I wrote this for my History final. It is complete and I hope you all like it!
I grew up in the Bronx, lived in a two room apartment with my mom, brother, sister, Aunt Amelia, Grandpa Joe, Grandma Josephine, and Uncle Louis. At first it was just me, my mom, dad, brother and sister. Then my dad enlisted in the war as a naval pilot. He was shot in Japan four months after he left. It was hard on my mom, so her side of the family moved in with us.
My sister Margret is two years old. She was just born when pop was drafted. My brother Al is nine-teen. A big pain in my butt, he is always telling me what to do. Me on the other hand, my name is Frank JR. I was named after pop. I am seven-teen and on my birthday I had to sign a paper saying that I am eligible to be drafted if needed.
I am not a big burley kid, I weigh 157lb and I am 5”6. My mom calls me a twig cause apparently I don’t have “meat on my bones.” I love baseball though. Baseball players aren’t very big anyways so I don’t plan on getting any bigger.
Just last week I was playing baseball with the boys in my neighborhood and I hit the ball out of the park. Someday I wanna be just like Babe Ruth, an all-star player in the big leagues. Before my father passed, we’d play for hours in the field behind our building. He’d yell “Frank JR. Patruski! Playing for the cup! Better then Babe himself!”
Pop made me feel like $100 whenever we’d play ball. Sometimes I miss him but I try to get over it for moms sakes. I know that if I break that she will break harder. She’s so strong and she inspires me that way.
My baseball career ended in 1942 when I was drafted for the war June 15th. Many people were being drafted and I thought ‘what are the odds that I will be?’ I was wrong, just like my father did; I was going into the war. My brother was coming with me, at the same time of me being drafted, he was to. They said it wasn’t likely that a man under the age of twenty was to be drafted, but they were wrong. I was and my brother was.
We first got a telegram in the mail saying that we were to meet at the local hospital for an inspection. We were given a physical and they tested for any hidden diseases and disorders that might keep us from being able to withstand the conditions we were about to face. I passed with flying colors while Al had to be given pills to control his ADD and his separation anxiety from our mother. I had never seen him so nervous before. This big strong guy flipping out over going into the army; at this point I felt like the older brother.
After all of our inspections they told me that I was going to be the youngest man going into the war. Green trucks filled with men were outside the building and we had to get in. We were given clothes and a helmet and were sent to a camp to train for a month. They taught us what to do if were captured and our probability of surviving. We were also given practice gun and were taught how to shoot reload and shoot. Most of the other men were huge. About the ages of 20-40’s. Many of them had enrolled themselves and very few were drafted like us.
We stayed in rooms with small cots inside to sleep. We rose every morning to the sound of horns and whistles at 5:00 AM sharp and the sun wasn’t even out. I felt exhausted every day I was out being trained by the commander. His name was Commander Curtis LeMay, he seemed pretty old but he had lots of energy to yell at us if we did something wrong. He taught me well, once he sent us to the planes he split me and my brother up. “Al Patruski, plane A43 to Malta Italy” I had hoped to go to the same place as my brother but then the dreaded words came from his mouth “Frank Jr. Patruski, plane B22 Auschwitz Germany.”
My heart sank. I was officially going to war and my brother wasn’t coming with me. I stood up straight and ran to the plane that was taking me to Auschwitz. Again I was with a bunch of other men going to fight for our country but this time was different. I was alone; and I probably wasn’t coming back. The whole ride to Germany was filled with an old drill instructor telling us what we were going into. He told us “Auschwitz is the belly of the beast! This is where it all began! We found that Hitler was here and he may come back! A very large camp is found here and we plan to rescue anybody who is left. If you see a Nazi, shoot him to the ground as soon as you see the whites of his eyes. If this is your first upfront war, you’re in for a surprise. If you see people who are not Nazis, take them back to base camp. Once it is all clear, we will make note to the nurses to come and we will set up base in the camp. If you see children, take them with you and do not let them go until they are with a nurse! You men got all that?”
