All of a sudden, I was woken by a loud knock on the front door. Drearily, as I slowly came to reality, I heard loud voices yelling downstairs, “Everybody downstairs now, double time!” As I slowly made my way down the stairs, I realized these weren’t any neighbors paying a late night visit. These were the Nazi secret police!

***

Let me back up a little. My name is Leopold Wenner, and my family and I are German Jews living in Munich. We were graced with this late night visit because a Nazi sympathizer next door had informed the Nazis that we were circulating illegal White Rose leaflets to all the Jews in our neighborhood, even though we were doing no such thing. The government considers this as high treason, so that explains why my father appeared on this extremely crowded train car en route to the concentration camp they call Auschwitz.

As I’m writing this, I realize it sounds matter of fact, yet that is not how I feel. It’s hard to describe this feeling, kind of numb, kind of shocked. When they split my father and me from my sister and my mother, something changed inside me. I know we are going to certain death, I’ve heard some of the horror stories of these concentration camps. Maybe it would be better to just hold my breath and die. No, I can’t do that, I need to remain strong for my father. Just looking at him now, I can see he’s scared to death. He looks like a broken man who’s lost his world. I have to put my pen down now, the train is coming to a stop.

***

Honestly, I have no idea how to describe to you the horrors my father and I have faced in the past few weeks. When the train stopped two weeks ago, we were left in the crowded train car for two whole days with no food or water. Some people even died from suffocation. When we finally exited the train car, we were rounded up and told to march. This brutal march led us to a gated area that looked like we imagined hell to be. Above this evil place was a banner proclaiming, “Arbeit macht frei”(Work sets you free).

As we were marched into a thin corridor, we were ordered to strip off all our clothing and put them in a pile with all our belongings. Then they gave us these striped costumes which we later jokingly called “pajamas”, although I do not see the humor in it now.

Every morning we have roll call at 5 am, and we have to work from dawn till sunset on a construction site 4 miles from the camp. It is brutal, hard work. The only reason I am able to write at all today is because it is a Sunday, and I am not too tired. Usually they give us Sundays and holidays off to clean up, but today I just decided to write. I’ve actually managed to make a friend in this time. His name his Elie and he loves to write, just like me. Oh, I hear the gong for evening roll call. I have to go.

***

I have no idea why I am writing at all anymore. The horror I have witnessed in the past 6 months is indescribable. I just feel broken inside. The continuous base, cruel treatment of human beings, is beyond words. I don’t think they see us as people anymore, we are just animals to them.

About two months ago the SS called a group of men together, my father included. Curious to see where they were being taken, I followed the group until I saw they were going to a large building. This building at the edge of the camp had a big, dark, secret. The Nazis has tried to get us to believe it was a special shower room, where the privileged were taken. Yet, a few of us knew that this “shower room” is actually a place of death. I saw my father go in there, and he never came out. I’ve been numb with grief and shock these past few months. Only Elie has been able to talk to me. He has gotten to be a close friend over these tough times. His father was also killed in the same group as mine. Honestly, I don’t even know if we’ll be next or not. Maybe it would be just better to run away. If we are caught, a quick shot from a Beretta 1938 would certainly be better than whatever is in that dark building at the edge of camp. It is almost the end of the year 1944, and it seems like this war and this miserable hell will keep going forever and ever.

***

The date is April 11th, 1945. It’s been about 6 months since I last wrote, and the time has just been an endless time loop of the same horrible day over and over again. Elie and I can barely recognize each other, because we both are practically skin and bones. Today is the long dreamed of day that we have heard rumors of. The war has been coming to a close, and stories are told in the camp of American amphibious vehicles liberating concentration camps as they drive through German territory. Wait, I hear something! I have to go for now.

***

They year is 1947. After being liberated from Auschwitz, Elie and I went to Munich, where I started a clock store called “Wenner’s Watches”. I specialize in making grandfather clocks, since that is the trade I was learning before being taken to Auschwitz. Elie has processed the whole story of Auschwitz and his books that he’s been writing continue to increase with popularity. I lend him some of the money from my shop to help him publish his books. Sometimes we both just sit down quietly with some tea at a table, and we reminisce and pray about those who were not as fortunate as us to survive the horrors of Auschwitz.

Bibliography

Roth, John K. “Nazi Concentration Camps Begin Operating.” Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1901-1940, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2007. Salem Online,  https://online.salempress.com

Newman, Richard, and Karen Kirtley. Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz. Amadeus Press, 2003.

Kimmelman, Mira Ryczke. Echoes from the Holocaust: a Memoir. University of Tennessee Press, 1997.

Lerner, Saul and Jacob, John. “Nazi Extermination of the Jews.” Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1901-1940, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2007. Salem Online, https://online.salempress.com

Lerner, Saul and Jacob, John. “Nazi Extermination of the Jews.” Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1901-1940, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2007. Salem Online, https://online.salempress.com