Surviving Death

My name is Peter Friedrich. I’m seven-five years old and I am a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz. I was twenty-four years old with no wife and kids when WW2 started. I never knew my mother or father since birth. I was raised in different orphan homes, trying to get adopted by a young family, but no family wanted me. The sisters told them lies about me saying that I’d never helped clean around the building, always late attendance when going to the synagogue. The biggest lie that the sisters told on me was that I wasn’t a believer in God and was a sinner to the works of the Devil.

It was sickening when Adolf Hitler came into power, like the Devil came through a man with evil intentions. Before I was taking to the concentration camps, I was a successful man in Berlin. Living in a decent apartment near the busiest street in the city, I worked alone in my apartment modeling miniature people, selling them at a decent price for each one. That was before Hitler came into power. As the Nazi government was at its peak of growth in Germany, I feared that my life would end at any moment during Hitler’s power. As daylight became shorter and the night hours became longer, time grew shorter for my life to end by the hands of Nazis.

On every Sunday, when all we Jews attend synagogue, the Nazi government permitted us not to attend synagogue and stay at our homes and apartments until allowed to come out, but week after week we stayed. Every Sunday afternoon a group of Nazi soldiers came to each home of each Jew and took the families to the train tracks, ordering and yelling, "Jog to the tracks and leave your belongings behind. If wearing any gold or silver, take them off immediately or you will be shot!" It was then it was my time to jog to the tracks I never saw the city of Berlin again.

It’s been six weeks since the Nazi soldiers started to take Jews to the train tracks and send them to a concentration camp, until it was my turn to follow the same Jews as before to the same train tracks. I did, however, plan ahead to leave every ounce of gold and silver at my apartment before the Nazi soldiers came to my apartment. Leaving my valuable work of miniature figures and other valuable items caused great distress to me, it was like leaving your family to fight for your country. I felt that same feeling as though every other Jew felt before jogging towards the tracks. As I was about to grab a piece of bread to eat as lunch, my front door was being banged on by the Nazi soldiers, ordering and yelling, "Come outside of the building in two minutes. If you don’t follow you’ll be shot in here with all of your useless belongings."

When the Nazi soldiers walked away from my door, I quickly grabbed the piece of bread and ate it while walking through the hallway. When I came out, I saw two Jew families, and I saw a group of women standing beside one of the families. The women wore an all grey dress and lovely flowers near their left shoulder. As I could see it, while the sun is shining behind a thick coating of clouds, the women aren’t frightened or afraid of what’s about to happen to us. Then, after being out here for five to ten minutes waiting for the Nazi soldiers to come order us to jog towards the train tracks, a gun shout came from behind me, as if I had gotten shot.

As reality set in, a group of five Nazi soldiers came out from the apartments that all of us came from and ordered us to jog towards the train tracks yelling, "Move faster and face forward! Don’t look behind you or get shot!" I’d never imagined getting shot by any man, but afraid that one Nazi soldier would shoot me if I didn’t follow any orders. At every few ten yards of running, I was able to look towards my right side and watch the homes that I wouldn’t come back to anymore. The homes on the streets were either abandoned by Jews that left there or families who are poor and living there until someone orders them to move. Even when I’m looking at those

empty houses and buildings, there were empty lots of land where some owner could buy it, if he may please. At this time of disaster and fear, no man or buyer wanted to either buy or sell anything during times of distress, as survival was their top priority.

By the time the sun ran down towards the downtown streets, the Nazi soldiers ordered us to stop jogging. I figured that they would give us a break after making us jog for over thirty minutes, but instead they yelled, "We’re at the train tracks! If you have any gold on you, throw them out immediately before the cars get here! I want all the women on my left side and the men on my right side!"

Then as the main officer finished ordering us Jews, a loud noise came from the tracks, coming from the west direction. Then it hit me, the cars were the "horseback carriers to the doorways of Hell" and I’m going there till death comes to me. The loud noises became louder and closer to us Jews at a speed of maybe 35 mph or more, and one of the Nazi soldiers yelled, "You have two minutes to get everything done or die on the spot!"

Many of us were tired and exhausted by the beaming light that only I managed to finish. As the carts came in front of us and behind the SS, the main SS order the men, including me, to enter the first car and order the women and children to enter the car behind the first one. It nearly took the men and me roughly five minutes to enter the first cart and it took the women and children ten minutes to enter their cart.

