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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. The term "Muselmann" (96) is used by prisoners to refer to a person with what condition?

2. During the long train journey Yanek experiences in Chapter 15, he wakes up to discover that what event has taken place?

3. In Chapter 17, after Yanek verbally surrenders to death inside the gas chamber, what substance comes out of the showerhead instead of gas?

4. Into which of Yanek's limbs do the Nazis at Birkenau tattoo Yanek's prisoner number, B-3087?

5. How many days are the prisoners into their journey from Auschwitz to Sachsenhausen when Yanek begins to help a fellow prisoner keep going?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what purpose do the Nazis use cattle cars and in what way is their use symbolic?

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

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

4. On which two occasions does Yanek vow to take every step he can "never to forget" (161) the atrocities committed during the Holocaust?

5. What happens to the prisoner who is recognized by the others at the salt mine as a former member of the Judenrat?

6. To what location is Yanek sent after he is removed from the Plaszow concentration camp?

7. Discuss an instance when Gratz uses a literary device to indicate the preciousness of food.

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

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

10. For what reason does Fred become unable to work?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What message does Gratz send within the pages of Prisoner B-3087 concerning the link between oppression and brutality?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

How do the themes of deception and secrecy function within Prisoner B-3087 and what is Gratz’s message regarding these themes?

(see the answer keys)

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