War Torn Love (59 page)

             
Then he climbed up onto a makeshift small wood stage elevating him off the ground about four feet, to make himself appear taller - or just so he could be seen by all of us. It did not really matter I guess.

             
We were all silent, and then he spoke up, “Welcome all to Auschwitz! The largest camp of its kind, a true gem of the “Third Reich.” At this time I want to welcome you all to my camp,”

             
My heart suddenly sunk all the way to the pit of my stomach, Abram and I just looked at one another shocked, I whispered to him, “I mean of all places they took us, it had to be here. The very hell we had heard about. Oh, how can this be good?”

             
We both looked at one another with much apprehension. We suddenly grew extremely anxious.

             
Abram said, “Of all places, they could have taken us to…”

             
Suddenly I was having a rather hard time breathing.

             
The German continued on, “I am the senior commanding officer of this camp; there are now more than a million Jews presently housed in this camp at any one time. Therefore, you can understand why it is that I expect - no I demand complete order here - to make sure things flow smoothly. You will do as you are ordered, if you do not, it is quite simple, you will be hung, and your body left on the ropes to rot as a reminder to anyone that chooses to
disobey
! If any of you try to escape, then you will be shot, along as a punishment to the others, for allowing an escape, ten innocent Jews will be brought out and shot, and everyone else will be brought out and forced to watch. 

             
Also you are permitted no personal belongings in the camp, from here on forward, so at this time all of you place your personal items you brought with you here on the ground directly in front of you -  your belonging will be collected, and then donated to the “Third Reich.”

             
I could not believe what he was ordering us to do. The pictures and other last few items I had tying us to the old world, we were now being forced to now discard. I was doing my best to fight back the tears.
Crying was
all that I seemed to do anymore! I guess I was just so sad.

             
“Very good, now take all your clothing off including your undergarments - you will soon be supplied with new clothing which we supply all Jews. Pile the clothing in front of you.”

             
I was in complete shock that he was expecting us to now strip down - we were being asked to get naked.  We were all so humiliated by these harsh orders, not to mention it was absolutely freezing out. My daughter did not understand why we had taken her clothing off. What could I possibly say to her! The men would see me naked!

             
I just told her, “Please honey, you must do as the man is asking, or we will get into big trouble, they could hurt us.”

             
Then after a couple of minutes, once he could see that everyone  had obeyed, he spoke up, “Now I want two lines formed. One line will be made up of the men - the other line will be made up of the women and children. Boys over ten years old will be getting in the line with the men. Do this at once!”

             
It was happening - the moment I desperately feared. They were ripping us apart, the families. People including me began crying out for their loved ones! I would be
included in this horrible nightmare. Why were they doing this? Was it their intent on breaking up every single family?

             
The guards suddenly became alert to the defiance, to the commanders direct orders. With no warning what so ever, gunshots loudly rang out! Several poor souls dropped all at once as the many guns fired at the same time, there were further screams! At least fifteen now lay dead. This included men, women, and children!

             
The commander yelled, “Now separate into your distinct lines at once! This will be your last warning!” The commander’s voice was now quite animated and showing no mercy. Imagine he appeared to be mad at us – and imagine having the power to erase whole families. We
obeyed

             
Abram risked it and gave me, and Abelia one last quick, one last precious hug - he was attempting his best to fight back the coming tears, both our hearts were being ripped apart right in front of my eyes, as my one and only
soul mate
was being taken from me. Never had the two of us been separated in such a manner.

             
He was obviously trying his best to remain strong for me, and his daughter, mother and the rest of his family, he did not even had time to go hug his mother goodbye, nor did I had time to hug my Poppa. Poppa looked so sad - he was wailing as he left his two daughters. Abram helped him along.

             
My darling husband looked so heartbroken, the very same look he had just yesterday, brought on with the death of his father.

             
He yelled, “Honey I love you, you and Abelia!”

             
I said to him” I love you, but please I beg you, you have to go at this instant, please I do not want you getting shot, I could not bear that.”,

             
He said, “Remember your promise you made me sweetie! I promise I will never stop thinking of you every day you will be on my mind. I one day will find you. And we shall never be separated again, tell Abelia that I love her every day, tell her my stories when you put her down for bed, ok my love! Watch over Momma!”

             
Abelia and I was both bawling, “I will my love, I will! I will never stop thinking of you!” I could barely see him any longer through the crowd of men, I was crying so hard by then, my vision danced with men being led away.

