Holocaust Story

“Anti-Semitism. Bah.” My dad growled as he watched the TV.

My mother looked over at him and said quietly, “Not now with Seth in here. Now is not the time to get Nazi Germany in your mind. It is nearly time for Seth to go to bed, and I don’t want him to have nightmares again.”

I looked up at my mom, my mind whirring with questions, but I kept my mouth closed and nodded. I stood up and stretched and walked towards my bedroom, my green eyes looking at everything surrounding me. Little did I know that I wouldn’t be seeing the items again.

I looked back at my mom and dad and yawned, “Good night, see you tomorrow.” I turned to go into my bed room, and barely heard my dad say,

 “You may not with those Nazis so close to us.”

“Richard…” my mom murmured something else, but I could hear nothing as they moved into the other room. I closed my eyes and fell asleep, knowing tomorrow would be a new day.

Ω

My eyes shot open and tried to focus in the ascending darkness. Somewhere in the house there was a slamming of doors and a muffled shot. My first thought was, Nazis! They’re here! I sat up in my bed, throwing off the thin covers and standing up in the dim light. My heart thumped with adrenaline as I crept towards the door and inched it open. I glanced out into the hall, seeing where the danger was coming from.

 It wasn’t that hard to see most of the house; our house was really small and you could look into every room except for the living room. All I could see from that room was a dim flickering light, and I walked towards it. Feeling more confident, I straightened my posture, convinced that everything had just been my imagination. I looked around the corner and saw my mom sitting there, snuggled into my father’s shoulder. I smiled thinking that this was just right. I then noticed the subtle sobbing coming from my mom and my dad’s comforting words and my heart sped up again.

 My father must have somehow heard it because he looked up at that second towards me, his eyes widening when he saw me. Or my expression. Either one would have worked seeing as he raised one hand and motioned for me to come to him. My mom raised her head and I cringed seeing her red eyes. I shuffled towards my dad and my mom held out her arms, as if to pull me into them. I shook my head; I was fourteen, not a three year old. I was used to my nightmares by now. As if to contradict me, my body shuddered involuntarily and I silently cursed. That is the way nightmares are; they make you so scared that you wake up with cold water running down your face and the taste of salt on your lips. Peeling the covers back to get up and go to the bathroom or get water. Making you scared for too long; it is even worse when one of your nightmares actually come true. I eventually gave up and sat next to my mom, embracing her and my dad patting my back.

“Nightmares again?” My dad’s rough voice rang out in the dim night. I nodded sullenly and he continued, “If you didn’t think about what was happening, then that wouldn’t happen! This is 1933, and you should be happy that we have not been targeted by Anti-Semitism.”

A scream rang out through the open window, followed by a shot. My dad’s face paled and he went to look out the window, and he stood there for a moment. He ran back almost immediately grabbing our hands and pulling us off the couch. “Go, get as many of your possessions as you can and get downstairs. Get into the tunnel and stay there. The Nazis are here.”

The last sentence was all he had to say to send me and my mother running, her to the basement, me to my room. I grabbed my most special possession; a trinket that my mom had given to my little brother when we were little before he died. In 1924 when he died at the age of five, my mom had taken the trinket, and even though I didn’t completely understand, I knew that the trinket was a very important thing from my brother and I had to keep it as safe as possible. I could not let anyone take it or damage it because it was the clearest memory of my brother that I had.

I wrapped it around my neck and ran back towards the cellar door, now hearing the first signs of struggles throughout our community. I opened the cellar door and raced down the little flight of stairs and towards where I could see my father’s leg hanging. I grabbed his leg and pulled myself up into a hollow which had been left by the previous owners as a safe hole. He slammed the door shut just as a bang echoed in the upstairs door; The Nazis were inside our home, and hunting us out.

My I could slightly see my mom’s eyes in the dark, a bright blue shining out at me beneath all of her black hair. She pulled me closer as the Nazis came close to the cellar door, hoping that they would not come downstairs. No luck; the cellar door made a wind sound as it was pulled open and a couple of Nazis raced down the stairs, their boots making a thump sound every few steps.

 I was briefly reminded of one of Edgar Allen Poe’s stories. Where the man murdered the old man and he could hear the haunting thump of the ghost heart. My mind was wiped clear as the boots came to close to the wall and there was a sudden knock on the walls. You can’t truly be serious! They’re actually smart enough to check the walls? Someone else must have done it. I thought bitterly.

A knock hit the door that they were hiding behind and I tensed. A Nazi called out to his comrade, something that I could not understand. I closed my eyes in fear as the other Nazi came over and there was another knock at the door. There was a scrabbling sound and suddenly the door flew open and I was staring into the muzzle of a gun pointed at my face.

A hand grabbed my arm and tore me from my mom’s arms and I cried out, “What are you doing to us?” I saw a Nazi raise his gun and I raised my arm to cover my face, and then heard the gun whistling through the air. The barrel hit my head and lights flashed in front of my eyes, but I think I stayed conscious. I looked up again, the lights clearing but leaving everything blurry, and at the Nazi. “Sto-,” I tried to get out but was hit in the head by the gun and everything went black, They got me, was my last thought.

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Screams. Crying, both adult and baby. The smell of something indescribable. Fear. That was the first thing that I noticed as I slowly gained conscious. The next was the rumbling beneath me, and the comforting arm of my mother around my shoulders. I opened my eyes drearily and looked around, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. The scene that lay before me woke me up more quickly then if my mom had stripped the sheets off me and splashed cold water on my face.

