Prisoners of War

 They kept us separate for several months. The last time I saw them they were throwing us on trains. As they ordered us to face the front.

I felt the fear rise from my feet to my head. As they closed the doors of the trains and I saw my wife’s tears shed. They took me to a camp in Poland with the name Auschwitz overhead.

They herded us like cattle pass the rotting dead. Killed off because they were unable to work or because they fled. But all I can think about is the women’s camp a few miles up the road instead.

I heard about the rape and murder that goes on in the women’s camp. And I look for a way out morning noon and night. I familiarize myself with the routines of the camp before I decide to take flight.

The way I choose to escape is revolting but it gets me out tonight. As I climb into the pile of bodies a Jewish prayer I do recite.

They throw the bodies in a truck to be taken to a mass grave. I have no fear of death for it’s better to die than to live as a slave. I grabbed a pair of German army fatigues an image I hope to portray. I jump off the back of the truck and walk in to the camp a few hours before the break of day.

The darkness hides my true Identity one I will never betray. I stay behind the buildings trying not to give myself away. I search shack after shack hoping not to find my family in a pile of decay.

Suddenly a scream wails out and I know it is they. The sounds of laughter and moans from the shack across the way. I snap the neck of the guard peeking in the door just as I was trained. I collect the guard’s weapons and grenades as I here my wife sobbing in dismay.

I walk in and pull the trigger before he can lift his head from my daughter’s breast. Watching his blood rundown her naked body as she breathes her last breath. My wife knows she is gone and joins her in death.

Malnutrition and disease have taken their beauty what a cruel and horrible theft. Soldiers surround the shack as I stood and wept. I did one last thing before they rushed me, I did accept.

I pulled the pins of the grenades and I forever slept.