Yanek

Yanek, also known as Jakob by his Jewish name (or Jack, when he arrives in America at the end of the novel), is the story’s protagonist. He is based off of the real-life Jack Gruener, who really did survive ten concentration camps during the Holocaust. Yanek was born and raised in Krakow, in the Podgorze neighborhood that eventually became the Jewish ghetto after the start of the war and the German occupation. While still in the ghetto, the reader is given the impression that he deeply values his family and is quite curious and inquisitive about the world around him. The entire novel is written from his perspective, following his experiences moving from camp to camp and subject to the terrible treatment of the Nazi regime.

While all other characters are fleeting in Prisoner B-3087 and most only last a few chapters or less, Yanek is physically...