Eliezer Wiesel

 

Ruta Sepetys

 

Kids who suffered

 

Was 13 when Romania was invaded

 

Was 15 when taken in Lithuania

 

Surrounded by fear like a fish in a sea full of sharks

 

Thrown into cattle cars like cows on the move to another farm

 

Packed into a cattle car for dozens of endless hours

 

Treated as if they weren't human

 

Chosen one by one, moved left or right. Either way meant you might die tonight

 

Lina was almost separated by Audrius but she consumed the NKVD with words to not take them apart from each other

 

They were picked off like women shopping on Black Friday

 

The dirt clung to their skin as they scrubbed harder and harder

 

They had to strip in front of the guards, it was like someone had said “ all eyes on deck”

 

The cleanness cleansed their mind

 

He was forced to work.

 

She was forced to work.

 

They were being walked like dogs.

 

A thief stole his gold crown.

 

A piece of paper that could have a thousand things written on it, but she couldn't bring herself to sign her life away

 

They were read like books, treated like crooks, and had bad looks.

 

The air hung silent as they watched the boy at his last moments.

 

She watched the woman that was so beaten she couldn't speak. No emotions could be expressed for Audrius.

 

The dessert had sucked them dry of tears.

 

He could finally let go of his breath that felt like he was holding for eternity. His father had passed. He passed the selection.

 

Crayons packed together in a box she struggled to get a breath of air.

 

They have been taught all their lives but never to think they would learn the darkness of pain.

 

Running from the fear of being shot, running from the ice that will freeze their limbs

 

Told to build something out of nothing but miles and miles of white.

 

Their hearts battled the loss of hope.

 

They ripped each other apart over the bread thrown in by Germans as if it was the last chance of seeing food again

 

Packed into her hut like sardines in a can.

 

Their freedom slowly began to erase from their memories

 

Elie was told to let his father die because he no longer could take care of himself. He thrived at the idea of taking his father's food

 

The NKVD turn their backs on her mother as soon as she became sick.

 

Their mankind remained in them unlike everyone else.

 

His father's heart was taken from him and it no longer beat.

 

Her mother's heart remained still as she heard no beat. She was gone.

 

Their idol and the person they looked up too had been taken from them for all eternity.

 

His only hope was for food until the freedom bells rang.

 

Many years had passed and she was finally free.

 

Their terrible memories will stay with them forever while they have been given freedom.

 

He clutched at his life as he saw what he had become. He was no longer a man. He had no idea who he was

 

Her mother's memory gave her strength to start a new period in her life with Audrius.

 

They lost many things in their fight to survive.

 

His faith lost in all the madness.

 

Her will to survive.

 

Two souls ripped from adolescents