Holocaust Short Stories

Fences

Fences are very high. All my young brain can remember is fences. Fences topped with sharp metal that keep the bad things out. Mama says that bad things usually come from within, but that was before she left.

She said that she was going on a walk one day and that I should never, ever go walking on the south side of the camp. I always did what Mamma said, so I just nodded and went back to digging.

I am very good at digging. The large men say so. Not directly to me, but to themselves. They says that I'm a good one, one to be kept. I don't really know what they mean, but I suppose that it's good.

Mama said that I was a good digger too. I thought of digging under one of the fences one night, but then I remembered that there were bad things on the other side of those fences, so I didn't.

When Mama took her walk, I became very lonely. I wondered if all of my old friends had taken walks, because I had not seen them in a long time. After a while, Mama didn't come back either. I wondered if she got lost somewhere near the fences, where the bad things are.

So one day, I figured that I better go search for Mama and make sure she was okay. Old Joe said he would come with, just to make sure I was okay. I liked Old Joe, he could sing real well.

We searched everywhere in the camp, staying far away from any fences. Finally, Old Joe said that we had to go near the fences. I didn't like it, but we did. We went along the whole perimeter of the camp, all the time watching the fences with ill ease. We found nothing.

That was before we reached the south side. What was there made Old Joe vomit, and made me cry out in horror. Because tangled up in the fence, was a body. A burnt and blackened body that was covered with blood. It's bones were broken, signs of a struggle, and the skin reduced to ash.

Mama had been right, I was wrong to go along the south side. People here broke the rules. I didn't feel bad for the person, they should have known.

"Old Joe, why did they try to cross the fence? It's against the rules!" I wailed, pointing to the body. Old Joe looked at the ground, and then back up at the body. Then he slowly shook his head.

"I think we should go back."

"But Joe! We have to tell someone that they were breaking the rules!" I cried, moving closer to the deadly fence. There was a strangely familiar smell around the body, one I could not place. However, I ignored it and looked at Old Joe intently.

"No we don't, little one. What're they going to do? Hurt a dead person?" He asked. When I didn't say anything, he continued. "No, it's best that we just leave it be."

He gently pulled me away from the body that lay tangled in the fence. The familiar smell continued to bother me, but instead of addressing it, I let Old Joe drag me away into the safety the fences provided us with.