A Closer Look

A little girl tries to make sense of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Winter time has come again in a great flurry of white ice crystals to the ghettos that we Jews are forced to live in. The thin walls of the buildings that serve as our houses offer little protection from the harsh winds that blow through the streets bringing frigid snow. The icy air chills us to our very bones with little hope of being warmed since the German soldiers have rationed our fuel supplies. Mama passes to my older sister and me our food for the day: watery soup with minuscule chunks of vegetables and no meat. After spooning the thin gruel into my mouth, my stomach grumbles even louder than it did before eating; a cruel protest to this slop that we now have to consider food. I clamp my arms around my middle and try to ignore the hunger pains raking through my frail body. After eating I go to stand by my mother’s side, silently I watch a she sews a large yellow Star of David onto our family’s coats. I ask her the purpose of this, she tells me in her cool, gentle voice that the German’s are insisting that all Jews wear this symbol in plain sight so that others can see and participate in prejudice acts against us.

“Why do they hate us so, mama?” I ask with a whimper adding a slight edge to my voice. “They dislike those who they do not understand. We are different from them; we have different customs and beliefs that they do not understand. And for that- they hate us.” Just then the door of our apartment swings open as my father strides in bringing with him the foul odors of the streets outside. The living conditions in the ghetto are terrible; there are more people than there is room to put them all. The cramped living quarters has helped in the spreading of disease; many people are afflicted with Typhus and other illnesses. Every day the Germans tighten their grip on us, every day the conditions we are expected to live in grow worse, every day more and more people die. I look about the small room at my family; they are all thin ghosts of the people they used to be before the soldiers came. “How much longer are we going to be able survive this?” I ask myself, without any idea of the horrors yet to come to my people.

Reviews

[VictorSimones]

I think I understand where you want to go with this from what I have gathered, You want to be descriptive on the topic regarding the ghettos. I would Have like to read more into the environment that they lived in a little more, Otherwise you started the beginning off great you really had me in your grips so to speak in terms of your hook.

[Marie]

This is very good. You capture the dreadfulness of the ghetto, the horrors of the terrible war/