While waiting for the train to move, the cart that the men were in smelled like fungus and decay all over the walls. The floors on the cart were slippery and barely any room to move in. Each cart were seven by seven, with only half a foot of space between each men, and only two windows that were barred with three metal bars and barbed wire around each bar. In one corner

were only two buckets, one for your piss and the other for your shit. There were no food for us men to eat, nor bedding to sleep on. Even though we don’t know each other very well, we passed the time by talking to one another, telling what businesses we run or what politics do we believed in.

Many of us men, which included three grown men, including me, and two sixteen year old boys, agreed that politics wasn’t our biggest issue at this point. Our biggest issue at this point was what’s going to happen to us when we exit this disgusting cart. One of the sixteen year olds mentioned that ever since Hitler came into dictatorship, every city where every Jew were forced to wear the "Star of David" symbol on their left shoulders representing that they’re Jewish. Their freedom were stricken every day until they were sent into concentration camps throughout Germany. Then, as the boy finished one of the older men, looking around in his mid-30s started to freak out for no reason.

"I can’t believe this nonsense! Why do we have to suffer from the wrath of a pathetic, devilish mad dictator by the name of Adolf Hitler when no harm was forced upon by us Jews?" I agree with the man. What did we ever do to him? Did we Jews set up something to ambush Hitler? I hope the answer would come later on after his domain, but that had to wait a while, I guess.

"Shut up! You’re giving me a huge headache with your nonsense!" said the other man, in his mid-20s, leaning on one side of the cart. "Keep it up or I’ll show you why Hitler is doing this you dumbass. " I figured nothing was going to happened between these two men, but the man by the wall walked up to the other and got in his face, as if he were going to shut him up. I would have intervened, but it wasn’t necessary for me. I’m just kept minding my own business sitting on this disgusting floor in this filthy car. Just listening to these two men arguing and hearing the

tracks at the same time gave me a bigger headache. If there was a way to shut these men up, I’ll would do it, but there’s some things I just can’t control.

As soon as it seemed there was going to be a fight between these two men, the filthy car stopped at a complete hault and with a loud "BANG!" in front of us. Johnathan, one sixteen year olds flew right into Henry, the thirty year old man while Joseph, the twenty year old man flew backwards. I slid down onto the filthy floor and nearly hit my head against the wall. The other sixteen year old, Matthew, flew right next to me with a loud scream, and a loud cry came out of the him. Didn’t knew why he cried at first, but I felt a warm liquid coming onto my right forearm. Thought it was either some soup he may have kept, but as I was getting up, Matthew wasn’t moving an inch. I tried to wake him, but it was too late. The impact Matthew made by going face first on the wall had broken his nose and left a big gash on his forehead. I silently recited the Kaddish prayer for Matthew. "May you forever rest in Heaven."

I wouldn’t gain my freedom from the Nazis for one whole year. Yes, the concentration camps were "the doorway to an Internal Fire" and The Reaper was everywhere. In the gas chambers, where The Reaper’s main phone call came from, the Nazi soldiers threw some 20,000 naked women and children into those so called "showers" and made each body thrown in the chambers into a motionless, unrested soul. Massive shootings happened every day by the Nazis killing 15,000 Jews, and in forced labor camps where Nazis soldiers pushed, shoved, shouted and even hit us Jews with their rifles. The Reaper was there watching us Jews, waiting for his next call of death.

The Nazis gave us little to no food every day, feeding us only bread and water. When we slept, we slept in groups of about ten to fifteen a bunk, leaving us little to no room at all to flip and turn throughout the night. Each bunk held about ten to fifteen men, where not one of us men

had a blanket to either wrap up in or lay on. Plus now that it was winter, the temperatures during the evenings were below zero degrees. Every night and day, one out of ten men died due to either frost bite, hunger, or a disease they developed. If we needed to use the bathroom, we had to use a hole dug in the corner. At first, it was hard to use the bathroom in front of seventy plus men, but soon you don’t care about your dignity. There were no bathroom breaks, water breaks and no time to visit.

