Summary

At the start of Chapter 13, Yanek explains that he was pulled out of Plaszów camp on a permanent reassignment for a work detail that took him to the Wieliczka salt mine, not far from Krakow. He did not know this originally, but during their descent down the elevators into the mines, one of the men noticed the salt all around them and recognized where they were. They toured the salt mine, which had a famous indoor cathedral chamber carved into the salt, as well as underground lakes and numerous passageways through which they could get lost and never be found again, left to die among the salt. Yanek and the other prisoners were forced by the kapo to do backbreaking work in the mines each day. One evening in the barracks, a few of the prisoners recognize another as one of the...