Love and Death

Hannah Hiatt

I don’t know what is coming, but I can guess. Death is here. The men around me are pushed into the room where we will all die,  but Corine is safe, and that’s all that matters.

I met Corine on the way to the  Drancy Internment Camp. She was so small, so innocent, so young. She was only seven years old, but her parents had been shot before her eyes, for resisting arrest. I could tell she was strong, stronger than me. I could see in her eyes that she was still fighting, hoping,  struggling to survive.

I couldn’t help but be drawn to her. Her bubbly laugh echoed through the truck, which confused me at first. How could she laugh when we were heading toward our deaths? As I got to know her, I realized she was just as scared as I was, but she hid it to give people hope.

By the time we made it to Drancy, I realized I loved her as a sister, and would do anything to keep her safe. So, I formulated a plan to save her.

When they began transporting us to the death camp, we snuck off and lost our guards. We climbed the fence and I held down the barbed wire for her. The guards were few and far between, as many had gone to supervise the transport, and after a brief goodbye, I watched her run. The guards eventually find me, tears streaking down my face, and lead me away. They don’t care that I saved a life, they only cared about a religion I barely knew.

The man who controls my death stares at me through the crowd and I see the cruelty, the heartlessness in his eyes. Then the gas kicks in and everything goes black.