I never thought I’d go back. The three years I spent here… So horrible. Cramped up in to two rooms with ten people and little or no food. There wasn’t any sanitation, no baths, just a hole in the floor for the bathroom. At least that’s how it started. Two of the people in the room connected to mine died and three in mine during the first year. They all said to eat their flesh before they died. But we had the dignity not to devour their bodies. We put them down the hole. The second year I remember is a window, the only one, bursting because the air bombs hit a building a block away and some shrapnel from the bomb broke the glass and it killed the person next to me. With only four people our food supply was far up. On cold nights we huddled together for warmth, but usually we had two people in both rooms. The third year wasn’t a year. We got caught February 27th and we were sent to concentration camp. We were liberated May 8th.
Enough with the bad memories. I’m 32 and married with the person that was in my room during hiding. I remember we made a pact to get married if we survived the camps. Now she’s my wife. I’m back in the bottling factory and I think everyone was surprised to see me back. My house was destroyed, burnt to the ground. My neighbors’ houses were burnt too. My parents that lived across town weren’t there. I have a bad feeling that they were killed. I’m very lucky to be alive. Now we have a house and it’s pretty small, but we have become used to smaller places. This house is heaven compared to the hiding place and the camp.
This hiding place is creepy now. It brings back so many memories- bad and good. It’s overwhelming. All the dead people, their bodies look like they are laying on the floor. I think most memories here are bad. The Nazis are coming through the door. Ah! Another memory. It smells like death in here. I should go home…