Holocaust+Narrative+Writing

Abbie Sookdeo May 21, 2012 L&L 4 Ms. Dabrush Holocaust Narrative Writing

Chapter One: Abraham and Me

The day is July 22, 1944. It is Summer. The days are hot, the air is clean, the flowers are blooming and everything is perfect. I lie by myself on the green grass in the blistering hot weather. I see two squirrels chasing each other thinking that nothing will ruin my happiness. Today is the day I get to see him. It’s a Sunday. I get up from laying on the grass walk through the two back doors of my house. I walk by my desk with papers all over it. I look at an old story that I made in writing class, there is an A+ on the front of it. I remember when I made that story. My friends and parents think of me as being really smart but I do not believe them. Today, is the day that I get to see my best friend in the world. His name is Abraham. As I walk by the kitchen, I smell the dinner that my house keeper is making. I grab an apricot from the counter. I then put on my old converse shoes and run through the door. I stroll back to the shed pull out a bike and ride down the street. Abraham lives on the other side of the town from me. I wish he lived closer. I pass by the Graysons. Then I pass by the Hastings and I am on the bike trail. I arrive at the intersection where Abraham lives and I see my father’s truck. “Papa why are you at Abraham’s house?” I explained in a whisper. “Ummmm.....Why are you here you should be at home and not at a filthy Jew place.” “Well I am here because my friend Abraham lives here.” “Well he won’t live here for long. Go home and wash up for dinner.”

As I walked away I heard my Papa say to the Nazis, “Kill the adults, but keep the boy. We can use the boy in Dachau.”

Abraham told me about Dachau. He said that Dachau was a place where Jewish boys would go and work 16 hour days. The Jewish boys would sleep on hay, would have little food and would have to work in the dangerous place. Also, many children died of starvation, disease, and working in the factory.

As I was slowly getting on to my bike I heard two gun shots and a little boy crying. I knew without turning around that Abraham just witnessed his parents death and he was on the road of living a miserable life. I knew that was probably the last time that I would see Abraham.

Chapter Two: The next day The next day I woke up with dried tears on my cheeks. I knew that my papa and the Nazis did not like Jewish people, I just did not know how much hatred my papa had for them. For me it didn’t matter if Abraham was an alien, he would have still been my greatest friend. Abraham and I had so many good memories.

I was at Abraham’s house and we were playing a game of soccer. We went to the nearest field at my middle school. As it was that Jews were not allowed to come to school. We were playing a game in the rain. We were best friends we played fair and nicely. We could not handle being without each other.

Abraham and I were so good together, we helped each other. It was almost like we were long lost brothers. I rose out of my soft twin bed and stumbled through the hallway to the bathroom thinking about Abraham. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and got dressed. I wore khaki shorts and a polo t-shirt. I ran down the stairs and I saw my father in the living room. I walked up to him and asked, “Papa why did you have to take Abraham away. He was my best friend.”

He responded, “Well son Abraham is a Jew. Jews are inferior and inhuman. They caused us to lose the war. They are horrible people. I never want to see you sympathize for them ever again. Abraham will be where he belongs.”

After my papa ended talking I ran up to my room and laid on my bed, crying. I always looked up to my papa and what he believed in. However, after I saw the way he described my friend and the way he looked. I knew that what the Nazis, Hitler and my father was doing was wrong. Abraham was my friend and he was the nicest and the most trustworthy friend I have ever had. I knew in that moment that I was going to stop this. I was going to stop the Nazis and Hitler. I would free the poor Jewish people who had to live miserable lives.

Chapter three: The Alley

Over the next couple of weeks I started to realize all of the horrible things that my father did. One time when my papa and I were walking home from town we took a short cut and walked through an alley. As I walked I smelled a strong smell of trash and litter all over the place. I heard the faint sounds of screams. I knew the Nazis were out causing pain. As we kept going we walked towards two guys that had scared and terrified looks on their faces. They both had gold stars on their shoulders so I knew that they were Jews. My papa stopped and I knew in that moment it was going to get violent and soon. My papa walked up to the two men and asked, “What do you think your doing? Your a Jew you can not be here. How did you get out?” One of the men responded saying, “What do you mean? We were just going home.” My Papa then expressed, “Why aren’t you in the ghetto. The men hesitated. In the couple of seconds that the two men hesitated it was just enough time for my father to get out his club. He expressed to me, “Klaus cover your eyes.” I stood there peeking through my fingers. I witnessed something horrible. My papa took out his club. He started hitting the men on the back as they started to run away. All I heard were the sound of bones crushing and bruises forming. I took a step back and started to cry. I wondered if this was how Abraham and so many other Jewish people were being treated. As I took away my hands from my face. I saw two bodies on the ground. I could tell that they were alive but barely. My father had a smirk on his face. I had a feeling that my father was turning insane. He used to be a caring father, but now I was not so sure. There was a stream of blood slithering down towards my feet but, before it reached my white converse shoes my father said, “Come on boy. There is nothing to see here. Just some idiotic Jews that think they rule the world.”

