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The Holocaust

Through the Eyes of Arthur


Menke
Before the Holocaust…
December 28, 1932
My mother gave me this
journal for Hanukah this
year, and I promised her I
would use it. I am five years
old and my family and I live
in Hamburg, Germany. We
go to the synagogue every
Saturday in the middle of
town and I go to the
Hamburg school for Boys
every week.. My sister goes
to a girls school a block
away from mine. My father
owns his own factory,
making rubber stamps and
selling them to other
businesses. My mother helps
run a local bakery by our
house and she always brings
us fresh Challah every
February 1st, 1933
Two days ago, a man named
Adolf Hitler was elected as
Chancellor. My mom says a
chancellor is like a king
because he gets to make all
of the laws. All of my friends
in my neighborhood like
Hitler and say that he will
help save Germany. The
newspapers all say that he
will bring Germany out of the
depression and make
Germany strong again. My
dad says that Hitler is bad
though because he is part of
the National Socialist German
Workers Party, or the Nazis.
He says that they don’t like
During the Holocaust…
July 5, 1933
Lately some odd things have been
happening in Germany. Our
teacher told us that Hitler was
taking away everybody’s basic
rights and that he was going to
take over all of Germany. The next
day men from Hitler’s special
police came and arrested him! The
next day a new mean teacher
came in and told us that he would
be our new teacher. He always
makes fun of me in class for being
Jewish. My mom and dad told me
to stay away from all of the SS and
Gestapo on the streets because
they are afraid that they will try
and get me in trouble. I once tried
February 4th, 1934
I feel like my family and I have
become targets in our
neighborhood. Our house has
been vandalized and people
have gone and painted the
word JEW in big red letters on
the front of my mom’s bakery.
In my classroom then my
teacher is always trying to
make fun of me and he always
tells me how I’m stupid
compared to everyone else.
This is a picture of the Jewish
clothes store we used to shop at.
Even my friends have started
Someone threw rocks through the acting weird, and they won’t
windows. pick me for their baseball
teams anymore. I used to be
able to stay out and play with
my sister until after dark but
November 10th
1934
My dad says that the
Nazis are making me and
my sister go to a new
Jewish school. Our
principal told us that we
couldn’t go to regular
school anymore because
we were dragging down
the rest of students who
were superior to us. I
didn’t care that we had to
go to a new school at first
because then I wouldn’t
have to see my mean
teacher anymore, but now
I wish I was at my old
school. I don’t know
February 12, 1935
My family is going through a very hard
time. The government now makes us all carry
around an ID card that has a big ‘J’ on the front
that stands for Jew. My mom says that if we
lose our cards or forget them when we go out,
we can be arrested! We also have to sew
Jewish stars on our clothes. The government
even made us change our names. My mom and
sister now have to have Sara as their middle
name, and my dad and I have to use Israel for
our middle names. Our friends won’t even talk
to us anymore just because we are Jewish! To
make it even worse the Nazis put huge signs up
on my mother’s bakery that say JEW in the
window. She says that all sorts of people used
buy their bread, but now their only customers
are other Jews.
We also aren’t allowed to go into certain
September 20th
1935
My father says that we have to
move. We don’t have to go far, just
to the other side of town to a
smaller and older house. The Nazis
say we have to give up our house
because we are a danger to the
“superior race” that makes up most
of our neighborhood. Our new
neighborhood is made up mostly of
middle-class Jewish. Its actually ok,
because at least now I have other
kids to play with. I still liked our
lives before Hitler though. My dad
stopped reading the national paper
last week because all it did was
make fun of the Jewish people and
other undesirables. My dad only
November 10th, 1938
The last few days were the scariest of my entire life. People
around my neighborhood called it Kristallnacht, or the night of
the breaking glass. Many synagogues were burned although
ours was just looted and desecrated. German storm troopers
set fire to Jewish homes and ransacked others. My mother’s
bakery was totally destroyed and burned, along with all of the
other Jewish shops in the area. Men were rioting in the streets
and even killed a Jewish man who was outside trying to save
his business from being destroyed! Other German troops came
through our neighborhoods and told us through loudspeakers
that were not allowed to leave our homes, and that all Jewish
activities were indefinitely suspended. My parents made us go
