User:Starjester10
MY STORY
Forgotten
Chapter One
The war
A girl was coming down the street in her ordinary slow fashion, when all of a sudden her sister came running along. “Helena, come along at once, Mother sent me to look for you, it is dinner time!” she said. “Okay Elzbieta,” said Helena “I am coming!” As they came into the house Mother said ,“I thought you were going to post my letter for me, not play in the park.” “Yes Mother,” Helena said meekly as she helped her sister Juliana set the table. Suddenly her brothers Jan and Maksymilian came in and they were very dirty.
“Boys!” said Mother. “Go and get washed at once, you are not suitable to be at the table;” the boys laughed and went upstairs. Just at that moment their father came in. He hugged his children Juliana and Helena and said, “ Children I have something to say, I will say at dinner.” He said cheerfully “Well, your mother Romualda has cooked something lovely for dinner, let us go in to the dining room.” When he got into the dining room he suddenly frowned ,“where are my sons, Maksymilian and Jan?” Just then his sons came down from getting ready and sat at the table; their father gave them a stern look and they stood up hurriedly. Father said, “Good let us give thanks to God for this wonderful food,” he launched into a prayer. After they gave thanks they ate their food and father said “ I am being sent to France because Hitler has said that all Jews are to be rounded up and killed or sent to concentration camps, a cart is to pick you up tomorrow to take you to England.” Then after dinner, they had their family worship, the children went to bed.
The next day they saw their father off. As they went back into the house Mother called, “Helena, go and do the washing like I told you to NOW!” she added with tears in her eyes.
“Yes mother,” replied Helena meekly and she made her way to the washing cellar. As she walked down the stairs to the washing cellar her sister Elzbieta came after her and said “Helena come with me.” Helena said “Would Mother approve? You know Mother told me to do the washing, she hates us to be disobedient”.
“Yes I know” said Elzbieta “Mother sent me to tell you that there are men Outside they have a cart they say that they are come to take us to England,” Without another word she raced upstairs. Helena raced after her hoping the army would be able to keep Hitler away. As they climbed on to the cart and they hid themselves and looked around frightened at other families hiding under the blankets. But they heard that to get to England they would have to pass through Hitler’s country GERMANY
They had been on the road for a long time and were whispering among themselves, suddenly they were silent, the driver said “Get down we are now approaching German Poznan”. Afraid, they lay under the blankets barely daring to breath. Suddenly they heard strange accents, “Stop! Get out, we want to search your cart for missing Jews,” barked the voice. The cart lurched as the man got out, Helena fell onto the ground, knocking her head in the process. The German solder laughed and said, “Well we do not have to look in there now, we know that you are smuggling Jews.” He grabbed Helena by the neck and he barked at them “OUT ALL OF YOU.” As he said this he gave the driver a push and the driver fell onto the muddy ground. The soldier said “That will teach you to help Jews.” Juliana screamed as the soldier grabbed her from the cart. He threw Juliana and Helena onto the ground. Mother got out of the cart as her daughters were grabbed by the soldiers and forced into line. The soldiers grabbed Mother and forced her into line too. The other Jews were also forced into line; the only sound except the soldiers yelling was a baby crying. As the soldier (whom Helena thought to be the Chief Captain)yelled and yelled at the driver, (the poor man Hall was cowering under his scolding ) something happened to stop them and Ratty(As Helena had decided to call him) stopped yelling and a huge shadow fell on to the ground. He was huge and tall he was indeed the Commander. He yelled and yelled at his men, “These Jews must have people with them, they will be rescued if we do not hurry!” “Anyway” he said cruelly “take them to the town hall we will deal with them there,” and with that he galloped away. The men looked at each other, shrugged and walked away pulling the Jews with them.
Not long after this happened, they were standing in the town hall with their hands behind their backs. The men were laughing at them, Helena felt like crying but she did not cry, she knew that the Lord was with her, to protect her from evil, no matter what happened , she knew that the Lord God would be with her. She prayed fiercely to Jesus to help her, and protect her from harm. She had felt afraid but now the spirit of the Lord was with her, to help her, and strengthen her, and she was no longer afraid, she looked around her, and listened to what would be their fate. She nearly fainted when she heard she would be separated from her family, and thrown into a cruel concentration camp, with the other girls her age! Her brothers were to be taken to a slave camp, her mother to Ravensbruch concentration camp. She would be with her sisters, she knew, but she could not read the Bible, none of them could. Only Mother and Father knew how, and they were not here, so they would have a pretty unbiblical life. Although they did not like the thought of it, they knew that the Lord would be with them.
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Chapter two
The concentration camp
At first glance the concentration camp looked quite pretty from where the children were but they knew that it was a cruel place and as they walked into it they knew that it was so; children were working, little girls like themselves were being whipped because they were too slow. As they walked in they were met by a German woman who grabbed them and turned them around and around. She said, “Too weak, but we will soon strengthen them up, I do not want them strong, I want them slightly stronger than they are, but thinner than they are, they are skinny! But they will not do enough work if they are as they are now.” The men said “They are to be put in the torture house because they tried to run away
from us, and also they are Jews ,now we must go and take the other Jews to the other camps,”
“As you wish, sirs. JACK! ELLEN! Come here slaves,” said the woman. Two children ran up and said in unison “Yes miss” “Take these children and put them in the torture house. “Yes miss” they said and walked off taking Helena and her sisters with them.
