Prisoner B-3087 Summary
Alan Gratz

Prisoner B-3087 Overview

Prisoner B-3087 is Alan Gratz’s adaptation of the events within the life of Jack Gruener, a man who in his youth survived imprisonment in a total of ten different Nazi-controlled concentration camps. The novel creates a literary version of Jack Gruener's story by depicting the character of Yanek, a young Jewish boy from Poland. Yanek lives happily with his extended family in the busy city of Krakow until the Nazis' invasion of Poland in 1941. One by one, Yanek's family members begin to disappear until finally he himself is captured by the SS one day and is sent upon a violent and horrific journey that promises to change his life forever. Over the course of the narrative, Gratz explores themes such as the nature of genocide, the sanctity of family, and the psychological effects of trauma.