My job during the day was to pull out dead bodies from the gas chambers, after massive shootings, and from the yards of piles of snow that men died in. After picking up dead, cold bodies, we had to cremate them in the crematoriums. I felt so much pity for the families that had to die from the hands of Nazis and their leader, Adolf Hitler. I mean, why do we have to suffer from Hitler’s "plan to reform Germany after WW1," but forcing us Jews to live, work, and die at these concentration camps? Not only us Jews were being tormented as slaves, but there were famous artists and authors who wrote all their lives, but will see The Reaper after their last breath. Like one author whose name was Karl Helmut, who was in his mid-40s, was famous for writing and publishing essays about Germany’s history and how Hitler was "the Face of the Devil’s Image."

With the Nazis’ soldiers, on the other hand, they had a mindset of killing us Jews and other famous people just for the fun of their own amusement. In each and every eye of each soldier, they were being controlled by the spirit of The Reaper. It may seem that each and every one of them are just regular soldiers with direct orders from their supreme government, but that was not the case. Every single one of them had the intent of killing us every damn day for their amusement. Like when they’re killing us, watching us while we were working, or even ordering us Jews, the soldiers made jokes to one another, laughing with each other, eating way better food

than us eating butter, bread, and soup. Their food was made from other Jews who they kept as cooks. The Nazis made the Jews who cooked for them, made them cook bakery, ham and any other fancy food items that they could order.

Every soldier wanted to kill us, right? That was my mindset when I stepped foot into Auschwitz until one soldier, Private Walter Gunter, who was maybe in his teenage years, was a "unusual soldier" compared with the other soldiers there. Yes, he was still counted as a Nazi soldier, but with the fear and pity that Walter had, he wasn’t a Nazi. He was a young man without any choice to be enlisted into Hitler’s dictatorship.

Before the war was over, the Nazi government told every soldier to kill every Jew in each of their camps. In Auschwitz, when the order was spreading like a disease from a dead plant, killings came a lot more and a lot of screams and bullets were going all over the place. As I ran for my life, trying not to get killed, Walter grabbed my right arm and said, "Go into your bunk and there is a door under the first bunk. Open it and follow the path that runs through it. This is your ticket to freedom."

"Come with me," I tried telling him as bullets were firing left and right. "I can’t leave you here with them!" After saying this, Walter shoved me and pointed to my bunk as a sign saying "Go now before it’s too late!"

While I was running towards my bunk, maybe like 400 meters away from where I work, another Nazi tackled me to the ground, like an elephant running at a tall, powerful tree with all of its power. The Nazi and I wrestled on the cold ground, while I was trying to run for freedom. He punched my chest, face, and my ribs multiple times until he began reaching for my neck to strangle me to death. As I struggled for my life, a shot came towards me. I thought that I was the

one who got shot, but the Nazi on top started to bleed, he had been shot through his chest. Then, at the corner of my eye, it was Walter who shot him, but not for long. I quickly got up from the cold ground, and as I stood up to start running again, another shot came. As I looked back, I saw Walter with a hole through his head. I screamed as loud as I could saying, "No!"

There was no life left in his eyes. The only human who showed me any compassion was now dead. Blank, without soul and power anymore. He fell to his knees and started to lean forward towards the ground. Without hesitation, I ran as fast as I could towards the last 200 meters of my bunk. Took me about a minute to get there, reached for the first bunk, and looked underneath it to find the door. As fear went through my body, and hot urine ran down my leg, I opened the door and went into a pitch black pathway. I slammed the door shut as quickly as I could, leaving everything behind. As I closed the door, I felt a piece of wood around my left foot, kind of like a small branch. While I felt the piece of wood at my foot, I also felt a small box that was filled with matches and I got an idea to use the wood and fabric from my left arm sleeve, I could make a torch as a light source while walking in the tunnel.

It took me about five minutes to rip off my left sleeve, wrapped the wood with it, and lit the torch with only three matches. "I’m on my way to freedom," I told my soul and heart as I walked through the dark tunnel. "And pray to God I get to the American soldiers."

As visions of many bodies that I had to pick up from different locations circled around my head, I thought of the bodies left to be frozen in cold temperatures, to bodies of friends I had before, to Private Walter Gunter saving my life for the loss of his, I cried about each vision for as long as I could remember. The men who were liked by society before the corruptions of WW2 and the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler were killed on not because of their popularity and their works, but were killed by prejudice and not having the same rights and privileges as others who

were opposed of them. The men were Jews and they were "the bottom of the status quo." Even though I am also a Jew, I have to be thankful that I am still alive and walking, but still need to stay strong and faithful.

