The Escape

By: Yuval Kaye

     

This Historical Narrative is set around 1943 when World War II took place. The Nazi army lead by Adolf Hitler began shaping his perfect race. Anyone who was the slightest bit different from what he wanted was murdered. Weather they were going to be gassed to death or shot on the spot they would have to work for him beforehand. 6 million Jews were terminated! Anything valuable they owned was taken away, from wedding rings to money they had nothing, not even their own families. Food was extremely rare and a slice of bread was worshiped between the prisoners. My grandfather though, managed to escape at the age of 14. Now days my grandfather is able to talk and share his experience in the holocaust. He is extremely lucky to have escaped!

Family Tree

 

Author’s Note

     

           

The Escape The story of Alexander Oren

“How can I bear any more of this murder?“ I whispered to

myself. I knew I would be next if I didn’t make a move, and

this was my chance.

What should I do? Where do I go? How should I do it? What

if I get caught? What do I do if I make it out? All these

questions jumped into my spinning head as I attempted to plot

an escape from this death camp. Auschwitz was unbearable. It

was filthy, and the smell of death haunted me. Watching

innocent people pacing until their inevitable death.

In the cover of darkness, with a slight rush of courage and

bravery I ripped off the six-pointed Star of David patch from

the shoulder of my jacket. It was the identical patch all the

Jews had to wear. In the middle of the unsightly and

disgraceful patch was the word “Jude,” which means Jewish. It

was the way the Nazis separated us, as if we were cattle.

     

Knowing I was now a rebel, if I were to be found I would be

shot on sight. I estimated I had only a few minutes to escape,

as the guards would return to patrol this area of the camp on

their nightly rounds.

Certain that no one would leek information of my escape; I

sprinted to the barbed wire fence and rubbed some mud on my

face for camouflage. Scratches formed on my dirty skin as I

made way under the barbed wire. I had to be stealthy in case a

guard came by, and could not make a sound. Although, I didn’t

look Jewish, I would still be shot.

Roughed up, scratched and bruised, I was the victim of the

barbed wire but still I had survived. Although my escape was

successful, I had nowhere to go. I was unaware of what

awaited me on the outside. I had been a witness of German

cruelty for far too long to imagine life on the outside. My

heart was pumping and I knew I was still not safe! I couldn’t

risk being eyed by the Nazis, so I climbed up a tree and fell

asleep.

“Aaaaaaa.” A nightmare took a grasp of my brain while I sensed

sweat running down my face. I assumed it was a sign, a sign

warning me of the dangers ahead. I was not close to being

     

safe; in fact I was still in the open in a Nazi ruled country.

What if someone saw me? At that moment, I didn’t care. All I

really knew was that I was FREE.

               

     

   How  old  were  you  when  you  moved  to  Budapest?  14  years  old  Why  did  you  move  to  Budapest?  Studied  in  Budapest  so  he  can  get  a  job,  brother  and  sister  worked  there  Where  did  you  work?  Worked  in  a  bag  distributer  Who  did  you  work  with?  A  man  that  worked  at  the  place  many  years  What  happened  to  him  when  the  Germans  invaded?  He  became  high  ranked  In  the  Romanian  government  What  happened  when  they  put  you  in  the  Ghetto?  The  forced  everyone  to  put  a  patch  with  a  yellow  and  red  Star  of  David  that  said  “JUDE”  When  could  you  get  food?  One  hour  a  day  to  buy  groceries  How  did  they  keep  everyone  in  one  place?  They  closed  the  streets  with  barbed  wire    What  did  you  do  before  you  began  your  escape?  Took  off  the  patch  with  the  Star  of  David,  risking  being  killed  What  did  you  do  after  the  escape?  Needed  to  get  forged  documents  Did  you  get  a  Job?  Managed  to  get  work  in  the  Red  Cross  Where  you  ever  afraid  that  you  were  going  to  get  caught?  Never  scared!!!  Did  you  always  stay  in  hiding  after  the  escape?  No  Did  you  go  to  the  streets  often?  Yes,  One  day  goes  on  the  street  sees  Germans  killing  Jewish  people  Who  did  you  see?  Sees  the  man  that  worked  with  him  in  Budapest  What  happened  next?  The  man  leaves  his  group  and  starting  to  walk  towards  him.  Where  you  scared?  Yes,  This  was  the  only  time  I  was  ever  scared  What  happened  when  he  was  near  you?    He  asked  if  he  wants  help  with  money  and  that  he  can  give  him  a  place  to  stay.  

Interview Questions

     

The Holocaust was the “systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder” of about six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. "Holocaust" comes from a Greek word that means "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, beginning power in 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and the Jews were "inferior." Nazis believed other groups were “racially inferior": Roma (Gypsies) and people with disabilities. They also persecuted Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals. WHAT WAS THE HOLOCAUST? In 1933, the European Jewish population was over nine million, with most of them living in Nazi Germany and occupied countries during WWII. By 1945, the Germans killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution,” the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe. Although Jews were the main targets of Nazi racism, other victims included 200,000 Roma (Gypsies) and 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients. Many disabled Germans were murdered in a systematic “Euthanasia Program.” As Nazi control spread in Europe, Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of others. Between two and three million Soviet prisoners of war “were murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or maltreatment”. The Germans also used non-Jewish Polish for killing, and deported millions of Polish and Soviet civilians for forced labor in Germany or in occupied Poland. From the earliest years of the Nazi regime, German authorities persecuted. ADMINISTRATION OF THE "FINAL SOLUTION" In the early years of the Nazi regime, the National Socialist government established concentration camps to detain

Research Notes

     

opponents. Increasingly in the years before the outbreak of war, SS and police officials incarcerated Jews, Roma, and other victims of ethnic and racial hatred in these camps. To concentrate and monitor the Jewish population as well as to facilitate later deportation of the Jews, the Germans and their collaborators created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor camps for Jews during the war years. The German authorities also established numerous forced-labor camps, both in the so-called Greater German Reich and in German-occupied territory, for non-Jews whose labor the Germans sought to exploit. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) and, later, militarized battalions of Order Police officials, moved behind German lines to carry out mass-murder operations against Jews, Roma, and Soviet state and Communist Party officials. German SS and police units, supported by units of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, murdered more than a million Jewish men, women, and children, and hundreds of thousands of others. Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi German authorities deported millions of Jews from Germany, from occupied territories, and from the countries of many of its Axis allies to ghettos and to killing centers, often called extermination camps, where they were murdered in specially developed gassing facilities. THE END OF THE HOLOCAUST In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. For the western Allies, World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe. Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United States and other nations. The last DP camp closed in

     

1957. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated most European Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied eastern Europe entirely. URL: www.ushmm.org/wlc//en/article.php?Moduleld=10005143 Question: What have you learned about your family’s history? How has working on this project helped you understand your family better and given you a better sense of your identity?

I have learned that my grandfather was in the holocaust and managed to escape. I learned what it was like and what life was like for him.

Personally I don’t believe this project has helped me discover my identity more because I already knew most of the things I researched about. When I was younger I was very curious so I learned about my grandfather’s past further than I have during this project.

2. Why do you think doing a project like this is important?

I think a project like this is important as it allows you to explore your past and discover you family’s history. It gives you a better perspective of what happened before you were born.

3. What part of this project did you enjoy the most? Why?

The best part of this project was learning more and more about the holocaust and hearing it from a witness. I

Reflection

     

enjoyed hearing what my grandfather had to say and studying my background.

4. What specific challenges did you face during this project and how did you over come them? The hardest part of this project was translating everything I learned from him in Hebrew and creating it into a narrative in English.

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