Holocaust Girl

War Takes The Good

January 1941
It's the middle of winter in the Warsaw Ghetto camp. Food is scare and disease is spreading like wildfire. Father has not gotten any better, only worse. The doctor around here says he has pneumonia, and he could die. We wear masks around him to avoid getting sick. My mother decided to teach the lessons to cover for my father. We fear each moment of being caught.
....................................
A week Later
Mother has been teaching some children, including me, the language of English. For the newspaper somebody snuck in last week says America and Britain are getting involved. Britain has already been fighting the Axis forces. America has a very strong army, so I hope they will help. I've learned that the Axis forces are evil, they have Germany, Italy, and Japan. The Allies are good, they have the Soviet Union, Britain, America and most of the other strong countries.
I've been praying for papa to get better, but it looks like he won't survive the nasty winter. I watch sadly each day as I watch him waste away. There is nothing we can do, only hope. The Nazi soldiers are throwing human waste and dead bodies into the streets. Their eyes started back at us looking glossy and evil. My guess is to scare us. It does, but we have to remain brave and strong.
Late February
A month has passed and papa barley opens his eyes, mama says we have to be strong for him. The adults won't tell me, but I know he is going to die. I feel empty, I just want it all to be over. I've made a new friend her name is Macy. She's here with her aunt, her parents were sent to concentration camps a few months ago. She was sent here with her aunt, who is only twenty. Luckily Macy is the same age as me so we get along well.
The Nazi's killed a little ill toddler because he threw up on their shoes, it was terrible. I swear they have no heart. It sad and scary how you could be so cruel to another human being..
March 1st
Papa just took his last breath, I've never been so sad. We plan to bury him as soon as the ground softens a bit more, so in a about four days. Mama only cries now, she stays in the room. Classes are cancelled.
A new family move in with us, a husband and wife. Their four year old son was killed by a soldier. They don't talk much, I don't blame them. There seems to be no hope in sight.
October
We have passed through a few more months. No news of rescue is heard.
Yesterday was my birthday. I was given a new shirt, I was very thankful. Mama spent hours by the tiny fire crafting it with little pieces of cloth from the homes of the dead and forgotten.
The Nazi soldiers are taking people from our ghetto to the concentration camps. Mother and I hide whenever they pick people. You can always hear the screams of Jews crying for life.

Macy and I were playing behind our building yesterday when a soldier came and shot my dolly. He kicked me as a punishment for playing. Macy was smacked. I have a black bruise on my stomach which aches quite horribly.
I really miss papa, I can tell mama does to. I've learned a lot in classes. Mama almost got caught yesterday. Thankfully she was able to hide it in her blouse.
Sometimes I think I smell father's cologne from his old bedroom. It makes me feel as though he is still here and around us. I think I will always live with the emptiness.
Days tick by slower and slower..
Mid December
It's been over a year now... since we first arrived. I wish it was like it used to be, mama, papa, and me.
I've had a little cold for about a week now. I have to stay in bed so I can get better before the bad winter. I feel stomach cramps that forbid me from moving and inch. I fear that I will die like Papa, but Mama assures me my ideas are false.
I feel lucky to have been taught English at a very young age, many people here are illiterate.
The Japanese bombed America's base in Pearl Harbor. I guess Pearl Harbor is in one of their states named Hawaii. Mama told me it's very sunny and tropical there. Someday I hope we can visit it together.
February 1942
Today mother and I were in the teaching room in our closet room when a soldier burst in and saw her teaching. He ordered her outside in the bone-chilling weather. The other children followed me outside as I sobbed. Then my worst nightmares came true, the soldier shot my mother in the head with his pistol. He showed absolutely no compassion! He then grabbed her teaching book and went off with it. I ran to her body and cried over it for hours. I was now and orphan, all alone in all this chaos. The adults helped me bury her the following week. We found a few flowers and planted them over here. They were all blue, her favorite color. I need a way to get out of here before I'm shoved in the trains to hell.
If it's one thing I have learned during this war is that..
War takes the good...