Sarah's Thoughts

“Sarah’s Thoughts”

The harsh command of the soldier in the grey uniform was enough to get Sarah off on her feet and into the line of the other people in the ghetto. As she and her mother straightened their bodies and stood in the never-ending seam of fellow Jewish women, Sarah began to wonder what would become of her father and older brother. In the stillness of the morning, she tried to remember their faces, and it seemed as if the hard, cold months in the Warsaw ghetto had chiselled the memories of her past life out of her mind. Sarah imagined the dark brown hair of her father cradling his soft blue eyes and stern lips. Her brother had the same eyes, but had the blonde hair that characterized his Polish mother. Sarah tried to think of them together as a family again, only possible if she and her mother were to get out of the stinking, rotting ghetto. Her daydreaming was interrupted by a slap across the face by the same German soldier with the red and black swastika wrapped tightly around his broad bicep.
“Rousse, Rousse!” screamed the officer as he raised his hand, desiring to strike her again.
Sarah saw the line begin moving, and she sauntered, dazed, towards the woman in front of her. With her mother close behind her, Sarah sought comfort in the only hope that they were finally leaving the filthy ghettos inhabited by more rats than people. Those despicable ghettos! she thought to herself, Many men, women, and children died in that hideous place! I am so thankful that we are leaving this horrible nightmare! I only pray to Yahweh that Papa and Brother are safe, and that they are both together. One spark of hope still burned in her that she would soon be reunited with her family after the cleansing of the ghetto.
Sarah was so lost in thought, that she didn’t notice the train coming to a stop a few yards down. While the train slowed, the line of stiff people automatically slowed with it, and, as if in a trance, they both stopped in unison.
The loud roar of the doors opening to the grey train cars revealed that this was not their last stop. All of the German kommandos divided the Jews into groups that equalled the number of train cars, which were more sufficient as cattle cars. One by one, the families were herded into the cars, until the train was overflowing with its ill-fated passengers. A shrill command from one of the high-ranking officials ordered the doors to be shut, and the train began its journey.
Sarah and her mother held close to each other in the dark, black abyss of the cattle car. A sharp jolt from the train said that their journey was not over, yet. As the speed of the car picked up, some of the children grew nauseous, and many of the elderly fainted. Sarah pondered why they had not been allowed to stop and use the bathrooms, or to even eat or drink. While the minutes passed, pangs of hunger began shooting through everyone, and thirst began to take hold of their every move. Sarah herself felt dizzy and weak, and leaned on her mother for support, who was in no better shape than Sarah. The seconds, then the minutes, then the hours passed by. It was close to six o’clock in the evening now, and the stench of the cattle car clung to each of them. The tiny little window in the left side corner of the car was the only air source the women had. With the overwhelming stench, nausea, hunger, and sickness, the hours rolled by more slowly, mothers began to sing songs to their young children in Yiddish. But even the soft crooning could not prevent them to think about the physical pain and sickness they were immersed in. Sarah’s drowsy, tired body soon found solace in sleep as the women softly continued their songs in Yiddish.
Sarah awoke the next morning to the jarring noise of the doors opening once again, and the piercing cries of the soldiers decorated in their swastikas. One of the kommandos ordered every car to be unloaded, and everyone counted. After the cars were empty of the living, it was time to cleanse it of the dead. Many of the people who had fainted had never regained strength, and simply died.
Sarah and her mother staggered out into the open air and straightened their stiff bodies. Sarah lifted her head, and gazed at the grotesque sign hung over her as she read, “Arbeit Macht Frei.” This was the beginning of the end of her new life in Auschwitz.