Gretal sat peacefully on her snow-white bed reading the novel she was assigned earlier that day in English class. It was a cool fall day and the leaves tumbled down the street in the wind. They were various shades of orange, red and yellow as they had just changed. It was at 4 pm when her father returned home from a meeting with his people. He wouldn’t tell Gretal or her mother who his people were; he wouldn't even tell them how he was paying the bills - they were always told that his work life was to be kept private. But, Gretal always suspected that her father was back executing Jewish people.
On October 4th, 1952, Gretal’s whole life changed for the second time in 10 years. Her father returned and had Maria prepare dinner. A roasted duck sided with peas, carrots, and mashed potatoes was requested. It was at dinner when she was told the news. Gretal’s father stood up from his seat at the end of the table, cleared his throat, and began to say: “I have been promoted once again and we will be moving back to Poland.” Gretal’s heart sank. All the hunger she felt just a moment before she was told the news had vanished and Gretal suddenly felt sick to her stomach.
Only 10 years prior to the reveal of her father's second promotion, Gretal’s younger brother, Bruno, had become attached in a loving friendship with one of the Jewish children in Auschwitz. Bruno was exploring one day and came across Shmuel on the other side of a strange fence in Bruno’s backyard. What Bruno didn’t know, was that this fence lead to Auschwitz - the concentration camp run by his father and his people. After spending day after day speaking to Shmuel through the fence, he became so attached to the friendship that when he was told he was moving back home with his mother and Gretal, he ran away and broke into Auschwitz to be with his best friend. Hours following his escape from home, he followed Shmuel into what they thought was a shower but turned out to be the cellar where they executed the Jewish individuals. It was on this day that her 9-year-old brother lost his life.
Gretal stood up from her chair and raced to her room. Tears filled her eyes and her heart pounded in her chest. From a distance, Gretal could hear her father yelling at her to return to the dinner table. Once Gretal finally reached her bedroom, she slammed the door shut behind her and threw herself into her pillows where she sobbed until she slowly drifted off to sleep. All night Gretal was tossing and turning. She was terrified to go back to that terrible place (Poland) where her little brother lost his life. She knew that just being back there would inflict terrible flashbacks on her.
The next morning Gretal woke up to Maria packing all of her belongings into several brown boxes scattered around her room. Dazed and confused, Gretal rose from her bed and began yelling “What are you doing? Don’t touch my stuff! I’m not going back to that place!” Her eyes filled with tears once again. Maria looked at Gretal, turned to face the door, and left her room in silence. The day went by very slowly. When Gretal returned home from school, she immediately went to her bedroom to do her homework. This was a daily routine or she would get grounded by her father. She walked up the stairs and began walking towards her room; the house seemed hollow and empty. Walking through the door into her room, Gretal saw that all of her belongings had been packed up and removed from her room. The only thing that remained was the height chart on her closet door and her bed frame.
Her heart began to race and before she could do anything, her father and three tall men dressed in professional looking army suits entered her room creating a barrier between the door opening and Gretal who stood in the middle of her hollow bedroom. Her father looked at her and said in a stern voice: “We are leaving. You live in my house and you will abide by my rules. Let's go, my men will escort you to the car.” Gretal lowered her head as her tears rolled off her cheeks onto the hardwood floor beneath her trembling legs. The men stood in a triangle figuration around Gretal and escorted to her the car where she would be taken back to Poland. Gretal muttered under her breath: “This is so unfair; you are all terrible human beings. You should be killed, not the innocent Jewish people you’re killing.” She plummetted into the backseat of the car sobbing into the sleeve of her black cotton dress.
After a long seven and a half hour car ride from Germany to Poland, Gretal was ready for bed. She was exhausted from the stress of moving back to Poland and starving from not eating the night before. When they arrived at the house her younger brother once lived in with them, Gretal fell to the ground crying. She sat on the ground sobbing while repeating the words: “take me home.” Gretal couldn’t calm herself down, the pain of the flashbacks to the day her brother lost his life were eating her alive. She sat on the dusty gravel ground outside her new home. Breathing heavily while sobbing, she continued to plead: “I will do anything ...I...I...I..promise. Just-t-t-t take me home-e-e-e.” She continued sobbing. Her mother reached down for her hand and whispered: “This is home, my dear”. Gretal placed her small, cold hand in her mothers and followed her into the house she once called home.
Gretal’s mother escorted her to her room and sat on the edge of her already made bed. The soldiers her dad had hired were moving boxes into the house and placing them in all different rooms. Gretal's mother placed her hand on her daughter's face wiping the tears from her eyes and asked “What’s wrong honey? Your father got a promotion, aren’t you happy for him?” Gretal looked at her mom with disgust; before she could even open her mouth to explain the profession of work her father was in, to her mother, her father entered the room with a small black box in the palm of his hand. “Honey, may I please speak to you?” her father asked in a timid voice. Gretal responded, “Why would I want to talk to you? You’re killing innocent people because they’re Jewish. How would you feel if someone took over you and your people and threw all of you in a fenced off community to die?” Gretal’s father looked at her in disbelief. “What did you just say to me?” Said her father with irritation in his voice. Gretal turned her head to face her mother. Her mother stood up from Gretal’s bed and proceeded towards the door without acknowledging nor Gretal or her father. She pushed past her husband with disgust and slammed the bedroom door on her way out.
Written by Alyssa Elliott
What a nice capture of a dreadful mood, Alyssa