“W-What is going on?” The fear showed clearly in my voce as I looked at my dad. His eyes were sunken in and he was holding his arm closely to him.

 “The Nazis got us. We are being relocated.” He made quotation marks when he said relocated, and I immediately understood. We were being taken to the Polish Ghetto.”

Some of the younger kids started crying, and the smartest one asked, “Relocated? “What is that?” He said with sniffles. His younger sister who was hanging tightly to his leg started crying again when he wrapped his arm around her. I awkwardly put my hand around them. Well. Rather, I moved my hand to a more comfortable spot. I looked around more carefully, and then looked at all the faces in the truck. There must have been at least fifty of us in there; I knew all of them.

“What will happen to us now?” My voice came out strained because I was trying to hold back tears of my own. Next to me, my mother cried out freely as did other women, children, and a few men.

My father looked at me and whispered, “Cotorrito.” Be quiet. I nodded remembering happily when he had given me that nickname.

 There was laughter surrounding us as my father read out, “Mami gave me a look that had Cotorrita all over it. She had stopped calling me that name, but she still used it to hush me up.” My dad looked up and said, “Sounds a bit like you, doesn’t it.” He laughed again and looked over at Mother. “Maybe we should call Seth Cotorrito also.” She laughed with him for a moment.

The scene dissolved from my mind and I was looking back into the fearful faces of my friends. I sank down as far as I could, but there was no space for movement. My mom put her hand in front of her face and held up her pinky finger. I did the same and she smiled, the tears still running down her face. I smiled with her for a fraction of a moment before the truck came to a halt. Everyone in the back was jolted back into movement and fear. The door at the back of the truck was pulled open and a few people cried out at the sudden sunlight.

There stood multiple SS soldiers pointing their guns at the back of the truck. “Raus, Raus!”

People cried out and others pushed frantically towards the opening in the truck. A couple of children younger then I fell out onto the ground, but the Nazis just yelled, “Raus!” again.  People pushed out harder, eager not to be shot.

Once all of the people were out of the truck, the Nazis stood us up in a straight line. A man stepped out of the line in front of them and looked up and down the line we were in. Once he finished, he started, “You have been relocated to this place, only for the Jewish race. You will live here under a few rules until further notice.” He continued on until he had said all of the rules and such.

Most of the people who could understand him were looking around, and murmuring in horror. A couple children who were old enough to understand, but still young enough to not really care were making mocking jokes about the man. The man stopped walking away and turned around. He watched the two boys, and then came back up to them. He walked up to them, and pretended to listen to what they were saying. I flinched, my eyes squinting because I had a feeling what was going to happen.

“Töten sie.” He shouted. Kill them. Two shots rang through the air simultaneously. A mother cried out and she too was shot almost immediately. The rest of us stood in frightened silence, waiting to see if any more of us would be shot.

“If any more of you disrespect me, you will have a consequence or be killed.” A rash tone came out of the man’s mouth, something we had never heard before. Something that implied that he knew he was in charge, and he wasn’t afraid to hurt or kill us.

 A Nazi to his right raised his gun and most of us flinched back and a couple screamed out. They all laughed at our fright and horror, even though it was all because of them.

A man started calling out names and families to go to houses. A family would be called up and two Nazis would come and ‘escort’ them to their new homes. When it was finally our turn, we walked up quietly, as everything was seemingly done this day. The Nazis escorting us shoved us forward with the butt of their guns and one even smashed their gun over my father’s head.

“You do realize that this isn’t just relocation, right?” The voice coming out of the Nazi’s mouth surprised us. 

“What do you mean by that?” My father asked suspiciously.

“I mean exactly what I said. This isn’t relocation.” The man stared my father down, as if daring him to ask another question. My father shrunk down a little, and so did my hopes. Nothing ever scared my father, but apparently this man did.

“Why are you doing this to only us?” The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. My mother looked down at me, her eyes wide in her small face.

The Nazi laughed and said, “It is not only you, it is other families as well.” His companion laughed with him and they pushed us on. They shoved us into a house, and into a small room to the left of the door.

“From now on, this room is your and one other person’s home.” They left the room, slamming the door behind them.

“B-but what will happen to us?” I stammered to my father. He grabbed my arm gently and pulled me down onto the bed beside him and my mother.

“We are going to be okay, this is just temporary.” He said gently. My head snapped up as another bang echoed through the house from the front door, and a moment later, our door opened. A small girl about my age was shoved into the room, clawing at the guards behind her.

“I will not be left here to die you damn-“She was cut off as she was shoved down and the Nazi left the room. She stood up, brushing herself haughtily and held her head high.

“I am Chaos. Well, actually, my name is Rose, but my parents just decided to call me Chaos because I create so much of it.” She laughed nervously and I looked at her like she was on fire.

“How can you be so happy at a time like this?” I asked

“How can I not be so happy? I would rather be optimistic than pessimistic.” She said with a nervous laugh.

My mother smiled tearfully (how could two little eyes hold so much water?) and replied, “Your right. How could we not?” She gave me a little squeeze and pushed me towards Chaos. I blinked and said, “So…” I stopped there, not able to continue. She just looked around, making little noises. All at once, she sat down on the ground and assumed a sleeping position and probably fell asleep. I shrugged and walked back to my mom, lying down close to her and my dad. I tried to fall asleep in the cold, brittle room.

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