Auschwitz

Chapter 10 The Laugh

Selection after selection. death after death, this whole three months, I've seen over ten thousand killed. my hand had healed slowly and surely and once I was strong enough, I was back to my old job, my back was torn to hell, and Elizabeth still had to take care of me, we are now sisters under god. today we are assigned to new barracks, and we will be torn apart, different barracks means new people new victims for the Germans to kill. 

Sitting up in bed in my barrack Mexico i heard the SS calling people outside already. getting out of the bunk I found Elizabeth and grabbed her hand. Trying not to get separated.

"Calm down Maria, well be fine." she muttered as we got to the door and I gave her a slight nod. This will not beat us, we made a promise to each other to try our best not to die. She wasn't Jewish but she was equally garbage to the SS which made us equal, Jewish or not. 

"I know Elizabeth. Stay strong no matter what the SS decide." I softly told her as we got in line and dropped hands. the guard split the crowd down the middle and two guards transported one half to one barrack and us to another, we would not be split up. thank God. At least I still have my best friend. The whether was getting warmer, since it was April. Sooner or later we will have to worry about heat exhaustion, and it wasn't not better that freezing to death. Both are equally as bad here.  Looking at Elizabeth I smiled and quickly hid my joy. I shouldn't let them know I was happy with their decision.  

Getting to our barracks I soon found out that our barracks would be shared by one thousand five hundred people, because we were getting new Jews. We were getting new people to watch die. This was bad news to all of us, because it was enough to share a bunk with around two hundred but to share one half of the barrack with more than three hundred. turning to Elizabeth and I could see the worry in her eyes as well. We would have to fight to sleep in a bunk or sleep on the muddy floor, and with my hand still in the stages of healing I couldn't afford another worm incident.

"One thousand five hundred in this one bunk maria." she whispered and I already knew we had the same thoughts.

"Roll call will be at seven! do not miss it or you will be shot on sight!" we heard and saw everyone tense. Odds are no one would be late because we would all be searching for a place to sleep. Elizabeth and I were closest to the door; it was nice having first pick, as soon as he dismissed us I ran to the first bunk I saw and me and Elizabeth climbed up into it.

"Maria, there is a story my father would tell me when we were roaming Germany. There was a man who had many coins, and a man who had none, the man with none would beg all day for something, coins, scraps from dinner. One day, the man gave up and passed. All this time the old man with the coins had been searching for his long lost son, only to find the man begging for coins was his son, and he felt very upset by this."

"Whats the moral." I asked and thought why she was telling me this awful story.

"Be careful who you turn away, and always help those in need, they could be important to you later. What they are doing to the Jews here, is kind of like the man with the gold coins, they have no idea, that the Jews are Gods people and that they will all perish and suffer from their ways."

Elizabeth was so wise, even when I didn't ask her to be, even when I didn't ask her to tell me these things, she always tells me these things as I lose hope, as I lose that fight to carry on. She tells us all these stories and I feel kind of better, it was like she was the long lost sister I never knew i had. 

"Move out of the bunk, there's no room!" we heard several times that day and soon we'd hear it everyday, it was now, first come first serve with where you could sleep. We had laid down for the night at five, just so no one would steal our places to sleep. We needed it anyway. As soon as I was going to get up to go to the lavatory, I felt a big weight pushing me down to the bunks wood, I could even feel the hay that was slightly covering the bunk. 

Just the weight. 

"Get off my friend! now!"

"Look at that space! you can fit at least three more people here, on top of each other at that."

"I don't care, her back can not take the weight of three people, get off now!" fading in and our of consciousness I could just hear them argue about whether there was enough room for a family of three to lay on top of us. which the answer was no. i was in a bad enough state I didn't need more piled on top of me.

"Get off of her she could suffocate!" she yelled at them still and soon I felt a good big weight lifted off of me, gasping for air I felt the air hit my lungs and it felt like heaven, there was already someone laying on top of us, adding three more, would make me die, from suffocation. 

"Maria are you okay?" she asked and I nodded, i was so happy that I did not die that way, it would've been ironic to die like that, I make it all this way, only to die when three people were crushing me. I see the irony and I start laughing making me think was starting to go crazy. 

"Maria, are you alright?"

"I almost died from suffocation, in a death camp, where I've survived three months at, forgive me if I laugh at this my friend." looking at Elizabeth I saw the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. I was right and she knew it, the ways I could die did not include being crushed to death while I was trying to go to the lavatory. This place has a way of making you see the worst in everything, this time. This one time, I laughed. All I could do in that situation was laugh, because in some situations its all you can do.