To Be Human

“It was a spring day when they came”, said Anna. “My sister Lisa and I along with many others saw the soldiers that liberated us. We were prisoners of Bergen Belsen concentration camp and many of us had come from the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. We were the only members of our family left, for the Nazis had murdered our family along with 11 million others.”

For the first time, Anna believed there was hope. Anna and the other prisoners were free but nothing felt different. Anna heard people sob and others could not process that they were no longer in danger of being murdered.

Anna remembered life before the war. Everything was going right for her and her family. Sadly Anna and her family were just a fragment of people caught up in the persecution of their people which led to the senseless slaughter of their people.

Anna remembered the smoke she saw from the chimneys every day. She soon realized why there was smoke every day. People died at Auschwitz every day whether it was starvation, illness, or the cruelest fate of all: the gas chambers. Anyone who could not work was killed. The old, the sick, and even children. This was the solution to get rid of every one deemed subhuman to the Nazis.

Now Anna stood looking through the fence to see men that seemed like they were living in another world.

“When the soldiers saw us they were horrified. We looked disgusting and we knew we did. Soon I saw one soldier throw up in front of me for he could not stand the sight of me. I did not judge him or hate him for it. I knew he had never seen anyone like me. I was starved and sick as we're many others for 1 year in Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen had taken its toll as well as my circumstances in the Lodz ghetto with my family.

I looked at my sister and she was crying yet she made no sound I only saw a tear roll down her cheek.

Then she spoke and said, “What does it mean to be Human?”
I could not answer her we hadn't seen human kindness in a long time and now my sister could not believe she was worth anything. Her time in Auschwitz was worse than mine for she had been abused in many ways that I could not tell you. And now she was 18 and Lisa knew no happiness. For the past several years she always saw and felt hate from those around her. Even other prisoners at Auschwitz took advantage of her because she was just a girl.

The Soldiers finally came into our camp. We hugged them and thanked them in our languages. Soon I heard a man ask if anyone knew English. I suddenly remembered that I could. Many years ago my parents scolded me for wanting to learn English. But in the end I used it for good.”

Anna told the soldiers that many of the prisoners were from Auschwitz Birkenau and they had survived grueling death marches to get from Poland to Germany. It wasn't until then that Anna fully realized she was free. And she was determined to make a life for herself. But now we were free and somehow we would build a new life for ourselves." Soon Anna and Lisa were taken to a DP camp ( Displaced person camp) And before they knew it, they were going to New York City, America to start their new lives.