The Lightning ϟ
The Lightning ϟ/2018
By Jackson Buchanan
Tuesday July 10, 2018 The Lightning ϟ In Memory of all the Children who Died in the Holocaust Tanks and trucks roll through the streets. Soldiers stomp through, each one has a devilish look on their face. Their eyes have anger in them, their eyebrows arched, their mouths at resting position the faces of killers. A woman cradles her child in her arms she thinks about how many people each one of them killed she estimates each has killed once before. A man curses at the soldiers, screaming. A soldier kicks a puddle of water at the man, it splashes all over his face. “Ruhig!” he yells at him. The streets quiet down. The man is covered in muddy water, he has mud in his mouth. “Dummkopf! Fool!” The soldiers laugh in unison. The soldiers continue marching. “Weiter machen!” A tank commander yells at the soldiers. “Jawohl!” The soldiers chant as they continue to march. Years after Germany invades Poland: a Jewish ghetto A boy hides under a thin layer of sheets under his bed, he has tears in his eyes, a man walks by him. He sees them shove his father on the ground. His father’s lip is bleeding, his hair is messy and he has a terrible black eye. “Stop!” His mother yells, holding back tears. The soldier lets out a childish giggle, than a grunt. The soldier bends over to pick up the boy’s father. The boy cannot see the soldier’s face, he doesn’t need to, all he sees is a red arm band with a swastika, the symbol of a nazi. The boy closes his eyes shut and shivers crawl down his spine. He begins to sweat rapidly, his heart racing. The Nazi lifts a sheet from a bed, “Hast du Kinder?” He peeks under the bed, the boy slides himself behind the bed frame. “No, we have no children!” She lies. “Wofür sind diese Betten?” “The beds are there for, we had two kids, they died a year ago,” she lies. “Ich zeige keine Sympathie, I would for a aryan maybe.” “Now, come! You two!” He shouts. “You're not-” “Yes, I am.” The Nazi’s strong hand grabs the mother and shoves her in a truck outside, then he grabs the father and wiped the blood away from his mouth, “Subhuman freaks,” he murmurs. He whispers one more thing to them, so soft the boy can't hear. *** “Get up Jacob, they took Mama and Papa,” Jacob bolts up in bed. “Who?” “The Nazis!” Jacob tried to imagine a nazi in his head, he imagines a wolf like creature with glowing green eyes, a uniform that has been ripped in half, and a swastika painted on his furry chest. Just thinking this made Jacob gag. “How did they not see us, Joseph?” Jacob asks. “We hid under the bed.” "What?” “I rolled you under the bed.” “How did I not wake up? Why didn’t they check for us?” “They did but I moved us behind the bed.” Jacob and Joseph were startled by the sound of a bullet crackling, it pierces through a skull, the sound is ear-shattering, Jacob clutches his ears. Jacob runs over to the window and tears the burgundy curtains down. He sees men wearing gas masks with ϟϟ on their arms. The gas masks all open grenades, caps pop up, green puffs of smoke start to release from the open hole they throw them in a jeep. Then they slam the door shut. People in the streets run amuck, three men inside a metal jeep begin to flop trying to hold their breath, they struggle as their faces slowly turn purple and they have to take a breath. They begin to pound on the steel door praying for them to let them out. The men slump over: dead. Jacob pukes. A woman on the streets trips, her face slams into the concrete her face is scraped badly. One of the gas masks slides open the jeep door. Three corpses fall out. Joseph paces back and forth, his bare feet creek the floorboards. Joseph sidels over to him. “They’ll be gone in a few.” “If they search here we’ll get caught.” “We could hide.” A thunderous knocking sound comes from the door, Joseph stands in shock. His eyes widen, his pointer finger twitching rapidly. The door busts in. One gask mask stomps in the room, he cradles his gun near his chest. Protecting it, like a lion protecting its cub. He shoves Jacob against the lavender couch. “When you get to Auschwitz tell them Gasmask sent you.” *** The next thing they saw was the inside of a metal truck with a one way ticket to hell. The truck came to an abrupt halt, it didn’t slow down to stop, the driver just slammed the brakes. Joseph was catapulted to the front of the truck, he hit a metal door separating the driver and the passengers. A sharp bar of iron pressed against Jacob’s hand. He let out a high pitched ear-piercing scream. Then he handed him a gray, striped suit that looked like pajamas. He peeled his clothes off to his underwear and slid the ‘pajamas’ on. Finally he was passed down to a barber with a nasty grin on his face and a pot belly. He takes a small razor and shaves through Jacob’s hair. “Health purp-” he lets out a nasty burp, “oses.” He looks at his arm, “Willkommen in Auschwitz 68,890.” “Gasmask sent me?” “That fool is full of himself*.” Joseph was stamped with 68,891. He was put in the pajama like clothes, and shaved. “Willkommen in Auschwitz 68,891.” Joseph was put into a cell with barbed wire around the top, and