             
Each one from the family yelled to each family member that we loved one another, as we forcefully were now being separated, the men were not just now separated in a isolated line, but  and were now being hauled off. I took one last look at Poppa, and Abram, and my brother-in-law. “I love you all,” I was not even sure by this point that they had even heard me, through all the other voices from the many other families. I certainly would like to think that they did and, that’s what I told myself.

             
Marym balling as well, grabbed my hand and tugged on me to get back in line, as I was about to run to
him. “My sweetie, stay here, you know that they won’t permit it. They shoot you first.”

             
Marym got my attention, “Come on sweetie, we had to go now, we will see them again you’ll see, we have to try to remain strong, for our children, they’re all we have at the moment. The Germans would not let you stay with them, it is clear we have to do whatever they ask of us if we want to survive.”

             
I knew she was right, “I know but it’s so hard Sis!” She suddenly ignored me, she did not bother responding back, she was having a hard enough time on her own getting through this, and after all, I was not realizing she was going through the very same painful thing as I was, I had not even considered her.

             
The men were being led away in an opposite directions away from the women, why were they being taking away? Why didn’t they let us all to continue to be together?

             
We were pranced naked; we were shaking from the bitter cold, in the snow past several buildings unadorned appearing buildings. Through even thicker barbwire gates that were quickly closed behind us as the last of us had passed on through. We were then ordered once more to line up. Nothing was explained to us, other than the line that we were now in, slowly moved us inside a building thankfully, escaping the outside cold.  The women and I were hoping that this was a good sign.

             
There was a buzzing resonance coming from up ahead of us in line, towards the other end of this particular building. There was crying coming from more than just one woman, or even child up ahead, but we could not exactly see what was happening just yet. The anticipation was driving me utterly nuts, fearing whatever it was, it would be happening to us soon.

             
Twenty or so minutes later, it was our turn; I was remorseful it was. Other prisoners from the camp began buzzing off all our long beautiful locks, the very locks I brushed out a hundred times each night - I had only had a couple of haircuts in my entire life. The buzzing continued until there was nothing more than an eighth of an inch in length. Years of growing gone just like that, in mere minutes. I held my hand out feeling my hair as it was falling to the ground, no longer part of me. When the women was done with me, I reached my hand up, rubbed my hand over my now virgin bald different feeling head. It felt so weird up there; it felt like nothing like my own head. I broke down and began crying. Then it was Abelia turn to go through this horror, she too began crying.  She started crying even before the woman had started on her - she cried when she saw how her mommy now looked.  As her own hair began falling from her head, just laying there motionless on the floor below, like it had never been part of our bodies,
the
hair was collecting into a huge piles below. We were ankle deep in hair, all the many different colors m
ixing in and blending. Later I
found out they even used that for their ‘thing’. Her, nothing went to waste. They extracted fillings – though, for now, all I knew was my hair.  Obviously, a cocktail of many different individuals,
all were forced to also surrender their own hair. To a woman, her hair is so much a part of her. What on earth were they going to do with all our hair anyways? The amount of hair they had piled up could had filled truckload after truckload. I had never seen so much hair in all my life. So much so, it did not even seem possible. The woman that had shaved our head, said “sorry” to us, and asked us to forgive her for what she was doing to us.”

             
I guess I was so upset about everything I did not both responding back. After our haircuts, I held onto my baby girl, shielding her against me. Lifting her up placing her body next to my chest, trying to comfort her, and keep her warm as our two-body heat met. Afterwards trying to calm her down, she was shaking, trembling and she had been going through much too much, and she was overwhelmed she just could not understand what was going on, frankly neither did I, but I was the adult.

             
The soldier’s ordered us to continue moving on.  In line were we could hear whole latitude of separate buzzing sounds. A different kind of sound was being produced. A sound we were not familiar with, but we would find out soon enough what exactly it was.

             
Still all the females were very much unclothed, so exposed. We sat down at one of many table all in lines, to accommodate so many.  They began tattooing us; they were giving us a tattoo on the inside of our left forearm, this was against our religion - a law set out from God, commanding us not to do so.

             
This just proved to be another demonstration; they were continuing to dehumanize us as a people, to their delight. They were breaking us down, to a point in their reasoning where they would not have to think of us as human any longer, more resembling nothing more than an animal, or perhaps a pet, at least their slaves, making it easier somehow for them to validate what they were doing to all of us.