I was 18, the year was 1933, two years before I joined the SS. I had happy life with my parents and my Jewish half-sister, Leah. Most people in Germany, including some of my closest friends, now thought of Jewish people as "Unclean" or "Dirty". I try to not to let it bother me, but sometimes I can't help screaming at someone saying that because my sister is in that group. It was a cold, crisp morning on February 5, like any other morning, I got up and walked to the mine where I worked as blast technician, we were making a new hole today, so I was excited. While I was getting the dynamite, as I walked by, I heard some whispers from the miners about how they thought Jewish people were not pure, I thought nothing of it. I was setting up the dynamite when some SS soldiers walked in and started questioning people about their family. One tall, light-haired soldier came over to me and asked," Do you have any relation to any Jewish families?"
I said "yes my sister is half-Jewish and my step-father is Jewish".
Then, in sort of frenzied tone he asked, "Where do you live?"
I replied by telling him "I live on 2257 Hamburg Dr."
He then shouted to the rest of the soldiers to come with him and they all hurriedly walked out. I was confused on what just happened, but everyone was waiting to get to the new part of the mine. So I finished setting up the explosives and counted down to give people enough time to get out of the danger zone. After ten seconds, I set off the explosives; there was resonating boom that shook the cavern and everything in it. When smoke cleared, there was a new vein of coal for the miners to mine. We cleaned up the rubble and got to work. After almost 10 hours of work in the mine, my shift was over. So I went up to the surface and trudged back home.
When I got home I heard some muffled crying form the upstairs, I ran up the stairs to see what was wrong and I found my mother slumped in the corner crying saying, "they took them, they took them", over and over again.
I asked her, "Who took who, Mom?
"I don't know who, but they took your sister and your father." After she said that, I stood there stunned for a little while, just thinking about what just happened. Finally, my Mother's sobs brought out of that daze to go and comfort her.