brick walls he shares it with many men. Jacob was put into a identical one. The sun rose up, clouds drift its way. A kapo holds a small P-08 Luger as he walked around counting the prisoners. He has a deadpan look on his chalky white face. Occasionally he would mumble something, you could never make out what it was though. He shrugged his shoulder and moves on to a S.S officer. He mumbles a number. High. Real high. Jacob starts to chatter with a inmate. “Quiet,” he inmate whispers “RUHIG!” The S.S yells Jacob’s heart skips a beat. He immediately shuts his mouth. *** Jacob and Joseph were both sent to crematoriums due to their youth, Joseph was terrified by the task, neither had ever seen a body, the grueling labor never stopped everyday, all night. Each day you most likely got no sleep, considering you were huddled together trembling, wanting the pain to go away. Joseph starts the furnace, it starts to sizzle and pop. He wipes sweat from his forehead. He lets out a small cough. *** The kapo pulls a metal little trigger the pistol is pointed at a Jew. He flops over like a fish out of water. Then a man from the front of the line with a small amount of stubble attacks the kapo, he grabs the kapo’s baton and begins to beat him, then the crematorium explodes. Shrapnel flies in the air, cowardly Nazis hide. The man continues to beat down on the Kapo, a bullet glides through him, the Kapo is also hit. A S.S officer runs to the kapo his pistol smoking. Women run out from crematorium. They duck behind a building, to Jacob’s suprise, they aren’t caught. Joseph hears a nazi mumbling “Has to be that Ala Gertner woman.” Joseph lays awake his heart racing. Jacob can’t sleep. “Whoever that was, they had to use a grenade, or some explosive, meaning they probably have more.” *** 2:30 am Joseph had snuck past a Nazi guarding them. Joseph tries to find where she is. He sneaks behind buildings and planes. He crawls the entire time. He sees women huddling around an oil drum, Gertner! He sees an S.S officer beating them. He wears a mask. Joseph can’t see it. His bones tremble. He lets out a tiny gasp. A cold hand touches his forehead. Time just freezes for a second. Joseph stands up, everyone is silent, he walks over to Gertner, the S.S beating her. Her nose bleeds, but it just dries on her face, still. The Nazi’s baton in mid air, ready for another hit. He wants to just move the officer’s baton. He does, he runs to Jacob and grabs him. The gates open he tries to pull himself through them. Joseph runs for the gates. They shut in his face. Time unfreezes, everything was back to normal. Just his imagination. The cold hand yanks him back. “Don’t try to escape alone.” “Why? you’re a Nazi. You’re S.S” “Oh, sorry if I scared you. No I’m Allied. Been taking prisoners at a time. ‘Taking them to a gas chamber.’ One problem we’ll only be able to take two people, bigger trucks are full. By the way ‘he name’s Sam.” “Joseph.” *** Gertner was dead, hanged. So was the spy. Three Hours Earlier A truck rumbles through a gravel path. Little to their knowledge but a small car follows, inside a man wearing a gasmask. Inside the truck Sam throws back an American pistol. “‘Case you need it.” Jacob squeezes the pistol. He stares at it in amusement. Gasmask leans his arm out the window and fires a quick, sharp shot it deflates the back left tire. The truck swivels off the road. It flips. Gasmask steps out of the car. The spy is shot, his body half hangs out the window. Jacob is steps out of the car. Gasmask removes the mask, he is the man that brought his parents and him here he was the S.S that shot that protester attacking the kapo He was the one that beat Gertner. He was the one that ruined his their lives. “Hello, I brought you and your parents here so I thought I’d be the one to say goodbye. I heard you trying to escape. So, you’re in for a treat." He opens the back door of the car. Joseph and Jacob’s parents step out of the car. Gasmask pushes them to the ground. “None of you are coming back with me. I thought I might show you a ounce of my power. They say I'm full of myself, Hitler is the only one that only one that understands power and justice, and guess what, I have power. Say goodbye.” He points the pistol at the parents, "Who dies first? The kid or the parents." Jacob huddles the pistol near his chest. “Oh no! Whats he gonna do?” He mocks him “Shoot m-” He does. Gasmask just stands up for a moment then falls to the ground, bleeding out. “Guess we’ll all have to fit in this one.” The dad says. “Four people should fit. Unfortunately not five.” Joseph says. The dad cranked up the car and they rolled off, free again. |
A holocaust story. Jackson Buchanan is 11 years old, he lives in Greensboro North Carolina. (In summer field but a Greensboro mailing adress.) He lives with his Mom, Dad and Cat (who really is incharge) Felix. In his spare time he likes to write, read, play basketball and watch Star Wars. His favorite books are The Body by Stephen King and Ready Player One By Earnest Cline. He hopes to write more books about WWII and the Holocaust.
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Nazi March