What started off as a normal day for Melania Nowak, ended in horror. She was awoken by her panicked mother and shuffling among the rest of her family, which consisted of her mother, father, and two younger siblings, Anezka and Milos. She could hear the sounds of synchronized footsteps on the street outside. Her mother had warned this would happen. Melania climbed out of bed and approached her window, completely clueless of the terror she was about to witness. Her stomach dropped as she watched hundreds of German Nazi soldiers steal the lives of her neighbors. Melania heard men shouting in German close by, and then the loud thud of her front door being kicked in. She ran out of her room only to find her family being held at gunpoint. Melania darted to the back door but was stopped by a tall, muscular man. Melania knew she wouldn’t get far. She has always been scrawny and unathletic. The man was older than the men in the other room. His hair was speckled grey and he had wrinkles in the corners of his terrifying eyes. Melania studied his name tag, which read “Sgt. Schmidt”. His voice was piercing and demanding even though Melania could not understand anything he was saying. She noticed he limped, as he approached her. Sergeant Schmidt forcefully pushed Melania around the house and into the front yard, where she was joined with her family.

The morning was cold. Melania and her family stood in the front yard, almost frostbitten, for numerous minutes, while the men had searched her house. Once they were finished, two of them forced Melania, her mom, and her siblings onto a bus. Melania’s mother clung to her father. She had a look of fear, which Melania had never seen on her. A soldier pulled them apart, and they loaded the bus. They sat together in the way back and, once the bus was jammed packed with people, they started moving. Melania noticed an angered mother, who clung to her two children.

“Where are you taking us?” the mother asked furiously.  

“Your tone will not be tolerated,”replied a soldier, who got quite close to the angered mother.

When they arrived at Melania’s high school, Melania noticed multiple other buses parked in front of the old, run-down building. All of the buses were being unloaded and everyone was being cramped into the gymnasium. Melania recognized people she went to school with, some people from the local grocery store, and even her school librarian. It seemed as if almost the whole town was there. Melania wondered if they had all experienced the same horror she had lived only minutes earlier.

After sitting on the cold, gymnasium floor for hours, Melania realized something odd-she had not seen any men since she had arrived at the school. The school gymnasium consisted of women and children who all looked to be about ten years of age and younger. The thought made Melania’s stomach churn.

All of the sudden, Melania heard the screaming of mothers and sobbing of children. Melania’s heart dropped as she realized what was happening. The women were going to be taken somewhere else. Mothers were being ripped from their children. Melania turned to her mom as the soldiers approached what was left of her family. She held back her siblings, as they tried to cling to their mother who was, eventually, forced from their arms.

The gymnasium went mute, as everybody was terrified of what could possibly happen next. Anezka and Milos fell asleep, while Melania could only think of possible scenarios of how the day would end. Melania herself wanted to sleep, hoping this was all a dream, but she couldn’t help but notice a little girl huddled in a ball in the corner of the gymnasium. Melania went over to her, hoping to bring her some comfort. When she approached the little girl, she looked up at Melania, petrified. Melania’s eyes welled up, as it had reminded her of the look on her mother's face earlier. No one should ever have to experience that amount of fear, especially a child. Melania picked up the girl, though the girl was hesitant, and brought her over to join her and her siblings. The girl clung to Melania, almost as she was hanging onto her life. They all stayed huddled on the floor. The children slept, while Melania struggled to get even a minute of peace.

Melania stayed up all night and even watched the sunrise through the small gymnasium windows. She was afraid, as she hadn’t seen a soldier all night. She wondered what they were doing. Melania was still puzzled by the events of the day before.

Around noon, some soldiers, who finally said something Melania could understand, allowed what was left of the people, to go to the cafeteria for a meal, something she hadn’t even thought about for the last twenty-four hours. Melania, her siblings, and the little girl, whose name was Adelaide, all walked hand-in-hand to the cafeteria, which was as silent as the gymnasium. The soldiers fed them left-overs from school lunches the week prior. Melania was too terrified to eat but force-fed herself a little for the energy. Her siblings and Adelaide ate very little as well.  

When they returned to the gymnasium, the floor was covered in straw, and blankets were spread out sparingly. Melania took her siblings and Adelaide to the furthest corner of the gymnasium that had the biggest blanket. The straw was itchy, and the blanket barely covered Melania and her sister.

When they all got situated, Milos pulled out a couple of cars their father had made for them and the children played with them. The soldiers now kept guard. A couple walked around and took notes, while others guarded the doors and kept watch of everyone. Many long hours passed and it was finally night time. The children were restless from sitting all day, while Melania could barely keep awake, though she waited for the children to sleep before she fell asleep.

The sound of school bells and noisy children woke Melania up. The gymnasium felt like a whole new level of energy, as everyone was tense, anxious, and stressed, and the sun was up, as she saw in the small, prison-like gymnasium windows. The soldiers called everyone for another meal, or at least that's what Melania thought. She gathered her siblings and Adelaide and headed for the cafeteria. As she left the gymnasium, her brother was pulled away from her, while herself, Anezka, and Adelaide were taken to a classroom. Adelaide and Anezka hung on to Melania, so tightly she thought her arms were going to fall off. The soldiers made them line up in a horizontal line. A doctor, dressed in a white lab coat, walked in. He examined each girl from head to toe, looking at things from height to eye color to body physique. Once they were finished, a soldier would take them back to the gymnasium, Melania assumed.

Anezka was examined first and taken back to the gymnasium. Adelaide was examined next, but she was taken into another classroom. Melania was one of the last girls to be examined. A tall, muscular soldier, about Melania’s age, led her back to the gymnasium. The soldier, “Peter Fisher” as his name tag read, was very kind unlike the rest of the soldiers.

“I have never been to Poland,” he said, attempting to make small talk with her.  

Melania shrugged and kept mute, as she did not trust a single German Nazi and was not up for conversation.

Why are you being so kind? Melania didn’t think soldiers were gentle or kind. When they walked into the gymnasium, Melania found Anezka, huddled up in the corner they had slept in the night before, but Adelaide and Milos were nowhere in sight. Melania started to worry but did not let her sister notice her unease. Anezka played with the cars Milos had left there before the examination.

“Can I play, too?” Melania asked, already reaching for one of the toy cars.

Melania and Anezka spent another night on the gymnasium floor. The hard floor made their backs ache, and the cold made them shiver throughout the night. The gymnasium was so jam-packed with people that it seemed they had not been alone since they had arrived. They were awoken early and loaded onto another bus. Melania still worried as she hadn’t seen Milos or Adelaide all night. They rode in the bus for hours on end. Melania watched her house, her town, and her life fade away. The only thing that distracted Melania from her own thoughts was the scenery, which she watched the whole ride.

They arrived at a place called Auschwitz, at least that’s what she heard the soldiers discussing. They unloaded the bus and were all brought into a room, where they were to change into pajama-like outfits. Anezka wore orange and white stripes, while Melania wore blue and white stripes. They were led to an extremely cramped barrack and immediately put to work.

After a couple of weeks of back-breaking work, little food, and dirty living conditions, Anezka got sick. She was so weak she couldn’t walk, let alone work. One day Anezka was taken to the “doctor”, but Melania never saw her again.

Melania was kept at Auschwitz for many months until one day she was loaded onto a train and taken to a safe house, where she was reunited with her mother. The two traveled into a bigger city, and they built a new life for themselves. They would go on to recount this chapter of their lives daily, reminding them of the horror of the world.