Prisoner B-3087 Atkins

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Prisoner B-3087, written by Alan Gratz, is a great story about one boy's struggle during the time of the Holocaust. It opened my eyes up to the life of one teen who is struggling through trying to be a teen while enduring a major change in his life. This story was great in relating real life issues while still existing as a historical novel.
The story begins in 1939 in Krakow. The Nazis are taking over Poland when ten-year-old Yanek and his family hear the first bombs explode. Jews are penned in a small area by the army, and soon their neighborhood is sealed off behind a wall, the image of which is poignantly evoked by the book’s cover. Despite increasing danger, the Jews struggle to preserve their identity and family life. Friends and relations, at great personal risk, give Yanek his bar mitzvah in a secret nighttime ceremony. Sadly soon after, the trucks arrive and take family after family away to imprisonment and death. Yanek is separated from his parents and begins his hellish term as a starved, exhausted slave laborer. He will, against all odds, survive ten different concentration camps before the war is ended.
Through it all, Prisoner B-3087, the boy who was Yanek, struggles to stay alive and to somehow retain his humanity and his sense of justice. Being that this novel is based on the true story of Jack Gruener, who survived despite the best efforts of sadists and psychopaths to kill him, it makes it a lot more personal and relatable. Although the Holocaust is over, many teens can relate to Yanek because whether it is moving away, or being a military brat, everyone can relate to being misplaced. Although the subject is grim, the telling is handled in a way which should enlighten and engage (but not overwhelm) middle school readers. I would definitely teach this novel in the classroom because it gives historical context and deals with personal issues that adolescents deal with frequently.

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