My Jewish Star

Chapter One

I looked around my large bedroom one more time making sure I had everything I would need to our new home. It was three forty in the morning and it was a chilly October night. I shut my suitcase and placed my star of David over my chest and prayed. I prayed to whoever that was listening would guide me and my family to safety. I normally didn't pray unless it was something serious. "Ksena, let's go they have started to load up the trucks." My mother says walking into my room holding my little brother Ian in her left arm and a large suitcase in the other. I got up and grabbed my suitcase and walked down the long steps. Taking photos of our home in my mind so I would never forget it. I clasped onto my star of David necklace that my grandmother had given to me for my sixteenth birthday.

I walked out into the bitter cold air, little snow flurries swirled at my feet. I pulled my coat onto me a little tighter to give me more warmth. I watched as the German soldier pushed the people into the back of truck forcefully not caring where they landed. "Beeile dich!" He yelled for us to Hurry.

 Some residents were standing outside of their homes watching in fear. My father was standing in front of us and made his way into the truck turning around to grab Ian but was pushed back by the soldier. "Zurück! Zurück!" He yells out, my father backs up slowly. The soldier rips Ian from my mother's arms and tries to place him in the truck. But he whines in protest and scrambles out of the soldiers arms and runs to my father.

He picks him up and rubs his brown hair trying to keep him warm along with himself. My mother gets up on the truck and sits in the back closest to my father and I try to do the same thing. The soldier grabbed my arm and squeezes it hard. "You Jew, what is your name?!" He asks taking out a small notepad and pen. "Ksena Judlovich." I say softly looking at the ground. He wrote down some things on the notepad before pushing me up on the truck.. I sat in between my mother and Ian sitting on our suitcases. He pulled down the flaps and we were all in darkness except for a few glimpse of street lights that would flash through the flaps occasionally.

Ian laid his small head on my shoulder unaware of what was going on. He was too young to understand and it would be wrong for him to be forced to go through this at a young age. My mother was crying along with a few other women and a handful of men and children. We did not know where we were going and we did not stop. Even if one of us had to use the bathroom. We were forced to pee in a bucket in the back of the truck on the opposite side of me.

There were a total for forty-three people, I sat and counted every time I had the chance to. We had been on the open road for what felt like days till we got our first taste of sunrise. The truck had stopped and two soldiers held up to two flaps of the truck pushing them aside and telling us to move forward. We grabbed our belongings and hopped off the truck. I nearly fainted at the sight of our new home.

It was surrounded by nothing just open spaces of land and empty-looking buildings. The area was guarded by Nazi soldiers and tall barbed wire fences. It looked like a large prison community, the buildings were slightly worn down and some were missing windows. The people were wearing old clothing and looked half sick and starved. The children were slightly outnumbering the adults. Their faces and clothes were covered in black soot but you could still make out their David stars.

I looked around the area and noticed that some of the trucks that came to pick us up in the town weren't here. There were only two trucks out of the five that took us. My mother pulled me close to her and held on to my father. The barbed wire fence opened with a creak and we were escorted into a small building that we were cramped into. A tall man came inside and sat at the long table to the right of us gesturing for us to step forward. "One at a time! Einer nach dem anderen!" He yells for all of us to hear. The two soldier from outside came in and pushed the old people out the way, also sitting at the table placing their guns closest to them.