There have been threats by Hitler about invading Poland but my family and I are not very concerned about it, even though we live around 7 Kilometers from the border. Many of our neighbors are German, and there behavior towards our family hasn’t changed now that Hitler is the dictator of Germany. I can’t say that for all Germans though, occasionally I will see signs in stores say, “No Jews allowed” or “A free Poland is a Poland without Jews.” I am sixteen now and all my life I have never seen people judge others by there religion. I am a son of a Rabbi, and our family has always been very respected by all people but now things are staring change.
After school I was talking with some of my friends including an older German boy, Recently there have been conflicts in school as the tension of the invasion grows. Some of my friends have started to shun the German boys. And because there are a lot more Jewish kids than German, there have been beatings of older German boys. The head of our school has now placed policemen in the larger hallways. Overhead we heard planes buzzing. “What the-,” right as I was in mid-sentence we heard a huge explosion. We ran out of the school and saw the office building across the street collapse, “It’s happening, the Natzi’s are attacking,” someone in the street cried out. “It’s true,” I whispered to myself.
We all gave the German boy a cold stare, we all knew that it wasn’t his decision to bomb us; he even lived in Poland himself. “Come children,” a teacher called out from behind us. We rushed in keeping our heads turned to the sky. Luckily we lived close to the border and we assumed that the Nazi’s knew that a lot of Germans lived near the border of Poland. When we got to the class we all gathered at the window, hundreds of planes filled the sky accompanied with lightning like flashes.
I peered down in the direction of the border; before I could get a clear view the teacher pulled me away. “Abraham, we must get into our safety positions.” I crawled under my desk listening intently to the sounds around me. The teacher sat at the front of the room talking with our head of school. There were only six people left in school, and I didn’t feel as safe as possible. I wanted home, where I could crawl into the cellar and hide. But it was too far to walk, and the teacher wouldn’t let anyone leave.
Suddenly another bomb came flying by and hit the street to the left of our building. A huge blast of dust plumed up from the ground, and a huge piece of concrete came flying through the closed window, shattering the glass and crushing some of the desks. Suddenly we heard shrieks and moans coming from inside the room. I crawled out from under my desk and onto the floor; small bits of glass pierced my knees. I rose to my feet and followed the voice, tripping on debris strewn about the class. As the dust cleared I saw our teacher tending to Elijah, one of my classmates. I rushed over to help but the teacher stopped me. “Stay under your desk!” She shrieked, I glanced at Elijah, his head rested in her lap and his leg was limp and bleeding. I almost gagged at the sight of the blood, but caught myself and returned to my desk.
We heard gunshots getting closer and closer, as the sound of the planes grew softer. What would happen to us if the Nazi’s came here, did they really want children? Suddenly two grey jeeps pulled up across the street from us. I ducked my head and crawled over to what was left of the window. Slowly I picked my head up to see what was going on. Five German officers walked up to the building and slammed the door open. I heard piercing screams of a woman and her family. “Everybody get up!” one of the officers bellowed. Then I heard one of the officers mumble something in German to one of his troops “Ihn töten.” Suddenly I ducked at the sight of two German officers rolling out an old man on a wheelchair onto the balcony. Then in almost complete silence I hear a huge thump.
I wait a few seconds before looking to see what had happened. Once again I slowly raised my head to the window. The officers had left the balcony and the sound of whimpers filled the air. I rose a little higher to see the old man crumpled on the street. I almost screamed, but caught myself and knelt back down. A large piece of glass cut open my leg. Blood dripped to the ground mixing with the dirt. But I didn’t care, I had just seen a murder, the Nazi’s didn’t only want Poland. They wanted all the Jews dead.
I looked over my shoulder, no one was there. I panicked, and ran over too the hallway, no one. What was happening? Did they leave? Why wouldn’t they bring me? All things questions kept popping up in my mind as a raced to the back exit. I cracked the door open, and peered outside. It was clear, surprisingly there was hardly any sign of destruction, I dashed out the door trying not to make a sound. I ducked down behind a car and checked my back to make sure there were no main roads that the Germans could use. I remembered that there was a small alley that led to a large garden field, I could hide there until it was safe enough to go home. Once again I dashed to the nearest cover, and looked around to see if I could recognize any of the buildings. It was hard to tell because I had never gone through the back exit and I had to maneuver my way around to the other side of the street without those officers seeing me. Once I finally came to the main road. I peered out from behind the dumpster I was hiding behind and decided that I was far enough from the Officers. I counted to three and dashed to the other side of the street. Trying to avoid the fallen debris from the bombing. Once I reached the other side a leaned against a building catching my breath. Drenched in sweat, bleeding and in an almost abandoned town it was hard to want to live. But I had to see my family at least once more, and no German was going to stand in my way.