Meanwhile Romualda their mother had been thrown in the torture house. When she had got out, she had been paraded in front of all the woman, and whipped, and humiliated, and then thrown into the sleep house where all the women slept. She slept for a while, and then woke up. While she was alone she took out her miniature of her family and wept. She did not notice a woman sneak up until the woman said “What is the matter?” Startled Romualda turned around. Seeing the woman had a kindly expression she said “I miss my husband and children.” “Excuse me but what is your name” she added “My name is Corrie ten Boom” she said and it seemed that she might just escape after all. She said to Romualda “The Germans do not like Jews they said that they would kill them soon.”
Meanwhile her brothers were suffering more, they were not only put in the torture house, but they were not sent to the sleep house, they were sent to work. Because they were tired from the torture house they did not do their work properly so they had to be whipped.
Meanwhile the children were told to put together all the clothes of other prisoners. this went on for a few months on and on and on they worked, getting very, very, tired. They were getting very bored of this when Elzbieta the eldest had a idea she said to her sisters “lets get into the bags and when they come and take the bags away they will take us away with them” the other girls were excited at the thought of escaping and they at once gathered together all their few possessions and climbed into the bags. They waited and waited and waited when suddenly they heard German voices they recognised the German woman’s voice saying “lift up that bag up there , girl! (she sighed) Where are those girls when you need them mind!” she cried and she softened ah “that’s right” Helena felt a lurch as the man lifted the bag she was in and felt terrified when she heard him say “this bag is pretty heavy” the woman said “ O stop groaning and lift these bags onto the cart.” Soon all the girls were safely on the cart, and as they rumbled along, Elzbieta made a hole in the bag, and tore it open, she climbed quickly out of the bag and helped her sisters out of their bags and they all jumped out of the back of the cart and ran towards the woods and freedom.
Juliana was running as fast as she could but she was slowing down ,the man had seen them and was running after them as fast as he could. She could see Helena behind her. Meanwhile Elzbieta had reached the woods and was calling Juliana. Juliana had reached the woods but the man had caught up with Helena. Helena was screaming as the man said “You little vermin I will report you” and he dragged her back to the car. Elzbieta having watched this could hide no longer she ran at the man Helena saw her coming and hoping kicked the man in the tummy and the man cursed and let her go she ran to Elzbieta and Elzbieta picked her sister up and got her into the woods.
�Chapter Three
The Friendly Town
They had built a fire in the shelter of a tree, Elzbieta said that it was best to light it under that particular tree because the tree shielded them from the German towns that were dotted all across the landscape and the smoke from their fire was shielded from the towns.
The next morning they awoke early and after breakfast (which was fish) debated about what to do, unable to agree they decided to look at their map “I think we should cross Germany and go to England” said Elzbieta. “No No!” said Juliana at once “ that would be cowardly I think we should go to Kdo. Neuengamme where the boys are and then go to England as their camp is nearer because if we move from this spot we will not be able to fish for food remember we escaped very quickly and had no time to fetch food to take with us”(for Juliana was a wise, just and kind child ) . Helena (who had been sitting by the tree) suddenly spoke up “I think we should go toward a town and ask for help, then go to the boys’ camp and save them, then go and save Mother, then go to England”.
“Don’t be silly Helena,” said Elzbieta “Of course we cannot ask for help at a village and of course we cannot rescue Mother I do not disagree about trying to rescue the boys but no definitely none of the others.” Helena said “I am going to do what I said even if you do not help me.” “Don’t be silly Helena if you are going to be like that of course we will come with you but I still think it is a bad idea.”
13 hours later they were still no nearer to one of the villages as Juliana was a sickly child and could not walk for very far so they stopped along the way to give her some rest, also it was six o’clock, so they decided to stop for the night.
The next morning it rained all day and Elzbieta was sick with worry as they were out in the open now and the next town was an hour and a half away , they could not carry on walking for if they did Juliana would catch a cold and maybe die (as she was a very fragile child) so imagine the joy that they felt when the sun came out, Juliana was now soaked to the skin as she was the smallest (although Helena was the youngest) the clothes they had got from the wagon were much to big for her. So she of course caught a cold and was very sick .
Elzbieta was in despair but finally she agreed that the best plan was sending athletic young Helena to the town so the next day Helena set out and she started to run O how she ran as fast as she possibly could which was about 10 miles per hour so it took two hours to get there because the town was 20 miles away
Romualda meanwhile was suffering terribly as she was afraid for her children, her new friend Corrie tried to cheer her up but it did not work “You said that Germans hate Jews I have heard from my sons but not my daughters they must have been killed by the Germans,” said Romualda to Corrie
The two girls however had found out something all the families were going to be put together so they walked for bit and stopped again and stayed there for Juliana was having trouble with her breathing.
Helena meanwhile had reached the town of Nichors and sneaked in, she slipped onto a doorstep and hid there when a cart came by. When suddenly she heard a movement behind her she tried to slip off the doorstep but she wasn’t fast enough
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Chapter Four
The Friendly Jew
“Who are you?” said the girl who was called Chlotichilda,
“I-I-I am H-H-Helena” stammered Helena in a fright
“Are you Polish?” said Chlotichilda. Suddenly Helena became alert
“Why should I tell you where I am from “said Helena “I am a German Jew” said Chlotichilda
“Yes I am a Polish Jew ” said Helena “ My sisters and I have escaped from the German concentration camp in Poznan and my sister Juliana has caught a cold and she is very sick and-and-and……..” Helena’s eyes filled up with tears and she could not say any more. “Come in!” Chlotichilda hissed and looking quickly around she went back into the house.
Helena followed her quickly, Chlotichilda set the kettle boiling and made some tea and sliced some bread and set it out and said prayers and began to eat. She said
“ Look I need to know everything about you. Why are you here? Where are your family?”
“Before I answer I must ask. Are you a Messianic Jew?” said Helena. �