Eliana (holocaust story)

Chapter 22

Her cry of pain hit my ears and I froze.

There was a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach before I even moved at all.

I did not want to turn around and acknowledge that I had heard it. I wanted to pretend nothing had happened and that she was okay. Maybe if I didn’t turn around, it would be as if nothing had happened at all.

But I couldn’t just ignore my older sisters cry. She was my last living sibling. I needed to face that something had happened to her.

Turning around, I saw Tziporah lying on the ground. Her leg was bent at an abnormal angle and her face was contorted with pain.

Dropping my shovel where I was, I ran to her. I didn’t care that I was supposed to keep working, it didn’t matter to me. I didn’t think, I just ran.

Why did something like this have to happen to her? She did not deserve to get hurt; she had never done anything wrong. If there was a God in this world, why was he punishing her? Why did he cause her to suffer?

I got on my knees next to her and placed a hand on her cheek.

“You have to get up, Tziporah.” I begged. I had this small pathetic hope that she could just get up and go back to work despite the clear injury to her leg.

Maybe she could still escape with us tomorrow if she got up now.

“I can’t, El.” She said, looking to me. “I’m sorry.”

“But you have to.” I whispered.

Someone knelt next to me. I glanced over and saw Felix, staring at her with concern. His eyes briefly flickered to mine.

“You need to get back to work,” he told me quietly.

“What are you going to do?” I asked him, tears blurred my vision. “Please, please, don’t take her to the ovens.”

“I won’t. I’m taking her to the infirmary.” He said. “Now, go.”

I stared at Tziporah. As much as I trusted Felix, I did not want to leave her. He could be lying to me so that I wouldn’t freak out.

“Go on, El. I’ll be okay.” She promised, seeing my reluctance to leave.

I took a deep breath and stood up. When I turned back to look at them, I saw Felix lifting Tziporah into his arms. He started carrying her swiftly towards to exit gate.

I went and found my shovel in the midst of the discard hill. I picked it up and wiped my eyes.

Esther and Susanne both touched my shoulder as they walked past me while we were working. I knew they felt sorry for me and wanted to comfort me but I didn’t need that from them or anyone at all.

What I wanted was to have Felix bring Tziporah back with her leg magically fixed.

But magic does not exist, especially not here.

What would happen to Tziporah in the infirmary? Would she even get a chance to heal or would she be slaughtered the second Felix left her there?

I would have to tell Rivka and Felix that I couldn’t leave without her. We would have to wait a while to escape.

Not that long later, Felix returned without Tziporah. I had to try my best not to feel disappointed that she was not with him.

He met my gaze and cocked his head to the side, motioning for me to come over to him.

I walked over and he took my arm before silently leading me out of the workstation.

We headed over to the barracks and he shut the door behind us.