On the way home. We walked in silence. I so badly wanted to ask my papa why the Nazis were treating these people so badly. However, I knew if I brought it up he would get mad at me for sympathizing with Jews. So we walked in silence.

Chapter 4:First Day of School

After witnessing what my father could do it made me realized how important it was for me to rescue all of the Jews that were being persecuted. On Monday August 14, 1944 I started my Junior year of High School. I woke up to the chirping noises of the birds in the trees. I got out of my bed and put on my recently ironed uniform. I walked down the stairs and put my knew textbooks that were on the dining room table into my bag. I went into the kitchen and got my toast with butter and ate that at the kitchen table. Then, I put on my shoes and said goodbye to my mother and walked out the door. I remember when I used to walk over to Abraham’s house before I would go to school and we would play and talk and have so much fun. I stood at my bus stop waiting for it to come. I stood with my German friend who my father thinks is a good friend but I just think he is annoying. The bus comes and I sit with my German friend named Konrad. He talks about how he is so excited that his Hitler Youth Group got to train over the summer. By train I think he probably meant that he got to persecute Jews. We walked into school together and he was just rambling on about what he did in Hitler Youth. I just wanted to ask him why are you doing this don’t you think this is wrong. We filed into the Auditorium for the usual welcome to German High School speech. Our principal walks up to the front of the stage and starts explaining the curriculum and the colleges that are giving scholarships to schools. I was not very interested in what she was talking about. Then the principal started talking about how she wanted to start an anti-bullying leadership group at the school to stop bullying. She was wearing a Swastika symbol on her chest. I thought it was ironic that the principal was talking about anti- bullying but yet she supported bullying of Jews (persecution of Jews).

After the assembly was over I went up to the principal and asked her about the leadership program and she said, “Oh Klaus we would love you to be on our leadership team we need somebody like your father with leadership skills from commanding the Nazis.” My thinking about being in the anti-bullying group was that I would be able to find other people in the High School who believed in stopping the persecution of Jews and we would stop people from persecuting the Jews.

The first leadership meeting was after school there were probably about fifty kids their all eager to help keep people safe. As I looked around the room I wondered if any of the people in the room right now could help me take down the Nazis. At the meeting the principal talked about how it is good to be kind to each other in school and to have a safe atmosphere.

The meeting was over at 15:05, so I knew that I had to recruit people to help me save the Jewish people fast, so I could help stop the Jews from suffering. I saw a group of people in the corner of the front plaza whispering about how the Nazis were wrong and how they were bullies. There were fifteen people talking about it and it seemed like a good group of people. As I approached them I knew that these were my people and that they would help me stop the Nazis. So, I walked up to there group and started to whisper, “I know what you guys were talking about and I agree with you. Also, you should probably have secret meetings because if a Nazi found out what you were saying that would be the end of you.” One girl named Alice commented, “Well... you are the commander’s son of the Nazis. How do we know that we can trust you and you will not report us.” I responded, “If I was going to tell on you don’t you think I would have done it all ready. Also, if we want to help the Jews we better do it fast.” Alice responded, “What do you guys think, do you think that we can trust him.” Almost instantly everyone agreed. I explained,”Well let’s meet this Thursday at my house we can go up into my room and nobody will know that we are there.”

Chapter 5: Thursday

On Thursday I had my family’s maid make snacks for the secret meeting that was going to be held at my house. There were fifteen people that arrived after school and all of them were eager to start planning. As the people came in my mama and my papa were in the living room reading the newspaper about the Nazis. I told them it was a gathering for a surprise birthday party. As we walked up the stair everyone looked at the pictures that were hanging. When they saw the picture of my papa in a Nazi uniform holding a gun everyone had shivers.

I picked up my room so there would be effective planning. I started out by saying “Well. This is my room. I think that if we think of a plan we can stop the Nazis from hurting the Jews and persecuting our Jewish friends.” In unison everyone said, “Yay!”

Alice started by pulling out some poster board. She started to explain this complex plan. On the board of the poster it showed:

Okay this is the plan. Everyone who is in a Hitler Youth Group will spy on the Nazis to get information out of them of how to be invited to the Nazi training camp. Then when all of the boys go to Nazi training during September break at Dachau (one of the concentration camps). A couple of people will be at the camp and will release the Jewish people and send them off to different countries at the border of Germany. There the Jewish people will be safe and can live a liberating life. Also our name is the Liberating Jews.

After everyone finished reading the poster we all decided that this was the best way to rescue the Jewish people. We planned who would find out about the training at Dachau. Alice found out a way to communicate with hand signals and all we needed left was to have people be excepted into Nazi training. Everyone in the group was planning for more than three hours and then everyone went home.

