WARNING: This story is based on a traumatic event called the Holocaust.
Me and my family were always happy. We were always perfect. We had food in our bellies and a roof over our head. Until one day. These soldiers knocked down our front door and took us all away. They hurt us. They made us slaves. And just about anything you can imagine to hurt a person. Here is how it all started.
I was sitting in my bed. My sister had a bed across the room from me. And downstairs was my parents room. 2 bathrooms. Just about a perfect little family house. I was writing in my diary my mom got me for my birthday.
“Dear diary, today was amazing. My crush, Elijah, finally asked me out! Anything I could ever dream of is finally coming true. Me and him are supposed to meet later today and hang out. Let’s see how it turns out!”
My mom and dad were milking the cows for dinner later. And my sister was playing outside in the mud. She’s only 3 after all.
My horror story, terrible, terrible, story all begins with a simple knock on the door. Nobody was answering the door so, I went down and answered the door and this weirdly dressed soldier was standing there. Just looking at him gave me the creeps. There was this weird symbol on the arm and he gave me the chills. He took my arm and I don’t know why. He said, “I’m taking you away to Auschwitz, that will be your new home.”
I screamed and screamed, “Mommy! Daddy! There’s a stranger trying to hurt me!” After that my mom and dad came rushing to the door. Then 5 more soldiers rushed into the house and grabbed my family. My little sister was gone. I think that they had taken her! They threw us into a cart and then closed the door. It was all black now It was smelly and disgusting. There were a bunch of people from around the block and neighborhoods. What is happening?! About 2 hours later I fell asleep.
I woke up, still in the cart. Tons of people were still in here. Even more than before. I was squished against the wall. I could feel wetness on the floor. I think it was pee and maneuver. It was horrible. Everything in life was amazing and now I don’t even know what’s happening. I just wanna disappear. I walked around the cart and was looking for my family. I finally found my little sister along with my mom. My mom was holding her stomach. Why? My dad was no where in sight and my mom saw me and hugged me. She was shaking telling me everything was going to be okay. I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen but whatever it was, I know that it wouldn’t be good.
It’s now day 3 of being inside the cart. I think they are letting us go today. Although, that’s what they say. About 5 hours into the day after waking up, they force us all out of the cart and there is a camp there with a sign named “Work will let you free”. What does that mean? The soldiers pushed boy and girls into different buildings and they forced us to change into these blue and white striped pajamas. We went in lines and they cut all of our hair off. Then they told us to go into these shelter houses, so that’s what we did. They gave us scrapings, basically not even food. What do they want from us? Why are they doing this? I have too many questions.
About a day later the soldiers come into our shelter and tell us we are going to a different building to take a shower. So we all got on a cart and were transported to a building. We walked into a room with shower heads on the ceiling. Several of them. We each had to undress. The soldiers shut the door, but no water came out. Weird. It was about 5 minutes later everyone was confused what was happening. Then this gas started to come out of the shower head. And then people around me started coughing and getting sick.
Soon tons of them were dead. I took my shirt and put it over my mouth. Preventing most of the gas to get in my lungs. Then I found my mom. Laying there. Lifeless. It’s been about an hour and mostly everybody is dead. My mom was still holding her stomach when she died. I laid beside her, crying. I felt her stomach. There was a bump. A baby bump. It all makes sense now. My mom was wanting to surprise us to the other day before they took us away. She was pregnant. And now that is all ruined. I was the only one that was alive in that room.
About 5 hours later a soldier walks in. I was sleeping so I looked like the rest of them. Lifeless. I was cuddling my moms and sister’s dead corpses. Each of the soldiers were loading the bodies onto the trucks. Saying that they had to transport us to the crematory. I got picked up and I pretended I was dead. When he got almost to the truck I snapped his neck. I knew how to do this from defence class at school. He fell to the floor with me in his arms. I made sure he was dead by holding his throat shut. Then I undressed him and put his baggy uniform on. I headed to a cart and put a horse on it. I tried my best to steer the horse and cart. I rode away and went as far as I could. Nobody really questioned me considering the uniform and being quite tall for my age (16).
I rode away and went to Europe. I went there cause I had nowhere else to go. As I got older, I had a life. People knew I was jewish and that I survived the holocaust so I talked at schools a lot. And then at age 85, I died due to cancer passed down my family. I will never forget this tragic experience.
