Prisoner B-3087: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

A few days later, Yanek is put back to work in Plaszów, and Moshe is no longer there to help get him a job outside the camp. The work is brutal, and sometimes Yanek can barely get up out of his bunk. When he returns one evening, he collapses in the barracks and cannot even carry himself to his bunk. He desperately yearns for someone to help him, but he knows that they barely have energy to spare for themselves. He thinks how much he misses Moshe, and how much he needs a friend.

When Yanek starts to get up from the floor, he notices a loose floorboard. He pulls the board loose and finds a space wide enough to sit inside. He thinks that tomorrow after roll call, he could disappear into it instead of showing up for his job—they would simply think he had been reassigned. Yanek feels “Moshe’s hand, helping [him] up.” He thinks to himself that he is not a Muselmann yet.

The next morning after roll call, Yanek shows two boys from his barrack, Thomas and Isaac, the hole in the floor. He knows he should look out for himself, but he understands that they could provide friendship, and he could give them the help that he himself had so desperately needed. At first, Thomas protests that they would be killed for hiding, but Yanek points out that they’ll be worked to death otherwise. So the three of them begin to hide together during the day, sleeping and coming out only for roll call.

Yanek explains that the more he, Thomas, and Isaac hide under the floor, the stronger they get. Gradually they sleep less and begin to talk about food, their homes, and their families. One day, however, they hear voices above in the middle of the day. Isaac looks out through the cracks in the wall, seeing Goeth and his dogs heading for their barracks. Knowing that the dogs would smell them instantly, Yanek makes a split-second decision to get out of the crawl space along with his friends and to replace the floorboard.

Yanek, Thomas, and Isaac come out of the barracks just as Goeth is entering. Goeth demands to know where they are going. Yanek explains that they were sent on a work detail to the south side of camp, trying not to shake. Goeth glares at Yanek but then walks by them. The boys run away as quickly as they can. Yanek thinks that in trying to survive, he’s come very close to dying, and he resolves never to hide under the floorboards again.