Alan Gratz Themes

Alan Gratz is the author of fourteen novels, including two of his best sellers, Refugee and Prisoner B-3087. Both books are based off the Holocaust and take place in Nazi Germany. During the 1930s to mid 40s Germany was ruled under the power of Adolf Hitler. Yanek Gruener, who is a Jewish boy living in Germany from Prisoner B-3087 and Josef Landau, who is a Jewish boy living in Berlin from Refugee try to survive throughout the period of the Holocaust. Alan Gratz takes us through their experiences and encounters with the Nazis. Alan Gratz uses his unique style to engage his readers in the novels. With Gratz’s use of setting and imagery, readers are able to step inside the shoes of the main characters and get a feel for what is going on.
In …show more content…
It also helps creates feeling of what it must feel like walking into something like, knowing that one might not ever come out. Another quote reads,“There were no more people. No one was on the streets, and no one was in the houses. The whole ghetto had been liquidated after I’d left. There was no sign of life anywhere” (Prisoner B-3087 74). After Yanek returns to his home town, he sees there is not a single soul left, and it makes him feel alone. Imagine walking down the street not seeing a single person anywhere. This line from the book shows readers the true effect of the Holocaust. Towns were abandoned and left silent. In Refugee Gratz says, “The bright yellow Star of David armbands we wore were like magical talismans that made us disappear” (Refugee 18). During the beginning of the Holocaust when the Jewish people were forced to wear the Star of David, everyone else who wasn’t Jewish considered them as nobodies. Nobody paid attention to the Jews because they were scared something would happen to them as well. This is what the Jews had to put up with on a daily basis. Another quote from Refugee is “Two giant tan smokestacks stuck up from the middle of the ship. A steep ramp ran to the top tall black hull, and thousands of Jews were already on board” (Refugee 35). As Josef is being loaded into this ship, already filled with thousands of Jews, readers imagine what it …show more content…
These books both had a significant setting, and Gratz’s use of imagery helps readers get engaged with these books and get a true feeling of what it was like to be Jewish living in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Readers gain an understanding of what it was like during that period without being there. Who knows what would happen to someone if they were alive during this time period, and living in Nazi Germany as a Jew. These Jews did not have a clue what was going to happen to them

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Alan Gratz Themes

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