Alexandria Kozak, Green Middle School

When Will We Learn?

"Wake up libeling, wake up Marie"

"Mother, please just a few more minutes!"

"No, you are already late, now get up!" Groggily, I got out of bed, dressed and headed downstairs to breakfast. Papa was reading his newspaper, Niklas was eating, and Mama was cooking at the warm, glowing stove. I sat down to eat eggs and toast when Papa looked up from his paper and said, "Chancellor Hitler will be speaking at Berlin. We will make the journey this weekend."

"Alright," mother said with a sigh, "I will make us a lunch and you will buy the tickets Lukas."

"Guten Tag Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt, Guten Tag Marie!"

"Guten Tag Sarah" we chanted. Sarah was my best and most loyal friend. We were the same age and even in the same class. We walked to school together almost every day.

"Hurry Marie or we will be late for school!"

"I am coming," I said as I grabbed my books. "Bye Mama, Bye Papa!"

* * * *

Sarah and I got to class just before Mrs. Braun, our teacher, came into the classroom. "Class, we have been sent new books from Chancellor Hitler. Now, as I call your name, please come forward to receive them."

Once all the books were passed out we were told to complete this math problem:

A German girl had five apples and a Jewish girl had three. The German girl was hungry so she received the three from the Jewish girl, how many does the German girl now have? It was a very simple problem, but for another reason, Sarah and I both peered up at each other with questioning eyes.

As Sarah and I walked home that day, we saw a few stores with the words "Keine Juden haben erlaubt" or "No Jews allowed" above their doors. I started into the bakery to buy bread, but Sarah did not follow me. "Come on Sarah," I pleaded.

"I can’t, she said softly as she pointed to the large, dark black words above the door.

"Oh," I said shyly and I went in to buy the bread.

* * * *

During those next few weeks there were many changes at school, in our town, and to the personalities of those around me. My father, mother and even Niklas did not want me to associate with Sarah or any other Jews, and they refused to buy any Jewish products. Just about all the people in our town that were not Jewish were acting as if the Jews were lower than the dirt we walk on. The Jews were being discriminated against. As if being snubbed was not enough, many lost their jobs and they were forced to register and wear the Star of David visibly at all times. I did not understand it, all these Jewish families I knew well, and there was no difference between them and me. I just did not get it.

Then it happened, June 28, 1933, I was fourteen and so naïve. That morning Nazi

tanks and jeeps came into out town of Tiergarten asking for young, strong men to sign up and join them. My Papa and brother Niklas, at a young, ripe age of seventeen, both registered and were told to be ready to leave the following morning. My mother and I wept when we heard the news. It was not right at all. My father was growing old and would not be able to keep up with the younger men and my brother had not yet turned eighteen, he still had his whole life to live. I cried myself to sleep that night not knowing that my life had forever changer as soon as those Nazi tanks rolled into town.

I woke up to the clatter of pots and pans in the kitchen. I crept down the stairs to see my mother cooking up a storm. She had been preparing food all night to put in baskets for my brother and father. She turned to me and I could see so much sorrow in her eyes. They were like faucets just bursting to run. I looked away for fear that I may too start to cry, I had to be strong for Mama.

Papa and Niklas came down in their dark green uniforms. The swastika was visible on their left arm. Mama gave them the baskets, and as she hugged Niklas she whispered, "You are too young to die." She turned to receive a kiss from Papa and an embrace that lasted almost forever. As I hugged my father he spoke these words to me, "Have faith." I remembered those words for all my years to come. I still continue to live my life by that saying. As I released him I took in the aroma of tobacco from his pipe and let go. As I went to Niklas I made him promise me that he would stay safe. He sealed his promise with an embrace. As they turned to leave, Papa put two tickets into Mama’s hand and said, "I want you both to go to America. When the war is over we will meet you there."

"No Lukas, we will not leave you!" she screamed, and the faucet finally burst.

"Barbra, I am ordering you to!" He barked back in response, but I could hear the softness behind his voice. We watched them walk down the street. When we could see them no longer my mother said with great sadness in her voice, "Go upstairs and pack."

I look back now as an old woman on the events of the Holocaust and I realize how similar all these genocides in Sudan, Rwanda and many others are. The Holocaust was so horrific that I cannot even begin to describe it and I was not even Jewish. We received word a few years later in our American home that both my brother and father had died. I wished I could have rewound time to stop them from leaving that day to prevent this from happening, but it was too late. My mother was devastated. Later in the week I woke up one morning to find that she had died in her sleep. My mother had lost all faith and hope. Her spirit had died the day Niklas and Papa left and her body had finally caught up.

People are suffering again and it is time to put a stop to it. Another Holocaust is my greatest fear. Millions were killed in the 1940’s and sixty years later we still have not learned from it. We don’t need another mass genocide to help us realize that we were wrong.