3 Months Ago…

It was the summer of 1941. The early august heat covered my body, but the cool breeze rushed in as I rode my bike down hill. I laugh as I look up at the brightly lit up night, with thousands of stars in the sky. Dreaming of what it would be like to be there. Ingrid followed behind me on her bike. The gleam and joy in her face made me smile, wishing we could stay like this forever. I hunched my shoulders forward, getting ready to speed the bike down to the park. I jump off my bike and bolt to swings, me and ingrid always fought about who would get the better swing. She chuckles and runs towards the swings, but is too slow to make it in time before I jump on them. Me and her sit there, swinging back and forth for hours. The breeze brings the welcoming smell of summer into the air. The world went quiet. 

A scream follows, waking up the quiet night. Me and my sister turn towards each other, realizing it's my mothers scream. We dash to our bikes, forgetting about everything else. As we desperately try to ride to our home. We saw families, our neighbors being taken from their homes. I rush into my mothers arms and hug her. Confusedly I look around, not sure what is going on. I can feel my heart start to race and my hands sweat profusely, I clench on to my mother even harder. My father tells me and my sister to stay together, not to lose each other. German officers drag my family, as well as many others. We head towards a large train. But I surely thought this wasn’t where we were supposed to go. Hundreds of people all collecting together in one train? But as we piled into together, I realized my fate, our fate and this was only the start of it. 

I open my eyes, coming back to the harsh reality, remembering the situation that we are now in. My mother and father inform me, telling me that we are leaving home. That all Jews are being sent to these concentration camps, tragically including us. Over the course of many days, we stayed huddled together in the train. I began to grow worried as my mother was already poor in health and she wasn’t able to grab her medicine before we were taken. But as the days grew worse, so did my mother. So much so that by the time we got there she had already passed. Tears rolled down my face, as I held her cold lifeless hand. The train came to a stop, but I didn’t move. People climbed over her body that I clenched closer to me, I wasn’t going to leave my mother so suddenly. I couldn’t move, I couldn't leave her. I let out a shriek as my sister grabbed my hand, urging me to go. I felt the grasp of my mothers fingers slip away from me. 

I cleaned myself up, flattened my clothes with my hands and wiped the tears away from my eyes. We were then separated by women and children, and men. Me and Ingrid hugged our father, as he told us not to worry and that we would see each other again. I didn’t believe him but promptly nodded as we said our goodbyes for the last time. Guards told us where to go and we were stripped of our clothes. I stood there awkwardly before we were given new clothes. Which consisted of a striped shirt and pants, in which they proceeded to shave our heads. I felt hopeless, alone, I had lost almost everything. My sister was the only thing I had left, I wasn’t myself anymore. I didn’t have an identity anymore, I was just another person, another Jew. To the guards we were worth nothing, we were all the same. They all had the same mission, to kill us. 

We all learned to develop a routine, we would wake up at 5:30, have coffee, and work. Work all day long, for 11 hours, with one break, being lunch. But on November 5th, 1991, that would change. As me and Ingrid had our usual, tiring routine. During lunch, everything went wrong, I would lose the only thing I had left, my sister. So as the alarms sounded and the guards shot, I realized that someone was escaping. Not only someone, but everyone. But the only thing I cared about was finding my sister. But as I rummaged through the crowd she was still nowhere to be found. There was no hope, no point in continuing to look for her, she was just gone, missing, as if she never existed. 

I then began to realize what was happening, I flew my body under a table that had been piled with dirt on top. I shielded my face and prayed for just one moment of complete silence. The world went quiet.

3 Days later..

My eyes widened, a girl with long brown hair and big bright blue eyes looked down at me. I turned away, I thought it had been my sister. I still wasn’t able to find my sister, I had looked everywhere. But I wasn’t allowed to have any breaks during the work day. But I managed to find some time during lunch to look for her. No luck. She was still missing. 

The days seemed longer and conditions grew worse. Hundreds of people died, and I was surprised I was still alive, but for how long, I wasn’t sure. People talked of escaping, I decided it might be worth a try, as I had gotten closer with many women at the camp. 

