I see a glimpse of light through the cracks of my weak but effective fortress....

I dare not utter a word....

fear instills my heart....

I hear footsteps ....

I remember what my parents said,....

"stay in here and please do not leave or make a noise!!"....

the men are ransacking the house.....

they shoot barbarically around the house.......

.. ..

I'm bleeding....

I feel as the air is getting heavier....

i cant keep my eyes open ....

the last thing i saw was the cupboard doors open.....

.. ..

i wake up in the middle of a hospital....

and there is this sharp pain emitting from my shoulder....

I was shot!....

I could not believe it?....

I'm alive!!....

and i could move......

.. ..

time progressed in the hospital....

and i healed rapidly....

then one day....

a man took me with several others around my age....

.. ..

we arrive in a camp with cement walls and barbed wire......

it was December 23 and I didn't know what was happening.....

where are my parents? I asked., but no answer....

only cries from the other children....

the cries of a son aching for the comfort of his mother....

soon we were thrown in these cells and were told to behave....

they reeked of countless corpses......

we kept quiet....

.. ..

night arrived and as the other slept all i could remember were the words from before....

"stay in here and please do not leave or make a noise!!"....

it rang like the sounds of gunshots that came after....

.. ..

December 24th and the guards spoke of "Weihnachten"....

i knew nothing of what he said....

i asked Benjamin what "Weihnachten" was....

he knew nothing....

.. ..

knowing that it was clearly stated not to speak ....

i grew the courage and got close to the bars and called for them....

i asked of "Weihnachten" ....

they laughed......

.. ..

u shouldn't concern yourself with such matters "der Jude"....

he uttered Jew as if it were a plague of some sort....

but I was stubborn....

I could not let this go....

and for my arrogance I was whipped severely.....

each slash cut and hurt more....

they hurt me with such enjoyment.....

i could see the hatred that lurked inside their very cores....

.. ..

the blood had begun to dry from the wounds i received,....

later that night....

.. ..

the guards pulled out something i thought could not exist in such a vile place....

a tree filled with countless decorations....

they sparkled and left me in awe......

once more i overheard the guards speak of "Weihnachten" ....

.. ..

could this be part of "Weihnachten" ....

i simply observed through the putrid cell i was residing in....

.. ..

later that night....

i saw the guards carefully place gifts under the exuberant tree....

my curiosity grew....

the guards also brought a bottle of liquor to drink....

they celebrated in merriment with a grand feast....

we could only watch and grab the little crumbs that were left behind from the soldiers and the rats....

.. ..

In one what one may think might have been the greatest paradox in history....

the general escorted each and every one of us outside....

he handed us each a present with such a charismatic expression....

the only condition was to wait until midnight....

he ordered men we had never seen before to stand in front of us....

each man carrying a pistol....

we knew not of what occurred....

the general explained "Weihnachten" ....

Christmas the day when Christ was born....

we celebrate by exchanging gifts with one another ....

he counted the last few seconds and said merry Christmas....

as those words escaped his tongue the men opened fire....

all i could remember was the fact that our once dismal hearts had felt a mere glimpse of hope....

and we were frighteningly mistaken....

although.......

the general could have given us benal offerings....

he offered us the chance to reunite ourselves with our loved ones....

he said " children have little to do with war and to live life with the tormenting atrocities they have lived would transpire into insanity. If i were a cruel man i would unleash more suffering upon them. I am helping them, don't you see liberating them from pain.....

War is a spiraling cycle of death and pain."....