Adara's Diary

1945; Liberation

June  29, 1945

Dear Journal,

We stayed in that camp in Strausberg until February when we were forced on a death march to who knows were it took months. Many people who sat or collapsed that couldn't walk anymore were shot by the guards. Dita, Flora and I were exhausted for those months. I imagined I was back in Rotterdam much of the time to get me away from that hell. In April Dita died she collapsed from exhaustion and was shot. It was just me and Flora. We reached a camp near Hamburg there we were liberated by the Russians we were free. Over that month we stayed in that camp. War was over by May 8. Flora and I went to Berlin hoping to find someone from family. Papa survived in Auschwitz, at the red cross while I was speaking to a nurse a man called out to me "Adie is that you?" Flora was at my side when I turned and saw my father we embraced. "Papa your alive" he hugged me so tight and he let me go "Do you know about Mama and Azzie?"  he nodded "They dead I know the gas chambers"."Rebekah?" Papa looked into my and Flora eyes I answered "She died papa in August  typhus. I was at her side and so was Flora and a friend of ours" he nodded a tear escaped his eyes. "What are we to do?" Flora asked "I want to go back to Rotterdam"  I said "to find Gerrit". So we agreed to return there we made it back to Rotterdam, Papa and Flora found a place for us to stay and I went to Gerrit's home. I knocked and Johannes answered "Adara?" he looked shocked to see me "Yes is Gerrit here?" he nodded and urged me inside I sat in that familiar living room thinking back to the days of listening to the radio sitting beside Gerrit and Verena laughing away at something Gerrit said. I waited for him it felt like a hour then he appeared. He was stunned he just stared at me "Adie your back what happened to you?". He hugged me and I explained the camps and told him "My mother, Azzie and Bekah are dead" I said. He kissed me and then I  asked "Where is Verena?" I asked he sighed and then told me "She was arrested back in September, she was sent to Germany to a camp. All we know is that she was sent to a camp in Brandenburg she died there in January. Verena is never coming back Adie." I cried "Why was she arrested?" he sighed "our work with the resistance she was caught I wasn't there" I  nodded.

We all moved into the Jansen's home and earlier this month Gerrit and I married I don't know what is in store for our lives but I hope that both of us can move on from what the Nazis took from us.

Love,

Adara Kleinman Jansen.