A girl called A-18352: The Story of a Child of Auschwitz

The East

Since the death of my beloved Haya, life has been tense. The Nazis have rounded up more of our neighbors and sent them to the east. Besides the Brandman family and Slovakian orphans Hanka and Misko Löwenbein, we are to my knowledge the only Jews left in town. Fayge is trying to dust our coffee table, but two year old Reuven is making this otherwise simply task difficult. Ewa and I are playing with little carved animals. Then someone started pounding on the door. As soon as Mamusiu unlocked the door five members of the Gestapo burst into our living room. "Jews, you have one hour to pack for resettlement to the east. One bag person. Schneller!! Quickly!!" Ewa and I scrambled up the stairs and pulled out our suitcases. We filled them with extra dresses, winter clothes and blankets. I then quickly put on my patent leather boots and put my hair in braids while Ewa tied a scarf around her head. With our suitcases in hand me and my sister sprinted down the staircase where our family was wating for us.

Fayge was shaking profusely while little Reuven was happily jabbering to his sister, he thought this was like a big adventure. As the Nazis led us outside where they had gathered what was left of our neighbors. Eleven year old Misko held little Hanka's(8) hand. Behind them was the Brandman family. The oldest Elżbeita was followed by the rest of their siblings,Mendek(17), Rivka(15), Rachela(13), Anna(9), and little Dawid(5). Their aging parents struggled to keep up with the group as we were led to the train station. The Gestapo has gathered people from nearby towns and shtels. I spotted my cousin Shifre, she looked at me with fearful eyes as she clutched her three year old son. Mamusiu's brothers Isaac and Jakob stood next to their parents. They are 21 year old identical twins with white blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

My family fought our way through the crowd. That wasn't easy with hundreds of men, women, and children in front of us. At the front of the crowd were huge cattle cars. Tate was the first to speak "Surely, they don't intend to transport in there, like animals." He soon got his answer, a railroad worker open the door to the car "Go on, get in the car help the children" My parent gasped in shock but complied, Tate scooped up my younger siblings, while Mamusiu helped Ewa and I into the car. As soon as I stood up I was smashed up against the car with tremendous force, I cried out in pain and shock as me and my sister we slammed against each other.

We were nearly crushed by complete strangers as they rushed in. I thought the car would burst at it's seams. When the car was finally closed, we waited for what seemed like hours before the train lurched forward. All I could do was try and breath the best I could, I was near a window, so I was lucky. The silence was interupted by a fearful voice,"They're going to kill us all!" a young woman moaned.

       "Don't repeat that nonsense it's only rumors," said an older man in response.

     "My Aunt's shtetl was nearly wiped out, she escaped by running into the woods." another girl sassed

         Mamusiu couldn't take it much more "Do any of you realize that there are young children in here," she shouted. No one said a word so she continued,"We all have to think positively, for the children's sake,"

As night fell people started to fall asleep. A girl about my age fell on top of me, she was cold but so was everyone else. I shook her and tried to wake her up, and then I realized her skin was grey and her both her arms and legs were limp. This girl was dead, I nearly screamed but I didn't want to wake anyone up. She was so cold!

       I snuggled up next to Ewa and to fall asleep, but that was nearly impossible with the knowledge that there was a corpse next to me.

I woke up to a woman screaming "Esther wake up please," she was shaking the dead girl next to me. Suddenly she had a horrified expression on her face as she realized her daughter had died. She started wailing until someone told her to shut up. My heart sank as I felt a sickness in my gut, their is no sound as heart wrenching as a mother's wail. It's something one can forget.

She bit her lip and quieted down, wiping her tears. Death was common on this trip most died from suffocation, especially the very young and elderly but some died from diseases they already had. A few days later Mamusiu woke up to find Reuven dead in her arms. "Niiiiiieeeee, Nooooooo" she continued wailing until she managed to wake up every one, "My baby, Niiiiiieeeee!"

     My brother is dead, seeing Mamusiu like that hurts all over. I held to Eva, the rhythmic beating of her heart soothed me. We all cried until our voice was hoarse then we all reluctantly dried our tears. We couldn't afford to mourn for long these days, the Germans had no sympathy. We couldn't let them see us cry, not if we wanted to live.