Holocaust Memoir

At first, I thought the Nuremburg Laws were a horrible idea, but thankful that it didn’t majorly affect my job as a doctor. That was, until I was sent to the Ghettos and made unable to practice medicine on anyone. Now I watch as people walk in and out of this building, hoping for me to fix their problems as I once did. Those days were far gone by then, as obvious as it was. They would walk in, sorrow and hope smeared on their faces. I would then diagnose the patient, but when they ask for me to help them, I with a saddened expression tell them I am unable and watch as their hope fades in an instant. I watch both uselessly and helplessly as the sick that I could have cured are hauled off to the work camps and the sick that were hidden by family or otherwise remain to wallow from disease and hunger, simply waiting in agony for death to finally arrive and send them to the next life. The pain that is written all over their faces from sickness and disease is all too much to take in. Almost as if it’s all some horrific nightmare that I can’t escape, but then the smell of feces and disease brings me back to realize that it’s simply a cruel reality that I am unable to escape just the same. The next morning, I heard Nazi soldiers yelling “Jews, out! Jews, out! Jews, out!” one of them I heard close to my home and soon afterward the door was kicked open and I was brought along with many other people. We were marched to what I presumed to be train stations and I watched as the diseased and injured were struggling to keep along and those whom failed to were shot. When we finally got to the station and were boarded many of us were exhausted. When we got there we were treated with horrible conditions and forced to slave labor and I watched as the sick struggled to do as they were told. Years passed with the same poor conditions and slave labor till my camp was finally liberated.

This short story was a fictional account based on history of the Holocaust. The Point of view is first person with the perspective of a Jewish doctor of the time period. The character was a doctor that, because of the Nuremberg Laws, was unable to practice medicine, because of that he could do nothing for the people of the Ghettos, which were already disease and hunger ridden. From this he felt guilt as he knew the cures, but was unable to use them by law. He struggled with the guilt of seeing the sick sent off and the sick whom remain only waiting for life’s end.

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