I'm Jewish

I’m Jewish

I’m 16,
My name is Shirli
And I’m Jewish.

My mom is dead,
My dad is off in the war,
My older brother is depressed,
And I'm Jewish.

I'm not totally alone,
My best friend,
Eyal,
Is Jewish
And I'm Jewish.

Eyal, my brother, and I
Are hiding
In an attic
And we’re Jewish

I hate hiding
The attic is small and stinks.
My heart skips a beat…or several
The door is being banged down off its hinges,
The voices of the Nazi soldiers fill my ears
The sounds of hearing our protecters die is sickening
The soldiers are in the house,
Looking for Jews
Eyal’s Jewish
Dror’s, my brother, is Jewish
And I’m Jewish

Eyal thinks fast and jumps out the window,
Dror and I follow suit.
We start to run.
My bare feet are cold as they hit the dewy grass at 3:42 in the morning.
I hear sounds of gunshots and yelling from the house we left not moments ago,
Then I hear a car.
I hate my eyes.
I see the soldiers in the car, the soldiers that chase and catch Jews
And we’re Jewish.

We’re caught and thrown in concentration camps.
The smell of death and sickness is
So strong
I gag, Eyal almost faints, and Dror vomits.
I really hate my eyes,
I see children, whose ribcages were very noticeable, and were crying because they were hungry.
I saw mothers and daughters who were trying to take care of their sick family, when they were sick themselves.
I didn’t want to see my people treated this way,
But Adolf Hitler hated Jews,
And we were all Jewish.

It had only been two weeks and my face was thinning and I
Could already see my ribs,
All they fed us was stale bread and warm water.
Eyal was much better off than I was, being able to take these situations better then me after experiencing them at the age of 7.
He didn’t like talking about it,
His mom died when he was in the camps,
Then his dad,
Then his grandfather,
Then all of his family,
Then all of his friends,
Except for me.
They were all Jewish
And I'm Jewish.

My brother had a very high fever and was delusional,
He thought I was mom.
I know he didn’t mean it, but it hurt every time he called for our mother and I had to answer.
I tried to give him some water but he said he refused to drink dirty concentration camp water.
My mother used to say you can tell when someone dies
Their skin dies,
Then their mouth dies,
Then their nose dies,
Then their eyes die,
Then their heart dies.
In two days time my brother’s skin, mouth, nose, eyes, and heart died.
I wanted him to be old and have a funeral when he died.
He was only 17,
He died in a concentration camp,
And he was Jewish.

It had been two months,
I had had enough.
My life was wasting away,
All because these fools disliked the way of Jews.
I wanted to get married,
I wanted to have children,
I wanted to die old,
But that wasn’t going to happen
If I stayed here,
So Eyal and I escaped.
We were tired of being treated poorly because
We were Jewish.

Somehow, Eyal had managed to smuggle money from the soldiers.
We found an apartment in the ghettos,
We were in hiding again.
I hated hiding.
Maybe one day,
If God granted,
In a better world,
I won’t feel ashamed that I have to hide the fact that
I'm Jewish.

Quote:
"When I came to power, I did not want the concentration camps to become old age pensioners’ homes, but instruments of terror." - Adolf Hitler