I Survived Hell (Fiction Chapter One)

I thought I would share my current work in progress a novel about a Holocaust daughter, and the great Grandaughter who shares her name.  This has been a very difficult novel to write due to the subject matter and the research involved.  I Learned not only the horrors of Aushwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen but places like Sobidor, Treblinka, and the conditions people were forced to live and sadly die in.  This is not meant simply to be another sad story but a story of hope and survival though.

Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example.

Who knows, it might even be our religion from which the world and all peoples learn good, and for that reason and that reason alone do we have to suffer now. We can never become just Netherlanders, or just English, or representatives of any country for that matter; we will always remain Jews, but we want to, too.”

Anne Frank

Chapter One:

“You come from a strong family Rachel, you are named after your great grandmother, a woman who walked out of Auschwitz.  She survived Bergen-Belsen and the Ghettos.  She saw family after family murdered in Treblinka, in Sobidor, Children thrown off trains.  Her best friend Naomi, jumped out of a window to her death when the Gestapo came for her family.”

I knew the story, knew of her strength.  I had met her several time, a woman with troubled, and determined Eyes.  I was seven the first time I met her, she had set me on her knees and began telling me a story, little by little, piece by piece, nothing to graphic.

“It Was loud that November night and cold.  It sounded like it was raining down glass.  Things were bad already but on November 10th and after they only grew worse, but Mother and Father tried to shield us, but it is hard to shield what is unfolding before your eyes. When Father went to his offices the next morning he came back a broken man.  The streets were littered with Broken Glass, all the Jewish shops had been destroyed.”

I looked at her wide eyed.  “Bobe, why would they do that.”

“The Nazi’s were led by an evil man, a man named Hitler.  He had a black heart Grandoter.”

I nodded not daring to ask more, her eyes were so sad.  The memories were making my strong Bobe cry.

“I love you Bobe.”  I told her, before running off to play with my favorite doll.

“I love you too Grandoter, please never forget where you come from.  You are a little girl now, but in a blink you will be a strong woman.”

When I was ten I ran over to Bobe’s clutching The Diary of Anne Frank.  Tears streaming down my face.  “Bobe why did they let children die?”

“Grandoter it was evil.”  She said picking up the book.  “I was in the same Barracks as Anne and Margo.”  She said thoughtfully a sad look on her face.  “Anne had so many dreams, but piece by piece they were stripped from her.  She died just a day after Margo, they needed each other.  They say disease killed them but it was more than that so much more than that, hope had been taken from them.”

I looked at my Bobe wide eyed.  The realization hit me.  “You were there.”

“I was Rachel.”  She said using my name, as she pulled up her sleeve, showing me faint numbers, tattooed on her arms.  I flinched at the realization, everything had been taken from them including their names

“They tried to take our names too.” She said.  “They wanted us to have nothing. I lived but lost most of my family in the Ghettos, in Sobidor, Treblinka, Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Dachau.  Death haunted me like a shadow, but I survived.”

My eyes grew wider, I felt honored, special to have been named after Bobe Rachel.

“It Was loud that November night and cold.  It sounded like it was raining down glass.  Things were bad already but on November 10th and after they only grew worse, but Mother and Father tried to shield us, but it is hard to shield what is unfolding before your eyes. When Father went to his offices the next morning he came back a broken man.  The streets were littered with Broken Glass, all the Jewish shops had been destroyed.”

I looked at her wide eyed.  “Bobe, why would they do that.”

“The Nazi’s were led by an evil man, a man named Hitler.  He had a black heart Grandoter.”

I nodded not daring to ask more, her eyes were so sad.  The memories were making my strong Bobe cry.

“I love you Bobe.”  I told her, before running off to play with my favorite doll.

“I love you too Grandoter, please never forget where you come from.  You are a little girl now, but in a blink you will be a strong woman.”