I realise this might offend some but no haters please

I’m standing in a cattle car surrounded by friends, family and complete strangers. There are so many people here. None of us have any idea where we are going. The train isn’t very big but there are so many people none of us can move and all of us are scared. My name is Adara, I’m 7 years old, I am a Jewish girl and I have no idea what’s about to happen to me or any of the people with me.

After what seemed like an age the train screeched to a standstill then German soldiers opened the doors and herded us out in to the middle of a forest where we told to wait. After about an hour the women and children were told to go left and the men and older boys were told to go right to get sorted. What happened to the men I don’t know but my mother and I were separated, I never saw her again all I know is she went to have a shower so she would be clean for camp. I was told to go through the gates labelled ‘work makes you free’, collect a uniform and line up with some other women and children. I saw my friend who has a bone condition going the same way as my mother I called to her but was hit by a soldier and told to be quiet. I stood silently in line with the others trying not to cry. Soon enough I was at the front and was told to sit in a chair. I sat. Before I knew what was happening my hands and feet were strapped down and I was gagged. I felt a razor running across my scalp and saw my long red hair falling to the floor. Then a searing pain shot through my arm I turned and saw a man tattooing a number on my forearm. I was extremely scared and my arm was sore. I was untied given a uniform and carried into a cabin full of young girls about my age crying from pain and fright.

The cabin had no windows, and was full of bunk beds with very thin mattresses and nothing else. Soon enough one of my friends was thrown into the cabin as well. Her scalp was cut from the razor and her arm was covered in blood. I ran over to her and when she looked up she had a black eye. When she realised it was me she broke down and began wailing on my shoulder. I tore up my old shirt that I arrived in and tried my best to clean and bandage her wounds. Soon after a guard strode in carrying a tray of food, there wasn’t much but at least there was some. We were told when we had finished to put the plates by the door then go to sleep. So we did as we were told.

The next morning the same guard came to wake us he lead us to a kitchen where we were given aprons and told to help the women make breakfast. I searched desperately for my mother but she was nowhere to be found. Across the room I saw my older sister who had been taken some months ago I ran to her and asked where we were. She answered saying she didn’t know exactly but she knew it wasn’t nice. I looked at her and noticed she had a slight bump on her stomach. I didn’t say anything but she saw the look in my eyes and said I was too young to know what happened but I’d find out sooner or later.

When breakfast was served we were taken to the courtyard where we saw all the men were working on a wooden structure. Guards were standing in the shade of a cabin with their guns resting on their shoulders prepared to shoot I was given a bucket of water and a ladle and told in no uncertain terms to go and give the men a drink. I walked quickly and carefully around the men all the while looking for my father but I couldn’t find him I did however see my brother who was 2 years older than me, he ran over, saying how glad he was I was still alive, He saw dad going into the showers he waited for two hours but he never came out again. Later when he was working out here he saw smoke billowing out of a huge chimney and smelt a horrid, putrid smell and over heard a guard saying to his friend they smell even worse when their burning hey. I started crying but carried on with my task. I gave my brother extra water because I didn’t want him to become ill. When I was done I was hit for talking to them and distracting them from their work. When I arrived back at the cabin it was empty. Everyone was gone. I called out for my friend but the only answer I got was that of an angry soldier screaming at me asking why I was here and why I wasn’t with the others. I hadn’t any idea how to answer him so I said I didn’t know where they went because I was serving water to the workers and only just came back. He grunted then told me to go to cabin 9 and stay there.
So I started to walk there when I got stopped by another guard asking me where I thought I was going. I told him I had been told to go to cabin 9 by another guard. He grabbed my arm and dragged me to a huge building at the end of the compound where I saw who I thought was a doctor but was soon to be proven wrong. I was lifted off my feet, slammed down onto a hard metal table and strapped down. I must have passed out because I have no idea what happened from then until I awoke. When I did come round I was in agonising pain and I had stitches running down my right side.

A couple of weeks of doing the same thing passed. Early one morning we were woken and told we were to shower and put our clothes that we arrived in on and board the train because we were being released everyone started cheering except me. I had a feeling what was going to happen because of what my brother had told me and because of my friends who had gone missing. I was reluctant to leave but didn’t want to get hit again so I followed the crowd towards the shower block and got undressed. When we were all in the showers, they closed the heavy metal door and locked it shut then we heard a grinding noise from over head we all looked up and saw a soldier looking down at us smiling with malice burning in his eyes, he placed a gas mask across that evil smirk and tipped a canister of powder onto us and immediately closed the hatch.