Ellie’s Hell
Arbeit ist Freiheit!
Auschwitz.
We had arrived to hell.
I was checked in to my coffin.
We had been separated from the women and children, among the weak and elderly.
In front of us flames.
In the air that smell of burning flesh.
A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load-the little children.
Babies too!
Never shall I forget the little innocent faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned wreaths of smoke beneath the silent, celestial, blue sky.
Burned.
Frizzled.
Away turned into the ashes.
I hated the Germans, they killed what I valued most-my family.
Never shall I forget those flames, which consumed my faith forever.
And I did not know in that place, at that moment I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever.
I became A-7713.
After that I had no other name.
I was stripped of my dignity and pride.
We were naked, our shoes and belts in out hands.
The command of “Run!” was yelled and we ran.
We were a pack of leprous dogs hanging onto our lives.
We were shaved in all places, leaving us cold and itchy pains on our bodies.
By now terror was stronger than hunger.
It seemed as though a dark flame had come into my soul and devoured it.
Never shall I forget this moment, which murdered my god, my soul, and turned my dreams to dust.
Torn.
Pain.
Death.
Now it all consumes me.
Where is mercy?
Where is god?
Where is righteousness?
Blessed be eternal?
Why shall I bless him?
That night the soup tasted of corpses.
All I know is you must never lose faith, even when the sword hangs over your head.
Recalling all this, I remembered the depths of that mirror, in which a corpse gazed back at me.
The look in his eyes never left me.
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp…never.
A summary poem from Ellie Weisel's "Night" by Ross Meister.