Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is all J.K and history.
It was the middle of the night, so why was mommy getting me up? In a state between wake and sleep, I stumbled around in the dark, blindly putting on clothes that my mother gave to me.
From downstairs I heard daddy call up to mom. "Minerva, hurry up!"
I asked her where we were going. No reply. Well, maybe she didn't hear me, so I asked once more and again I received no reply.
Quietly, she led me out to the street and to two lone figures standing down the block and under a street light, utter darkness.
It was past curfew, something was wrong. No, we had to go back, the Gestapo would catch us and then we would all be in big trouble. But why, why were we walking towards them? Wouldn't they have done something by now? What was going on! Why wouldn't they tell me! It was all so scary.
As we reached them, they turned and lead us to a truck standing down the road. Was that there before? There was no noise of it coming down the street. No noise at all.
As we climbed into the back, I saw other gold stars sitting around, all of which belonged to forlorn faces. No hope. No will.
We drove down the street, around, further and further. No noise, just silence and fear.
Finally we stopped. As we got out I could see we were in a train yard with hundreds, thousands of people just like us. As a train rolled in, I thought that it couldn't be for us, that it was just a freight train, so what was it doing here?
They quickly unlatched the doors and began to cram us in. Tight, jammed, no room to move, no room to breathe. As the train doors closed, darkness came upon us and we lurched away.
Was it hours? Days? Years? It was a life time, journeying on and on. Hot, smelly, and the only thought was that of our unknown destination.
Finally we halted and were pushed into a field surrounded by barbed wire and was immediately separated from my mom. Screaming, tried to run to her, but a guard threw me back toward the other children and old people. Silently crying, and old lady began to comfort me. Her wrinkled skin pressing against mine.
The guard said that we were going to the bathrooms to shower off after our long journey. As we walked away in silence, I could hear my mother crying, screaming for me, begging them not to let me go, saying that I was old enough to stay with them. Screaming at them. I didn't understand. I was just going to shower off. I was going to see her later, wasn't I? Wasn't I?