So I am halfway through the book now and it has started to get good. Yanek has been to three different concentration camps so far and he continues to survive. As I’ve been reading the book has showed me things about the holocaust that I didn’t know. It also made me feel extremely empathetic and sad towards the treatment of the Jews. Now when I read the book the only feeling present is immense sadness. The way they were treated was horrible and in this book specifically it really shows. The way Yanek and his fellow prisoners are treated is terrible. They are treated like an never ending resource that they can exploit. The mindset that they have is” if I kill a thousand of them, two thousand will take their place.” One quote in particular that really made me upset and feel especially empathetic was “And this man,” the commander said, pointing into the crowd. ”And this one, And him, And him. And him”. He was picking people at random now in his fury, punishing innocent people for the dead man’s effrontery”(page 111). When I read this quote it felt like my heart stopped. The fact that he was killing innocent people because one man tried to escape is horrendous. This specific quote opens up a window in my head that I had hoped would not be opened. I always new what happened during the holocaust but not in detail. I just knew that Jews were killed in large numbers but this quote showed me the worst part of the holocaust. The reason it did this was because it is so dark and gruesome that I have never had to comprehend anything like it before. The feelings that this book has opened up for me so far are just synonyms of the word sadness and depression. This text is unique however because you get to see the difference in concentration camps. Through the book Yanek goes to ten different concentration camps each one different than the last so it is interesting to see the difference in camps. Whether one is worse than the other or has a commander who is worse than the others. I am going to keep reading the book, hoping that Yanek survives.