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Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz Review by Swapnil Kumar


     Recently, you may have gotten an email about Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Uni received a grant allowing students and faculty to take part in a virtual tour of Auschwitz. This email reminded me about a book that I read the summer of subbie year called Prisoner B-3087 written by Alan Gratz. Here’s a quick summary of the book and a review of my opinions on it.

Yanek Gruener, a little Jewish child and ain character of this story is ten years old when the Nazis invaded his native city of Kraków, Poland in September 1939. Yanek, his parents, Oskar and Mina, and the rest of his Jewish family are all subjected to immediate limitations on their liberties. He arrives at a concentration camp, where he sees his uncle Moshe for the first time. Yanek must stay unknown and unconcerned about anything, Moshe continues, because anything might be used as an excuse for the Nazis to execute people. The whole story goes on about Yanek’s adventure and is a thrilling yet really devastating adventure. 

While rereading this story it was hard to believe that I missed so many scary details. When I read this book the first time I treated it as a storybook, but when I reread it I realized this was more a history book than a storybook. Many of the events that were described in the book were in vivid detail, so it was almost as if I were going through the same events as Yanek. As I mentioned before, Yanek’s adventure throughout the book was thrilling but also scary/devastating to read about. 

I am into fast-paced novels and this novel not only gave a quick backstory but also moved on to certain details really quickly. The details moved on fast but were all carefully picked and very well detailed. I rate this book a 9.4/10 only because the book was a little easy to read. Thanks for listening!

Comments

  1. Ansh SinghApril 15, 2022 at 8:33 PM

    Just like you, I am also into fast-paced novels and this book sounds like something that I would read. I like how you describe how the author puts everything into vivid detail, like you are there. It just makes me imagine that if I were to read it, I would feel the same emotions that Yanek felt. Honestly great review, might consider reading it in my freetime.

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  2. Luke F.April 18, 2022 at 11:45 AM

    This review reminds me of the number of historical fiction books based around WWII and the holocaust that I have read in the past. The fact that events in the story are similar to events that actually took place give these stories a certain horrifying but thrilling reading experience. I would be interested to read this book in the future. Great review Swapnil!

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