We huddled together, whispering and deciding on a plan. We met in secret, whenever we found time, we couldn’t risk the guards finding out. So after many days and intense planning, we were ready. 

Auschwitz had grown, not in size, but in people. Millions of Jews were taken here and circumstances were at its lowest. It was time, we were going to escape. Over the course of these many months, I developed relationships with these women and girls. We had to do it now, before we were killed. As everyday people were picked to leave, to go to the gas chambers, where eventually everyone would go. We had to do it now, before we would be picked as well. As we all gathered together at lunch, my friend, Erika, told us all to prepare, for it was time. We all headed to our worksites. Erika had managed to get the uniforms of some of the Polish workers, who were aiding us. We ran and hid behind the shed of our work site. We heard guards coming towards us. Hurriedly we put on the uniforms and marched out. Now, it was time to run, and avoid everyone. As we passed many prisoners and guards, they thankfully did not notice us. We ran towards the fence and slipped in through a hold we had dug in the dirt. We smuggled in with many of the other Polish workers, to not be noticed. We ran onto a train that was leaving to pick up more jews. We were surrounded by many Polish workers, I hid my face so as not to be noticed. But smiled as I turned away, as I couldn’t believe we actually did it, we escaped Auschwitz. The journey back was just as bad as the way there. We had minimal food and had restless sleep. My spirits grew down, as I remembered that this was where my mother died. But it gave me hope to keep fighting, that I would make it through this mess. 

The train came to a stop as I glanced my eyes out the window. When we arrived in the ghettos, many jews had already been killed. But the remaining were living and working in fenced off areas. We took off our uniforms and continued to stay there for many months. But it would soon become as unsafe as the concentration camps. Just like the concentration camps, we were sorted out by our skills, doctors, engineers, craftsmen, etc.  

I wake up in the middle of the night, I look down at my watch. It reads 12:31 am. I get up from the floor and decide to go outside. The chill in the air makes me grab on to my sweater. I look up at the moon, and go towards the woods, looking up at the stars, reminding me of the night before we were taken. How everything was so perfect on that night, not a worry in the world, and I was with my sister. I come back to reality and my gaze is focused on a light in the distance. I’m drawn to it and start walking towards it. But I come to a stop, it's a girl, she stands holding a match in her hands. I accidentally step on a branch and she darts her head towards me, before I was able to hide.  She turns her attention towards me, as I slowly back away. She tells me to stop, so I make my way towards her. She says her name is Violet Rabinowitz and her family is living here. And that was the start of our friendship. 

After that day me and her spent everyday together, me and her family got close as well. But day by day Jews were being selected to go to these concentration camps and be killed. My spirits grew though, as I grew closer to the Rabinowitz family. They gave me shelter and love, since my whole family was missing. But they planned to run away to the forest, it was the best decision for all of us.  

I felt the branches and leaves touch my legs as I ran. I looked behind me, Violet was to my right as I ran. The worst possible thing happened for Jews, the Nazis were killing all remaining Jews in the ghetto. We ran to the old occupied house kept by the Rabinowitz family, in the woods.

 It wasn’t safe anymore, we had to keep moving. It had been many difficult years since we started living in the woods. But thankfully it was the summer, which allowed for more stable conditions. We formed a family camp and lived in underground bunkers, but it was a struggle to survive day to day. But talk started of a liberation, I didn’t believe it would happen. 

January 27th, 1945, The liberation. I looked up at a bluebird that was perched up on a tree. Violet ran up to me frantically and we found out together. The liberation happened. I smiled with joy and broke down on my knees with tears in my eyes. It was finally over, I was safe. So at that moment, the world went quiet. 

My alarm sounded at 5:30, I looked over at my sister, who was staring blankly at the flaking white ceiling. I woke up in a sweat, not sure where I was. She asked me what was wrong, I told her that I had a nightmare. I had just thought it was a silly little nightmare. But I didn't think that 6 years later, in the summer of 1941, that this dream would become a reality. But at that moment I had everything I needed. I had my father, mother, and sister, everything I would ever need. But I would soon lose, was here with me at that moment. So at that moment. The World Went Quiet.