Personal Narrative: My Life In The Warsaw Ghetto

On January 3, 2009 around 11:00 PM the phone rang with what I thought was exciting news about my newly born sister, Tristyn ,but quickly turned to horror. I could heard the fright in my dad's shaken voice as he told me Tristyn had to go into immediate heart surgery because she needed a stent to open up the blood flow to her heart. Being eight at the time the only thing I could think about was how she might not make it. My dad said to me “look after your sisters, and tell them nothing about the surgery”, which terrified me more than before. I knew I needed to be brave and take charge of the situations for my sisters. Bravery is something I learned for a situation I never knew would happen.

Throughout the Holocaust, Jews organized resistance movements in ghettos, concentration, and extermination camps. Although they had virtually no weapons and faced one of the largest arsenals in the world, the Jewish people fought for their honor and freedom. Without any hope victory and in the face of death, resistance fighters found the courage to take on evil in its purest form. Their efforts must not go in vein; to them we must accord our respect. This is a brief testimony of their fight against the Nazi regime.

All bullets were counted, beds made, uniforms cleaned, this occurred until suddenly 03:45 arrived. “Men, the time is nearly here,” my words choked as self-hatred flooded my body, “What we do here today will be remembered for generations to come, we fight today not only for ourselves, but all who we know. All our mates and family who live back home!” A faint cheer followed my speech as I steadied myself for what was to come. “We charge in 5 minutes. We charge not only for our freedom but for the freedom of our country. For the freedom of the world!” Spit filled the air from the cheer which erupted from my unit this time. A unity formed over the men, a cold malevolent sweat captured me. Who was I to send these boys to their death? A resolve set inside me, I would fight alongside my men, their lives are worth the same as mine. 04:00 “THIS IS IT MEN! WE FIGHT FOR THE WORLD!” I screamed as I led the charge. Vaulting out of the trench I saw no man’s land clearly for the first time. Death was everywhere, flies swarming the pools of blood. The land so barren of life no greenery was seen. A cold resolution set over me, it was the Germans fault, they caused

I don’t want this to last for us sister. This is unjust and inhumane. I have been transferred in a freight car packed to the walls with people just like me . The ride to the camps is perilous and horrid , on the trip we are not allowed to leave ever. The stench on the train is horrible as well, for we are not kept in leisure where we may go “ when nature calls”. I am still writing to you before I reach the camp sister , by the time you

I don’t quite remember the date, but it was cold, bitter, and snowing too. All I could think about was my dire hunger. Our cabin commander ordered us to get out of bed. I didn’t hear this right away, but I was told later that I was the last one to get up. I just kept dozing off, shivering and cold. Then I felt piercing pain in my chest, then head, then everywhere. Finally, I got up, with my chest and head throbbing.

I never thought I would be labeled an outsider, a misfit even. As I trudged my way through the halls of my small town high school, I would endure the gazing pairs of eyes, that belonged to my peers, followed by whispering and often times some laughter. I always used zone out during those repetitive speeches and commercials about the effects of gossiping and rumors; never did I imagine that one day I would be on the receiving end of of the everyday potshot. Growing up I was always the center of attention, the one everyone yearned to be friends with, never was I the antisocial child in the corner with nowhere to turn… not until high school. They say high school changes you. They say high school accounts for some of the greatest years of

Henry had a lot of courage going into the first battle. He didn't truly know what war was like so that might be why he wasn't scared. The first battle was not very brutal and Henry stayed calm. His friends were calm as well and Henry didn't want to seem like a coward if he ran away. Henry got some respect for staying during the first battle. There was a different story however for the second battle.