hide down in the cellar during the riots, but he let us come
back into the house after everyone went away. He told us that
the Germans stooped all of the Jewish newspapers and mail,
and that we weren’t allowed back to school. Mother told us
later that his factory had been vandalized during the night and
the Nazis took away the factory from him. The next day
September 1,
1939
January 19th, 1941
I’m writing this on the train the
Germans ordered us to board.
Late last night the German SS
ordered us to pack our
belongings and report to the
Hamburg train station by 6:00
AM. We all quickly packed and
got their, only to find
THOUSANDS of other Jews. They
pushed us into the trains and told
us that we would be shot if we
jumped off. This train is the one
of the most miserable places I
have ever been. We’ve been
stuffed into a small boxcar with
about a hundred other Jews.
There is no food or water and no
bathrooms. Its smells terrible in
January 21st 1941
After 3 days in this wretched
box car, we finally stopped and
were allowed out. When we
got of the train we were
herded into a poor community
surrounded by fences and
barbed wire. My father says its
called a ghetto. My family and
I now have to live in a tiny,
dirty house even smaller than
our last one, and the worst
part is that we have to share it
with another family! The signs
say that we’re in Minsk,
Russia. I can’t believe how
many people are in this
February 3rd, 1941
I hate our new home. The conditions
are terrible and overcrowded. The
streets outside are filthy and filled with
sewage. My family and I have to share
a tiny house with another family and
the entire neighborhood is locked
down. Nobody is allowed in and we’re
not allowed out without a reason.
There seems to be no food either.
We’ve all been issued ration cards but
My ration their is not enough for everyone, so
card were forced to take barebones rations.
Our family gets about one loaf of bread
a week and a LOT of turnips. Some of
the people in the ghetto are thinking of
revolting but the Jewish leaders in the
ghetto strongly chastised them and
told them not to. The leaders are some
August 4th,
1941
I have been put to work in the
army base by the ghetto. My
mother was very upset and
doesn’t want me to go, but
had to or else the SS might
have killed me. They put me to
work cutting peat for fuel. It is
very hard and smelly work,
and I hate having to go into
the swamp in order to find it. I
get so cold sometimes that I
can’t feel my toes or fingers
anymore. There still is barely
any food. We have to
scavenge for food and we
never get enough to eat. I’ve
made friends with some of the
local German army here. They
March 18, 1943
I’ve been separated from my family! Late last night a
Gestapo detachment came through and ordered
certain blocks to the train station. We were then
sorted on the platform. That was when my mother
and sister were taken and put onto a train. It was
rumored that it was headed to Sobibor. My father and
I were also split into separate groups. I was herded
into another train car with a bunch of other young
men and teenagers like myself. We were deported
into Poland in to labor camps. I’m now having to work
at a factory welding planes 15 hours a day. There is
still no food here and I am desperately worried about
my family. The rumor is that the Germans are killing
off undesirable women and children. There are not
only Jews at my camp though. There are also Soviet
April 29, 1945
THE WAR IS OVER!!!!! We’ve
been forced by the Germans to
walk on foot to other camps. We
would have to walk miles upon
miles with no food, water, or rest
and if you could not keep up, you
were shot. Word was that we are
running from the Allied force.
Well today we were on an
evacuation march from one of
the concentration camps to
another camp in Dachau when
we came upon American Gis. The
Germans were all shot and killed
and many of the soldiers allowed
other imamates to beat the
Germans while they died. We
were not freed, but the
The Aftermath
Many people ended up like Arthur did after their
liberation: poor, homeless, and alone. Arthur’s mom and
sister were probably killed because they were unable to
work. His father was most likely separated from Arthur and it
would have been very difficult for them to reunite after the
war. All of the liberated peoples were homeless and
penniless because the Nazis had taken everything that they
had and used it towards their war. Some returned back to
their homes where strong feelings of anti-Semitism still
lingered. Others migrated to liberated parts of West Europe
in hope of starting a new life.Some were able to immigrate to
the US and other Allied countries, but their numbers are
limited. Some people weren’t as lucky as Arthur. An
approximated 17 million people were killed and murdered
during the Holocaust.

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