Vile, despicable, vulgar; these are just some of the words that are used to describe us.
Despite the similarities between the rest of humanity and us, we are mere animals to everyone but our own kind. I can't help but wonder if this is what life was meant to be like... Being contained, kept in cages, relying on others to keep you alive. But this thought is one of the last things on my mind right now, because at the moment everything is changing. The times we thought were bad are progressively getting worse, and if something doesn't prevent the future from taking it's course... Then we are all going to die.
But before my death prevails, I would like to tell you some important details about myself.
One, my name is Elizabeth Liebermann.
Some may argue that names are unimportant, foolish even. But just to keep me sane, just to stop myself from falling into death with nothing but a black chasm of despair burning inside me -- I want to know that my name is somewhere. That someone remembers me.
Two, I have 3 days left before I am proclaimed nothing but another dead corpse to pile amongst the numbers.
But nobody cares, do they? I am classified as a horrendous, disgusting being to you people, I wouldn't understand it if you showed some sympathy, because you're all the same, aren't you? Heartless creatures. And because of this reason, my life is going to come up short and amount to nothing.
Finally, and possibly the sole cause of being labeled as nothing more but a flea ridden dog to be put down -- I am a Jew.
So there we are. You practically know everything about me, don't you? Well, the important things about me anyways. But there is more to this woman that just a few scrawny statements. I have a story to tell you, and it starts in the shabby, run-down old house on the corner of Eichel Street -- where they came to take us away.
---
Thump... Thump... Thump...
The door shook with the force of the blows. Everyone inside of the cramp, dilapidated, rat-infested house froze; nobody ever knocked on that door. Nobody even glanced at that door. Up until then it seemed as if it were just a prop in a theatrical play, but now the harsh reality was that it was a wall... A wall that was crumbling down around us -- in an instant it had taken away what had once been some kind of future for the household.
Thump, thump, THUMP!
The knocking on the door rapidly became louder, angrier; causing the flimsy door to shake and shudder. Someone was going to have to stop this racket; or else the stranger was going to end up bringing the whole house down. So finally -- with shaky hands and a woozy stride -- the man of the house, an old, gaunt looking man known as Ellis or my father shuffled towards the door and slid back the dead bolt.
At that moment, everything seemed to go into undeniably relentless chaos - And I stood back and watched. One minute Ellis was upright and staring at the intruders in silent inquisition, but with a flick of the wrist and a gunshot, he was falling… Falling… Falling backwards, until he slammed into the ground with a sickening crack -- already gone from this world and onto the next. The blood from the bullet wound slowly started to seep down into the floorboards, staining our sanity along with the creaky wood.
There was another gunshot. More blood, more sobbing companions, more disaster. These were the sounds that I would soon learn to block from my mind, but what would surround me every day for the rest of my short-lived life. But at this moment, I allowed one blood curdling scream to escape my dry, cracked lips.
The uniformed men marched over the dead body and came towards us; clasping our arms behind our backs, muffling our cries with a choking piece of cloth, slowly filing us out the door - disrupting everything that we had ever known.