The next day after school the Liberating Jews group went to the Hitler Youth Group. The Hitler Youth Group was a way for small children to be able to persecute Jews. Everyone in the Liberating Jews Group thought the Hitler Youth Group was so bad, that kids were persecuting the Jewish population.

When the meeting started the Nazi man started to read of names for the training session that would be at Dachau. He started he exclaimed in a military voice, “Adam Abdeblart, Alden Albrech, David Dirk, Crese Schmidt, Kantor Bäcker and Klaus Adler. Every single boy that was called was in the Liberating Jews group. All that needed to happen next was the mission.

Chapter 6: The Mission

Over the next couple of weeks the Liberating Jews group had many more meetings. We had everything in order until one day we were talking about the plan at a small park in the German High School area and we were talking about the plan and then suddenly a Nazi man turned the corner and he shouted, “What are you guys talking about.” Everyone thought that they were going to be sent in a concentration camp and would not be able to rescue the Jews if we were caught. So everyone stayed silent and waited until he left. It was so close that everyone in the group realized that they needed to be more secretive and know what was at stake if anything bad happened.

On September 23, 1944 all six boys got into a car and were ready to go to Dachau. Everyone’s heart beat was probably going a million beats per minute for knowing what was at stake. The guys and I rode in silence for the three hour car drive to Dachau. They looked out the window and saw how nice and peaceful it was and how soon it would turn into chaos and violence. When, the car arrived at a thirty foot fence that was covered in barbed wire the boys knew that this would not be easy. The Nazi driver rolled down the car window and the guard et us in.

As the boys walked in they saw such terrible things, wondering how things got so bad. The boys and I walked past a working station and saw Jewish men, women and children in striped clothing. Everyone at the camp looked malnourished and like the people had not eaten in days. All of the hair on peoples’ heads were shaved completely. Girls who would have looked so pretty with long hair had no hair at all. Everything was terrible. I wondered why people could cause so much pain to those who were a little different. As we entered the Nazi sleeping houses the Liberating Jews group had a little time to talk over the plan. We talked about how we would release the Jews tonight while all the Nazis were sleeping.

Later on that day the boys sat together and had a full banquet that had so much food. The five boys and me left dinner a little early and told the Nazis that they would check on the Jews. As we traveled through places that looked liked housed animals, I saw a familiar brown head that was leaning against the wall of a barn. It was Abraham. I could not believe it. This made me realized that what I was going to do would not only help my friend but it would help all the suffering people. So, at 22:00 PM every Nazi that was at the place was sleeping and everything was quiet. Three boys for the Liberating Jews group went every where they could to take Nazi weapons away so that if the Nazis did wake up they would not cause any harm. The other two boys searched for keys to unlock the doors of the housing that the Jews were kept in. I was in charge of the gates at the front entrance. My job was to open the doors fast so that the Jews could be set free without any problems. I went up to the commander that was sleeping who had the key to the front entrance. Then, I reached my had through his pocket and retrieved the key. I ran to the front entrance and opened the gate door. In the next 10 minutes I saw hundreds of thousands of Jews tumble out of the gate. The Nazis started to chase after the Jews but the Nazis could not get very far because there was so many Jews that it was hard to control them. After two minutes of chaos and screaming I saw a boy come up to me and shouted, “Why did you do this Klaus. I can not believe that you did this.”

I responded, “I did this for you, Abraham and for people like you. I wanted to help so I did. If you put your mind to something you can master it and beat it like I beat the Nazis at Dachau to rescue all of your Jewish friends and family. I am so happy that you will be free. Let’s meet in twenty years at the Statue of Liberty at 14:30 PM on this day.” “Sounds like a plan have a great life and see you in twenty years.” Abraham responded.

In the next five minutes all the boys and I got back to our sleeping beds and fell asleep. In the morning all the Jewish people were free and all the Nazis had no clue that who ever released the Jews were right under their noses.

On our way back into the city coming back from Dachau, all of the boys talked about their friends that they saw get rescued. Everyone was ecstatic. A couple days after the releasing of the Jews at Dachau, many more uprisings and protests started to happen. Then, in the next months Great Britain and the United States came and rescued the other Jews in the different concentration camps. The Liberating Jews group was so thrilled that they helped contribute to the end of the Holocaust. When children put their minds toward something and try hard to fix a problem, they will almost always succeed.

Epilogue: Twenty Years Later

When Abraham and I made that promise of September 23, 1944 to meet at the Statue of Liberty on September 23, 1964 at 14:30 both of us came. We stood at the bottom of the base and waited for each other. We finally got to see each other after the history that we had. Now, both my children and his children will come over once in a while and we will always remember that our friendship will last for eternity.