Lives of Schindler's Jews

The Lives of Schindler’s Jews
By Alyssa Ball
I remember each painful memory like it was yesterday; they come in spurts of blood and madness that haunt and invade my every dream. The nightmares hit me true as flesh; recollections of the brutality I out lived; laden with sights of vast pits of the decaying, the sharp peak of fine ribs beneath emancipated chests, the hatred in the shout of a German girl no older than myself shouting “Goodbye Jews!” echo in my head; sending shivers down my spine even as I lie in the security of my warm bed. This is a glimpse into the horrors I witnessed as an eleven year old during the Holocaust. Yet in light of my tremendous hardship I remember a man a German who under witness of our hardship made us his priority and bought us our freedom when the rest of his kind saw us as worthless good for nothing Jews.  
Like I mentioned before for all Jew’s, including myself, the Holocaust became a living nightmare; however in the beginning it did not amount to as much.   When the Nazi party invaded Poland their apparent hatred of Jew’s only began as inconveniences, followed by forcing us into bankruptcy, seizing our property and public embarrassment for those who spoke up against our mistreatment. This although hard for us at the time would not compare to the horrors that would soon greet us when we “migrated” to Krakow where we were rounded up and forced to live in the ghetto.   Not soon after it became law to wear Star of David arm bands to identify us as Jews. In the ghetto we were all forced into crammed quarters surrounded by a twelve foot fence. In the ghetto there was an apparent shortage of food, space, and provisions. Yet like our ancestors who had overcome hardship before us we found strength in ourselves as a united people and continued to live our lives as best we could; spending hours looking for food and learning how to be resilient in the new lifestyle the Nazi’s had forced us into. As a child my life was enveloped by fear,...