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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Prisoner B-3087, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Determination and Luck
Anti-Semitism and Cruelty vs. Humanity
Connection vs. Isolation
Coming of Age, Trauma, and Remembrance
Identity vs. Anonymity
Summary
Analysis
One morning at roll call, Yanek is loaded onto a truck with 50 other prisoners and taken to an industrial-looking building. Yanek thinks that he recognizes one of the other men and asks if he’s from Kraków. The man adamantly says no—he is “no one.” As the prisoners are led into the building, Yanek realizes that it is actually the entrance to an enormous mine. As they descend in the elevator, Yanek feels trapped. One of the other prisoners says that they must be in the Wieliczka salt mine.
The man’s reaction to Yanek’s question makes it clear that Yanek is not the only one who understands the benefit of anonymity. As per Moshe’s advice, it’s beneficial for prisoners to be “no one” so that they don’t stand out and risk being targeted. Meanwhile, the mystery of where the prisoners are being taken—and particularly Yanek’s feeling of entrapment—highlight how the Nazis purposely keep the prisoners uninformed and disoriented as another tactic of abuse.
Themes
Yanek and the prisoners get a tour of the mine. The kapo shows them the room where they’ll be working along with the picks, shovels, and carts. He warns that even though it might be easy to slip away to escape, the prisoners would never find their way back and would starve to death. Then, they come to another huge chamber, where they see dozens of figures—trolls, serpents, kings, queens, knights, chandeliers—all carved out of salt. Another prisoner explains that the miners carved it all—some statues are a thousand years old. Yanek is amazed that there could “still be beauty in the world.” After the tour, they return to their barracks without dinner.
Yanek’s amazement at the fact that there can “still be beauty in the world” reminds readers of just how destitute his condition is. The Nazis’ cruelty is so thorough that many prisoners have lost all sense of joy and meaning in life. Even though Yanek is able to maintain determination, this provides key insight into how battling every day to survive makes everything else in the world seem insignificant.
Themes
As the prisoners return to their barracks, Yanek sees two men confront the man he recognized on the truck, demanding to know if he was one of the Judenrat policemen. Though the man denies it, Yanek recognizes him as Holtzman, the police officer who raided his family’s apartment and brought the Nazis to his flat. Yanek is enraged. Holzman starts to panic, but a kapo quiets them. Yanek hears Holtzman crying softly in the barracks that night.
Yanek’s fury is justified, as he recognizes how much pain Holtzman caused the Gruener family—particularly Mina—and others in the Kraków ghetto. The Judenrat, who were still Jewish citizens, wrought terror and inhumanity upon other Jews, just as the Nazis did.
Themes
The next morning, Yanek starts the work at the mine. As he chips away at the salt with his pickax, he hears a kapo cry out in terror. Yanek peers around the corner to see what has happened: Holtzman’s head has been bashed in with a shovel, and the rest of his body is torn and bleeding, his cuts rubbed with salt. Yanek thinks of Abimelech in the book of Judges, who sowed the fields of his people with salt after he put down their rebellion. Yanek thinks that this is “punishment and purification, all in one.”
Yanek continues to interpret what happens to him in life via the Hebrew Bible. Like Abimelech, the prisoners have punished Holtzman’s betrayal with violence and salt, a symbol of “purification.” But the punishment also calls to mind the idiom of “rubbing salt into one’s wounds”—essentially, making an already bad situation worse. The other prisoners afford Holtzman no humanity since he afforded them none, but punishing him does nothing to alleviate their suffering.
Themes
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The kapo demands to know who killed Holtzman, but no one admits to it. The kapo says he doesn’t care if they kill each other, and he instructs two of the prisoners to dispose of the body. Yanek continues to work. That night, he dreams that the salt statues come to life and attack their captors—but all of the statues have Holtzman’s face.
Yanek’s dream underscores his immense desire to be free of the Nazis’ cruelty. However, the fact that the statues have the face of Holtzman suggests that Yanek may be haunted by what happened to the man—indicating that he may agree with the deadly punishment that was afforded to Holtzman. As such, Yanek demonstrates his unique ability to retain his sense of humanity and compassion, even toward someone who betrays him. This inner strength could perhaps spare Yanek from completely losing touch with who he is and where he came from.
Themes
