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Chapter 27
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
The prisoners march another three days. On their sixth day of marching, they are brought to a depot and loaded into train cars. Poles are put in one, and Jews in another, with a third for the documents that kept track of the prisoners. After a day and night on the train, Yanek is awakened by the sounds of an explosion. The train breaks screech to a halt, and soon the prisoners learn that the third car, with all their documents, has been destroyed. Yanek gets an idea: he rips the seams holding the Jewish star on his uniform and dirties the spot that it had covered.
Yanek proves his ingenuity and determination once again. Seizing on a lucky break—in which all of the documents of the prisoners are destroyed—Yanek tries to then improve his situation by pretending that he is a Polish prisoner rather than a Jewish one. This serves as another example in which luck can fuel Yanek’s actions and help him attempt to survive even further.
Themes
When the train stops outside Dachau, Yanek switches from the group of Jews to the group of Poles, knowing they’ll have no way of verifying who he was. Yanek lies and says that his name is Yan Zielony—a Polish name. The Nazis write down his name and number and continue on. But then, a Polish prisoner tells the soldier that Yanek is a Jew, and that he saw Yanek switch sides. Yanek tries to protest, but he is immediately shoved back over to the Jewish side. Yanek wonders why the man ratted him out despite having nothing to gain by it. He realizes that the man had told on him simply because Yanek is a Jew.
In this instance, Yanek’s lack of identity—being reduced to a number—might prove an advantage as he uses the Nazis’ own system against them. Despite Yanek’s luck and his determination, however, he is prevented from switching sides by this Polish prisoner. This reinforces how even other Polish prisoners, who are essentially experiencing the same thing that Yanek is, bear the same anti-Semitism as the Germans—despite the fact that Yanek is Polish, too.
Themes
