Eliana (holocaust story)

Chapter 12

They worked us until the sunset, just as Rivka had said they would. It was easily at least five hours of moving dirt from one hill to another, tireless and mind numbing work. If you stopped moving for more then three minutes, you were reprimanded.

When I say reprimanded, I mean they would come over and scream at you or hit you until you started moving again. Everyone seemed to get in trouble at least two times.

Five of our fifteen guards, including Felix, never hit any of us. Felix didn’t even raise his voice. He calmly ordered the person to get back to work and they would all listen and do as they were told, probably glad he had spared them from more cruel punishments.

I slid down the hills four times. The ground had many rock shards that sliced skin at the touch. The more experienced people fell down maybe once or not at all. Newer people slid a lot and took other people that were in their way along with them.

Most of the officers laughed loudly and harshly each time anyone fell, as if it were a funny joke to watch suffering women fall. I noticed Felix never did.

He definitely acted different then the other officers, he stood out as the nice officer to all of the prisoners. He didn’t want to be cruel and nasty as many other officers were.

I could tell that he didn’t belong here, he hated it and it made him miserable.

Every time he corrected someone, he looked pained. His jaw and hands would clench with tension. His shoulders were tighter. His eyes seemed visibly dimmer.

By the end of the work day, my legs and arms ached from the hard labor but I would live. The small cuts and scrape stung but I wasn’t concerned about it. My main problems now were my thirst and my hunger.

My stomach was growling, the pains of hunger were intense and sharp. I wondered if that was normal, would I get used to that?

My throat was scratchy and dry. My lips were cracked and my tongue tasted of earth and soil from working.

The bread from this morning had been a good small snack while I was working but it wasn’t good enough to last terribly long.

Shira was quietly complaining about her legs hurting to my mother. My mother was just saying there was nothing we could do about it.

Mama seemed tired and worn. Her expression held sorrow of those we had already lost. I wasn’t sure if she knew about Levi. I swear she had aged ten years though in the past two days alone. I was worried, but she stayed strong while still trying to be patient with Shira.

When we got back closer to the barracks, we all smelt the food.

We saw officers wheeling out huge pots of soup on carts. There were also large bags of what I assumed was the bread. Three huge water containers were separate from the food.

I wanted to run to the food and eat until I was satisfied. I wanted to soothe the raw aching hunger and quench the thirst that I felt. But I didn’t move towards it because I knew that was asking for trouble. I didn’t need any more trouble.

One girl, who was around Shira’s age, apparently thought otherwise.

She was a walking skeleton with sickly pale skin and dirty light brown hair that held clumps of dirt. Her clothes were tattered and stained from dirt and blood.

Some of the blood was newer looking, had that been from sliding down the hills, or an officers rage? I pitied her no matter what the reason was. She had clearly been through a lot.

I wondered how long she had been here and how long it took her to get to this condition. I, at the same time, feared the answer and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.