Chapter 10 Chapter 8 Death Journey

Everyone cuddled tightly together, trying their best to resist the severe cold.We are top-heavy, empty, and the old things of corruption and decay are circling in our minds.We are mind-numbed and indifferent to everything.What's the difference between here and elsewhere?To die today or tomorrow, or later?The night is long and endless. Finally, a gray twilight appeared on the skyline.A group of ghost figures are tightly packed together, their heads are deeply retracted into their necks, they are pillowing each other, and their bodies are curled up like a snow-covered cemetery.At dawn, I wanted to see who was alive and who was dead, and it was almost impossible to tell.I stare at a man whose eyes are wide open, looking at the sky, his bloodless face covered with frost and snow.

My father curled up next to me, wrapped in a blanket in the crowd, with snow on his shoulders.Is he dead too?I called him, but he didn't answer.I really wanted to scream, but he didn't move. I was overwhelmed by what I saw, and I had no reason to live, no reason to struggle. The train drove into an empty field and stopped suddenly, awakening several sleeping people.They stood up, looked around, and couldn't help being surprised. Outside the carriage, the SS marched and shouted: "Throw down the dead! Throw down, all the dead!" The living are happy, they will have more space.Some volunteers started to touch the people lying on the ground.

"Here's one! Take him down!" Volunteers stripped him of his clothes, eager to carve up.Two "gravediggers" then grabbed him by the head and feet, and threw him out of the car like a sack of flour. Shouts everywhere: "Hey, here's another one! This one next to me. He can't move..." When those two people came to my father, I suddenly woke up from my indifference.I hugged his body tightly, he was cold all over, I slapped his face, rubbed his hands, and shouted: "Dad! Daddy! Wake up. They're going to throw you down..." His body didn't move at all.

Two gravediggers grab me by the collar: "Let go of him! Didn't you see him die?" "No!" I yelled loudly, "he's not dead, he's not dead yet!" I beat him hard, and my father finally opened his eyes. His eyes were as dull as glass, and he was panting slightly. "Look!" I shouted. Two people left. Our carriage dropped twenty dead bodies.Then the train was on its way again, leaving hundreds of naked, graveless ghosts in the Polish snow. We have nothing to eat but live on snow, which takes the place of bread.Day is no different from night, and what the night leaves in our hearts is full of dark colors.The train moved very slowly, often stopping for several hours before starting slowly, and the snow kept falling.We all lay on the floor day and night, sleeping on each other, without saying a word.We're nothing more than a bunch of frozen husks, eyes closed, waiting to unload the bodies when the train reaches the next stop.

The train traveled for three days and three nights.Sometimes we will pass through German towns, usually early in the morning.German workers on their way to work often stop and look at us without any surprise. We stopped at the station, and a workman took a loaf of bread from his pocket and threw it into the carriage.The carriage immediately became a mess, and a dozen hungry people wrestled like crazy for the piece of bread.The workers watched the drama with curiosity. Years later, I saw the same scene in the Ardennes.The ship's passengers, for the fun of it, tossed coins to the "natives" and asked them to dive for them, a game in which an elegant Parisian woman had a great time.I saw two children fighting in the water, one trying to strangle the other.I immediately begged the lady: "Please stop flipping coins!"

"Why?" she said, "I like giving out..." In the carriage, as soon as someone threw a piece of bread, it was immediately a battle.People fight, trample, bite and beat each other, the nature of the beasts is fully displayed, and the hatred of animals is shining in the eyeballs.They burst out with an unearthly energy, grinning and clawing. A crowd of workers and curious passers-by gathered around the train, evidently they had never seen a train full of such cargo.Soon, loaves of bread were thrown into the carriages from all directions, and onlookers watched as emaciated men killed each other for a loaf.

A piece of bread was thrown into our carriage, and I decided not to fight or grab it, because I knew that I didn't have the strength to fight with dozens of crazy people.Not far away, I saw an old man crawling on the ground on all fours. He just broke free from the mutual bites of the thugs, with one hand covering his chest.At first, I thought he had been punched in the chest, but it soon became clear that he had a loaf of bread hidden under his shirt.He took out the bread like lightning and stuffed it into his mouth.His eyes were bright, and a ghostly smile flickered across his haggard face.A shadow fell beside him, and threw itself on top of him.The old man was stunned by the beating and shouted, "Mair, my little Mile! Don't know me anymore? Are you going to kill your father? I left you a piece of bread... I left you..."

He collapsed to the ground, a small piece of bread clenched in his fist.He tried to raise his fist and stuff the bread into his mouth, but the man threw himself on top of him.The old man muttered a few words, groaned a few times, and died.No one cared about his life, the son searched him, grabbed the crumbs and devoured them.He hadn't eaten much when he was seen by two other people, who rushed at him, and the others swarmed after him.When the crowd dispersed, there were two dead bodies beside me: the father and the son. I was sixteen at the time. My father had a friend named Mel Katz who was in our car.In Buna, he grows vegetables and brings us some green leafy vegetables every now and then.His nutritional status was better than the others, and he had an easier time in detention.Also because he was stronger than most, the Germans put him in charge of our carriage.

On the third night of the journey, I woke up suddenly and found that two hands were stuck around my throat, and someone was trying to strangle me.I could barely yell out, "Dad!" As soon as I yelled, I couldn't breathe.But the father woke up and wrestled with the man.His physique was too weak to subdue him, and he thought of Mel Katz: "Come on, come on! Someone is trying to strangle my son!" I broke free quickly, but I never understood why the stranger strangled me. A few days later, Mel Katz said to my father, "Slomo, I'm in such poor health that I have no strength left. I can't keep going..."

"Don't lose heart!" His father wanted to cheer him up, "You must persevere! Don't lose heart!" But Mel Katz replied with a groan: "I don't think so, Slomo...I can't...I can't hold on..." Father took his arm.Mel Katz, a strong and able man, the toughest of us, began to cry bitterly.In the first big pick, his son was taken away, and he didn't cry for his son until now, and his heart was broken until now.He couldn't hold on any longer, and reached the end. On the last day of the trip, the cold wind was howling and the snow was flying, which was terrifying.We feel like we're coming to an end, a real end.We can't last long in this windy, snowy weather.

Someone stood up and shouted: "We must not sit still. We will all freeze to death! Get up and walk around..." Everyone stood up, wrapped their shoulders tightly with damp blankets, dangled in place, and paced. Suddenly, there was a wail in the carriage, like the wail of a wounded beast.Another person died. Others, only a step away from death, imitated his cry, which seemed to come from the grave.Soon, everyone wept, groaned, and lamented loudly, and the torrential wailing was entangled with the violent wind and snow. Grief spread like an epidemic from one car to the next.At this moment, the wailing of hundreds of people was earth-shattering and rushed straight to Xiaohan.The whole train is full of the sound of death, and it is getting closer to the destination.No one has any strength, but the night is endless. Mel Katz moaned, "Why don't they shoot us now?" On this night, we arrived at our destination. too late.The guards came over and told us to get out of the car.All the dead remained in the carriages, and only those who could stand could leave. Mel Katz remained in the car.The last day killed him!There were about a hundred people in this car, and only twelve people left alive, including my father and me. We came to Bushenwald.