The time that I spent above ground wasn’t any better than the time I am spending in this endless tunnel. With every ten steps on walking on this cold dirt, while getting strange feelings that The Reaper is watching me from behind my back, my right big toe rams into either a rock or a piece of stone. At first pain, I thought it was some type of bone from some type of animal, but after the second pain, it was now either a stone or rock. Yet, my mind is focusing on the fact that I must go to the American soldiers who’s fighting for us and I could live to see the day that Adolf Hitler is dead.

There were some times while walking in the dark tunnel that my torch was about to die out, and my stomach growled, I hadn’t had a thing to eat in 36 hours! I couldn’t tell how much longer I had because I was dying of starvation or dehydration. I hadn’t ate anything nor drank any water after coming into the tunnel and even worse of all, after ramming my toe into these stupid rocks and stones, I may have either got a broken toe or frost bite due to lacking of shoes on my feet. As I was feeling that death was coming and The Reaper was just inches away from touching my back and taking my soul away from my body, a small beam of light came through the end of the tunnel. At first sight, I thought that it was the Nazis from the concentration camp looking for me and ready to finish me off with their rifles. As fear came through my body, and as The Reaper was closing in behind me, I quickly shouted, "I’m a Jew!"

Nobody answered me as quick as I thought. Maybe it was the American soldiers who were looking for runaway Jews, but didn’t speak German. So as loud as I could yell, I screamed, "I’m a Jew!" After nearly screaming my lungs out of my chest, an unfamiliar voice replied, "I’m

General Josh Williams from the United States of America. We are here to save you." As thoughts went through my head telling me, "Maybe this is some type of trick from the Nazis? Where they pretend to be American soldiers. Maybe Josh Williams is an American General." So I replied, "Why should I trust you? Are you wearing the Nazi symbol or not?"

"We are not wearing any Nazi symbol, son" Williams replied back. "We came because we heard footsteps from outside. What’s your name?"

"Name is Peter Friedrich and I escaped from Auschwitz because of massive killings, sir" I answered him back. "Are you armed and am I able to walk freely towards you?"

"Yes, we are armed with M1 Garand Semi-Automatic Rifles," Williams replied. "And you are able to walk freely towards us."

It was the moment I was waiting for; a chance to regain my freedom by the hands of the American soldiers and the torment by the Nazis was finally over. Walking through a living hell has finally paid off. As I walked towards the General, I automatically heard gunshots, but not from the American soldiers, the gunshots were coming from behind me. So I quickly ran towards the American soldiers and as I got to them, one of the soldiers pulled me down to the ground saying, "Stay down!" The only thing I was hearing was gunshots back and forth, like rocks flying from all over the place. I was in so much fear that the only thing I was hearing were gunshots inside this dark tunnel.

As heavy firings were slowing down, and restless soldiers with rifles were sitting down near their bullet cases, General Josh Williams came towards me, as if he had some news for me or something else. As my heart started to beat faster with anxiety and nervousness, Williams stopped in front of me and said, "It’s all over."

"What do you mean it’s over," I replied back with a settled tone and somewhat of a calm voice. "Is the war over?"

In a matter of seconds, he shook his head saying "Yes."

Right after Williams shook his head, I burst into tears of joy because I endured the worst of the worst, made it through hell itself, and overcoming hurdles that were life threating. I have to thank God for watching over me, but importantly, I have to thank the American soldiers that had saved and protected me just now.

I would not have gained my freedom if Walter hadn’t sacrificed himself to save my life and if General Williams wouldn’t have found me in the tunnel. The amounts of fear and terror that ran through my tiring body gave me an unbelievable strength from all fellow Jews who had died in Auschwitz to keep moving through the dark tunnel.

No man, woman or child shall have to face the same terror I faced through the hardships of Adolf Hitler. At first there was no sign of hope for me to survive, but if Walter and General Williams wasn’t there to sacrifice their lives for me, I wouldn’t be here to tell the story. It is my hope that through hearing my story that these atrocities may never happen again.

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