We are off the train now; I haven't seen my family since we were forcibly separated by these bad men who have treated us most horribly.

I wonder if I will ever see them again alive ... I already miss Mama and Papa terribly ... 

Somehow I think things will not get any better.  Ever since we've come here, we've been treated worse than cattle: people poking at us, prodding us, dressing us in ill fitting clothes, shaving our hair until we look indistinguishible from one another, screaming obscenities at us in a foreign tongue.  It's been horrible at best.

I wonder what is going to happen to us ....

They make us stand for hours on end, dressed in these shodden clothes; if someone falls ill or faints, they get kicked or shot; I've only been here a few days and already have seen people shot or killed or hit until they fall down.  They make us salute a man called Hitler and say disparaging things about our Jewish faith until I can't hardly stand it any more.  They say we are the scourge of the earth and we will be killed.  I don't know if that is a threat or if they mean what they say; in any event, it's terribly unnerving and frightening, especially to a little kid like myself.  I don't know what I could have possibly done to anger these madmen; I'm just a boy of 11 ....

Even the kids or babies are badly treated.  I saw a man throw a baby girl against the wall, then kick the mother in the face when she tried to rescue her child.  I wanted to kick the man myself but something deep down inside told me not to do it; instead all I could do was hang back and weep for both the mother and her child.  The child was killed; she didn't move after she had been bounced off the wall.

There is a peculiar smell in the air; it is thick, oppressive, and smokey.  I wonder what it is; it's an odour I have never smelled before.  It seems to be coming from a chimney down the way from where we are at.  I am sure I will find out what it is before too long ....

~To be continued~!