I was informed of a Hauptmann (company officer) was in the area and I was to kill him. The german forces were set up in the town square so I snuck into one of the buildings nearby to get a good shot on them. There were four of us assigned to the mission but I was to take the shot at the Hauptmann. As we waited for what seemed like hours the Hauptmann finally came out into the open. I set up my rifle and lined up my scope with the target I saw something I wish I didn't see, the Hauptmann was Heinrich little did I know he too joined the war but he quickly rose through the ranks and now my friend, my brother was at the other end of my rifle and I had to kill him. I didn't have much time and my companions were getting uneasy so I had two options shoot my brother and help win the war or let him live and possibly make the war last alot longer. So I did what had to be done I squeezed the trigger, everything went quiet as if the world stood still, a tear rolled down my left eye as I realised what I had done. I came back a hero everyone loved me, but what I would give to go back to those days in

A week in April 1943 there was Nazis going door to door to take Jews, suddenly there started to be fires all over the ghetto. When the Nazis where coming door to door “firefights erupted all over the city and the Nazis found themselves surrounded on many streets and without initial tank support” (“Jewish Resistance”). The Jews knew that they were outnumbered but they wanted to feel hope inside them. There humanity was retained, and they felt satisfied that they stood up for themselves. Another way Jews were showing resistance was by still practicing their religion and not using armed

. Whilst they were generally free to come and go within the towns in which they pleased until the mid-19th century there were special Jewish places called "Jewish towns" in many larger Polish towns and cities.

Some of the local farmers were allies to the group, gentiles willing to sacrifice and to help the men. Some of the farmers would even send those who escaped the ghettos to the woods to find the group. Attempting to leave the ghettos carried a harsh punishment for anyone, death by hanging. The Jews resilient in their efforts of escape from the Ghetto dug a tunnel with only forks and spoons allowing the over two hundred and fifty remaining captive Jews an escape to the woods in some hope of survival. Only one hundred and seventy men, women, and children survived to reach the partisans in the woods because of Nazi firepower but the power of the group would soon double.

One day we woke up to guards brutally pounding on our door. I was the first one up, but my dad didn’t let me open the door. When he went to the door the guard grabbed him and pushed him outside. The guards rushed inside and told us all to get outside immediately. We went outside the nazis made us start walking to the train station. Once we arrived at the station the nazis made all the jews cramp into small cattle carts. This process took about two hours. Once in awhile you would hear gun shots. That was usually the officers shooting at a Jew who was trying to escape. After all the Jews got on the train my family and I prayed that we would all stay together. After what it seemed like forever we arrived in a town called Rzeszow. There My family and the rest of the Jews were forced to live in a ghetto. The ghetto was small but at least I was able to stay with my family.

Jewish resistance is a very untold and important part of World War II. As the war grew and the Nazi’s occupied many European countries, resistance grew and intensified. Those who could escape the ghettos and work camps joined partisan groups. In the early 1940’s, underground resistance movements developed in about 100 ghettos. There were about 20,000-30,000 Jewish Partisans and their main goal was to break out of the ghettos, save as many Jews as they could, and fight against the Germans. Many Jews operated as partisans, whether as part of individual Jewish units or as members of non-Jewish units (Yad Vashem, n.d.).

After that was finished, I was sent with a group of prisoners away from the others. I asked a soldier where we were going, and he told me that if I asked him again, my head would no longer be resting on my shoulders. We were marched for around an hour to a group of tents away from the main camp. They told us that this was where we were staying, which was odd. Everyone else was in cabins, while we were given tents. We thought maybe they ran out of room, but then we noticed some of the cabins looking empty and lifeless, while we could clearly see our other comrades inside warm cabins. We soon realized that everyone in the tents was jewish, and found out that the germans were putting us here because we were

The Nazis have invaded the Poland today. It is 1939 october 2. Me and my mom and my dad and my sister were in a bunker which my dad owns we also had a couple other families inside. We were waiting for the loud noises to stop and the gunshots to finish. 42 hours just passed when france and britain had declared war on germany after that we left. By this time Germany had occupation Poland. When I first got out of the bunker and we started heading to the city I saw tanks and soldiers and many other things the soldiers were on each corner of each street there was so many of them. We were stopped many times and we were asked what are names and were was are headed. We told them that we were headed to one of my dads big mansion. My parents are very wealthy my dad works as a businessman and my mom is a designer for clothes. My friends and his friends has just came over to stay for a couple of days until things cool down. Me and my friend had just gone into my