Waiting for Freedom | Teen Ink

Waiting for Freedom

May 30, 2011
By blacksummer2014 SILVER, Brookfield, Wisconsin
blacksummer2014 SILVER, Brookfield, Wisconsin
7 articles 4 photos 53 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;&#039;I love you all; except you, Draco, I can&#039;t f****** stand you&#039;&quot;-- Harry from A Very Potter Musical<br /> <br /> &quot;Granger! Oh I thought you were a boggart!!!&quot; -Albus Dumbledore from A Very Potter Musical


The sun burns me down my back and all over my hands. I grip tightly to the rocks I am carrying up the side of the quarry. I try not to be seen or heard any different from the rest of them. We are all the same in the Nazis minds.
Jews.
As I prepare to put my rocks down on the ground at the top of the quarry the Hauptarbeitsleiter- the head worker leader- pushes me back and I fall down the steep side of the quarry. When my head finally collides with the ground I black out.
There's a shadow- a wisp of hair- a turn of the head- "Sofie! Sofie, come back!" I scream. The shadow, the wisp of light blonde hair and the turn of the head always over the left shoulder- it is her. "Sofie, where are you?" I call out. I am running through the meadow that appears before me- it's the meadow I used to run in as a boy. I know it by heart. Sofie is standing at the end of it. Her petite body nearly hidden in the tall grass. Her green eyes are filled with a foreboding I don't care about. I want her. I am almost there- I can almost taste her strawberry lip balm and I can almost feel the curve of her body; the body that used to be in my arms and I used to want and still want. She turns away just as I reach for her wrist. "Warten Sie, ich komme! Warte auf mich! Bitte Sofie!" "Wait; I'm coming! Wait for me! Please Sofie!" She doesn't listen to me and suddenly I'm no longer the meadow with her- we are in Auschwitz-Birkenau and she is standing with her shaved head in line to the showers. "Sofie! Get away from there!" I exclaim. She doesn't seem to hear me. I try to take her out of the line but she doesn't budge. She walks into the building. I am left with two options- follow her in and die with her or have a chance to live. I back away from the building and yell to her. "Ich liebe dich, Sofie!" "I love you, Sofie!"
"Aufwachen!" a Jew with dark brown hair calls to me bringing me back to the quarry and away from the horror of Sofie's death.
I am alive.
She is dead.
How am I alive?
I am not.
Not truly.
We are dead together.
I am only stuffed into my living body.
She is stuffed into her corpse.
There is nothing I can do about it except pick up another rock and carry it up the side of the quarry and wait.
Wait.
Wait.
What for?
Sofie's gone.
Wait for my death?
Nein.
No.
I wait for freedom.

The author's comments:
This piece is in the perspective of a seventeen year old Jewish boy in World War II living in Mauthausen. His love, Sofie, is also a Jew. She is killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the gas chambers. This poem is historical fiction and is based on true events and lives. I hope you enjoy this piece.

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This article has 3 comments.


on Jan. 15 2012 at 1:26 pm
blacksummer2014 SILVER, Brookfield, Wisconsin
7 articles 4 photos 53 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;&#039;I love you all; except you, Draco, I can&#039;t f****** stand you&#039;&quot;-- Harry from A Very Potter Musical<br /> <br /> &quot;Granger! Oh I thought you were a boggart!!!&quot; -Albus Dumbledore from A Very Potter Musical

Thanks :D I tried to make it realistic.

on Jan. 15 2012 at 1:24 pm
dolphinportkey7 GOLD, D, Other
12 articles 0 photos 65 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Because I knew you, I have been changed for good&quot; AND &quot;&#039;Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all&quot;

I like this a lot, both because of A) The tragic, cruel realism involved in it, and B) the fact that he wants to be free, and alive, despite wanting to be with Sofie. A lot of what I've read about the Holocaust has mentioned that urge, that burning will people had to keep on living; I think it's great that you included that here. This is always a hard topic to write about, because you want to show reverence to the people hurt and the lives lost, but you do that here, and you make it into a good read. So congrats, Lizzie. :)

Andromeda GOLD said...
on Dec. 18 2011 at 11:42 am
Andromeda GOLD, Wichita Falls, Texas
12 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;You don&#039;t have time for self-doubt. Self-doubt hinders your ability to write and all writers experience it anyway. You just need confidence in your own ability.&quot; -CarrieAnn13

I really like this. It was sad, but stories of love during that time all were.