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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What name do the prisoners at Birkenau bestow upon the camp storehouse that holds items stolen from Jewish prisoners?

2. In what year does Yanek arrive at the Auschwitz concentration camp?

3. In what year is Yanek moved to the Trzebinia concentration camp?

4. At the end of Chapter 19, Yanek thinks he may be losing his mind when he hears the sound of what?

5. Of what type of material is the floor of Yanek's barrack at Birkenau made?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which qualities of new prisoners help Yanek to qualify certain individuals as such?

2. At what point do Yanek and the other new arrivals to the Birkenau death camp realize that they have been spared for the moment?

3. What is different about Yanek's experience at Bergen-Belsen, in relation to his previous experiences with concentration camps?

4. Discuss an instance in the novel when Yanek's determination to survive is apparent.

5. What small moment of triumph does Yanek experience during the transition from Auschwitz to another concentration camp?

6. What distinction does Yanek make between the Trzebinia concentration camp and the other camps in which he has been imprisoned?

7. What morning routine does Yanek develop during his time imprisoned in Birkenau and why does he consider the routine important?

8. Which objects in the salt mine does Yanek consider aesthetically beautiful?

9. How does the theme of altruism arise within the journey from Auschwitz to Sachsenhausen?

10. What is the significance of the novel's title?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Gratz’s use of a first person narrator serve the purposes of the text? Discuss how Gratz’s choice of point of view helps to advance the treatment of at least three particular themes within the text.

Essay Topic 2

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Gratz’s novel Prisoner B-3087. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

What is the function of Oskar's character within the novel? Discuss the characterization methods used by Gratz in depicting Oskar and include in your discussion the reasons that Gratz portrays Oskar in these particular ways.

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