Eliana (holocaust story)

Chapter 10

This line was much faster because there were less of us. They gave us our first meal as well. Two officers ran this line, Felix and another man.

When it was my turn, Felix took my arm and wrote something down on a notepad. He handed me a brown wooden bowl.

I noticed he had carved a small heart on the inside of my bowl; I smiled slightly, feeling the carving.

Looking up at him, I saw the ghost of a smile in his eyes that he couldn’t dare show now. He looked tired but his green eyes still sparkled from the sunrise.

He poured some pale colored soup into my bowl, handed me some rough bread and a small cup of water.

I nodded to silently say thank you and went back into our barrack as I had seen the other women do.

Mama, Shira, Tziporah, Rivka, Neta and I all ate together.  We were fairly quiet as we ate.

Briefly, I wondered why Rivka sat with us. She wasn’t new and we probably seemed stupid and naïve to her. But I didn’t want to question her, I wasn’t sure how kindly she’d take to that.

The food could’ve been worse and the way I saw Rivka eat made me see how much we all needed to eat what we were given.

The soup was just some kind of light broth; it smelled rancid but didn’t taste horrible. The bread was very rough and hard made with large whole grains. It tasted as if there was dirt in it.

Ten minutes later, they shouted that it was time to go to work. I now understood why people scarfed down their food as quickly as they could. It was hardly enough time to finish.

I placed the remainder of my bread in my pants pocket. We all placed our bowls on our bunks whether we had finished eating the soup or not.

Some, like me, placed food in their pockets, others left it in their bowls. People who had been here longer, like Rivka, had no leftovers.

“Move it, rat!” an officer yelled at me when I tried to take another drink of water before we left. I was one of the last few women in the barracks.

“I’m s-“ I started to apologize. Then I felt a stinging in my cheek and I realized what had just happened.

This man had slapped me.

“Did I ask you to speak, bitch?” he pushed me towards the door. “Here, you do not get to speak when you want.”

I walked quickly when he shoved me once again. I didn’t need trouble this early in the morning. Not listening and following this man’s orders could get me a lot worse then a bruised cheek.

Tears welled in my eyes from the fear of this officer.

My mother and Tziporah gasped when they saw, what I assumed, was my swollen cheek with a handprint. Shira stared at me.

“Wha-?” Shira started.

“Shh.” I shook my head, not wanting her to get in trouble.

The audacity of that man shocked and repulsed me. He had hit a woman. That would not be tolerated in town square, it would cause a huge commotion. I guessed he didn’t even have to think twice about it. It was his job, and probably a large part of who he was.

I doubted he’d hit his own family or loved ones just as Felix most likely wouldn’t hit me. It was different with someone you cared for.

Here, they didn’t care; we no longer counted as people. We have been reclassified as lower life forms.

It was as if we were mosquitos. They were annoying and a pain in the neck to deal with. No one would think twice about killing a mosquito that had just tried to bite them.