Prisoner B-3087
By: Alan Gratz
Grades 6-8
A gripping novel based on the astonishing true story of a boy who survived 10 concentration camps. Based on the true story by Ruth and Jack Gruener.
Ten concentration camps. Ten different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis, who have taken over. Everything he has and everyone he loves have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner - his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death only to confront it again seconds later. Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will - and, most of all, his sense of who he really is inside?
By: Alan Gratz
Grades 6-8
A gripping novel based on the astonishing true story of a boy who survived 10 concentration camps. Based on the true story by Ruth and Jack Gruener.
Ten concentration camps. Ten different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis, who have taken over. Everything he has and everyone he loves have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner - his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death only to confront it again seconds later. Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will - and, most of all, his sense of who he really is inside?
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Activity One
Watch this Book Trailer that was created for Prisoner B-3087. Nobody talks in this trailer, but it tells a lot about the book. Make your own trailer to go with this book. You can either do like they did with pictures and words, or you can have people act out different scenes from the book. Please make sure that you don't use any inappropriate scenes. There were a lot of things in the book that we wouldn't be able to share at school. This book makes you think a lot, what did you think about? |
Activity Two
Watch this short video narrated by Alan Gratz and featuring Jack and Ruth Gruener. You will be able to see the actual tattoo of B-3087 on Jack's arm. Yanek survived 10 different concentration/work camps. Find a map of the concentration camps on the internet and mark the 10 locations that Yanek was at. The Wieliczka Salt Mine is not a concentration camp, so you are going to have to find that on your own. Also, in my research, Auschwitz and Buchenwald are in the same location. You do not need to mark the death marches he participated in, but look at your map as you go between locations to see how far they had to walk, it's pretty amazing! |
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Activity Three
The United States Memorial Holocaust Museum is located in Washington DC. You may have even visited there. If you have, create a powerpoint, prezi, or some other kind of presentation about the museum. If you have not been there, go to their website at www.ushmm.org/ to explore. Using pictures from their site, or ones that you find on your own, create the presentation to share with me, and hopefully other people as well. If you know of someone who has been there, you can also interview them and create a presentation from that interview. Many of you have been to the Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege (that's where Quiz Bowl is). They have a wonderful exhibit about the Prisoner of War camp that was in Atlanta. If you would like to research there, take some pictures, and create a presentation from that, that would also be okay. I hope that we didn't treat our prisoners like the Nazis did, the things they did to Yanek were awful.
The United States Memorial Holocaust Museum is located in Washington DC. You may have even visited there. If you have, create a powerpoint, prezi, or some other kind of presentation about the museum. If you have not been there, go to their website at www.ushmm.org/ to explore. Using pictures from their site, or ones that you find on your own, create the presentation to share with me, and hopefully other people as well. If you know of someone who has been there, you can also interview them and create a presentation from that interview. Many of you have been to the Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege (that's where Quiz Bowl is). They have a wonderful exhibit about the Prisoner of War camp that was in Atlanta. If you would like to research there, take some pictures, and create a presentation from that, that would also be okay. I hope that we didn't treat our prisoners like the Nazis did, the things they did to Yanek were awful.
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