, and Good Versus Evil.
• Night on SuperSummary

Schindler’s List by Thomas Kenneally

• This 1982 novel is based on the life of Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler, who protected Jews by hiding them in his factory in Kraków, Poland, while deceiving fellow Nazis, including Amon Goth.
• Schindler’s List on SuperSummary