A Fly on the Wall
It was the night of November 8th, 1938 when all hell broke loose. Hiding in between two books, I heard commotion outside. It didn't bother me though- there were always people out late at night. Ignoring the noise, I stay put. The sounds of heavy footsteps continuously got closer and closer. When I heard Nazis yelling commands in German, I decided to come out of hiding to see what was going on. A small shard of glass from a building window nearly hit me when I headed out, but I swiftly moved out of the way. Scrambling to return to my hiding spot, I saw that the books I had been hiding between were now thrown into a large pile on the floor, along with all of the other books titled “Siddur.” The Nazis made their way to a cabinet, glass shards crunching under their heavy boots. They opened it and threw the three giant scrolls inside onto the floor. They landed on top of the pile with a thump. In an instant, the pile lit up into flames. The fire spread quickly and in minutes the entire building began to collapse. I quickly advanced to the streets where I heard blood curdling shrieks of suffering people. Moving fast to find shelter, my vision was obscured by the smoke from burning buildings. It seemed as though the whole world was being razed to the ground. I blindly moved into a house and hid inside a metal cup labeled “Kiddush,” when all of a sudden the cup was flung onto the floor. It landed with a clank, forcing me to relocate to a new hiding spot. As soon as I regained my vision, I saw a woman on the floor crying. She had been badly beaten. All of her belongings were destroyed and strewn across the floor, along with the Kiddush cup. There was a little girl hiding in the corner, shielding herself from the horrible scene in front of her. She quickly scrambled to help her mother. “Mommy, are you okay?” she asked shakily, on the verge of tears. I wanted to jump out and help her. I wanted to scream and shout and tell everyone this wasn’t right. I felt so helpless, but what could I do? For I am just a fly on the wall.
Jordyn Wilkofsky, Eighth Grade
26
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker