Prisoner
B-3087
By
A l a n G r at z
Based on the true story by Ruth and Jack Gruener
Scholastic Press
New York
Kraków, Poland
1939–1942
Chapter
One
If I had known what the next six years of
my life were going to be like, I would have eaten more.
I wouldn’t have complained about brushing my teeth,
or taking a bath, or going to bed at eight o’clock e very
night. I would have played more. Laughed more. I would
have hugged my parents and told them I loved them.
But I was ten years old, and I had no idea of the
nightmare that was to come. None of us did. It was
the beginning of September, and we all sat around the
big table in the dining room of my family’s flat on
Krakusa Street, eating and drinking and talking: my
parents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, and me,
Jakob — although e verybody called me by my Polish
name, Yanek.
“‘The Jews must disappear from Europe.’ That’s
what Hitler said,” Uncle Moshe said, reaching for
another pastry. “I don’t know how much more clear
he could be.”
I shivered. I’d heard Hitler, the German fuehrer,
give speeches on the radio. Fuehrer meant “leader” in
German. It was what the Germans called their presi-
dent now. Hitler was always talking about the “Jewish
menace” and how Germany and the rest of Europe
should be “Jew free.” I was a Jew, and I lived in
Europe, and I didn’t want to disappear. I loved my
house and my city.
“The British and the French have already declared
war on him,” my father said. “Soon the Americans
will join them. They won’t let Germany roll over all of
Europe.”
“He’s already annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia,”
said Uncle Abraham. “And now he invades Poland!”
My father sipped his coffee. “Mark my words: This
war won’t last more than six months.”
My uncles argued with him, but he was my father,
so I believed him.
“Enough politics,” my mother said. She got up to
clear the table, and my aunts helped her. “Yanek, why
3
don’t you put on a show for us? He built his own
projector.”
I ran to my room to get it. It wasn’t a film projector
like the one at the movie theater. It was a slide projec-
tor I’d made by mounting a lightbulb on a piece of
wood and positioning wooden plates with lenses from
magnifying glasses in front of it. I could show pictures
on the wall, or do shadow-puppet shows. My cousins
helped me hang a white sheet in the doorway of the
sitting room, and when everyone was seated I plugged
in the projector and clicked on the radio. I liked to
have musical accompaniment, like a movie sound
track. When the radio warmed up, I found a Count
Basie song that was perfect and started my show.
Using cardboard cutouts of cowboys, Indians, stage-
coaches, and horses I’d glued to sticks, I projected a
shadow show about a sheriff in the American Wild
West who had to protect his town from bandits.
John Wayne Westerns were my favorite films, and I
took all the best parts from his movies and made
them one big story. My family laughed and cheered
and called out to the characters like they were real.
They loved my shows, and I loved putting them on for
them. I was never prouder than when I got my father
to laugh!
4
Maybe one day I would go to America and work in
the movies. Aunt Gizela would often ruffle my wavy
hair and say, “You look like a movie star, Yanek—
with your dark-blond hair and big eyes.”
I was just getting to the part where the bandit leader
robbed the town bank and was squaring off for a
shoot-out with the hero when the music on the radio
stopped midsong. At first I thought the radio’s vacuum
tube had blown, but then a man’s voice came on the
radio.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this broadcast
with the news that the German army has reached
Kraków.”
“No!” my father said.
“So soon?” Uncle Moshe said. “It’s been only six
days! Where is the Polish army?”
I came out from behind the sheet in the doorway to
listen. While the radio announcer talked about Polish
forces withdrawing to Lodz and Warsaw, there was a
big BOOM, and my mother’s teacups rattled in their
saucers. My cousins and I ran to the window to look
outside. Dark smoke curled into the sky over the roof-
tops of Podgórze, our neighborhood. Someone cried
out on the next street, and the church bells of Wawel
Cathedral rang out in alarm.
5
It was too late. The Germans were here. If I had
only known then what I know now, I would have run.
I wouldn’t have stopped to pack a bag, or say good-
bye to my friends, or to even unplug my projector.
None of us would have. We would have run for the
woods outside of town and never looked back.
But we didn’t. We just sat there in my family’s flat,
listening to the radio and watching the sky over
Kraków turn black as the Germans came to kill us.
6
Copyright © 2013 by Alan Gratz, Ruth Gruener, and Jack Gruener
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,
Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos
are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department,
557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gratz, Alan, 1972–
Prisoner B-3087 / by Alan Gratz. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
“Based on the true story by Ruth and Jack Gruener.”
“While the story of Jack Gruener is true — and remarkable — this book is a work of
fiction. As an author I’ve taken some liberties with time and events to paint a fuller and
more representative picture of the Holocaust as a whole.” — Afterword.
Includes a biographical afterword.
Summary: Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival
from the Nazi occupation of Kraków, when he was eleven, through a succession of
concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau.
ISBN 978-0-545-45901-3
1. Gruener, Jack — Juvenile fiction. 2. Jews — Poland — K raków — Juvenile fiction.
3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Poland—Juvenile fiction. 4. Holocaust survivors —
Poland — Juvenile fiction. 5. Kraków (Poland) — H istory — Juvenile fiction.
[1. Gruener, Jack — Fiction. 2. Jews — Poland — K raków — Fiction. 3. Holocaust, Jewish
(1939–1945) — Poland — Fiction. 4. Holocaust survivors — Fiction. 5. Kraków
(Poland) — H istory — Fiction. 6. Poland — H istory — Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.G77224Pri 2013
813.6 — dc23
2012012460
ISBN 978-0-545-45901-3
25 24 23 22 21 23 18 19 20/0
Printed in the U.S.A. 23
First edition, March 2013
Book design by Natalie C. Sousa
