I have only been here about a year, but yet I feel I know more about terror, fear, and death than the prisoners much older than I. This camp is torturous. They transport people off to who knows where, and the people never come back. Sometimes they kill people right at the camp. Innocent people, children even, my age! The guards and officers do not much give food to us, and the food they do give is terrible. What crime did I ever commit? Why did they have to kill my younger sister, while I watched on, unable to act? Why? I have looked for a way to escape, but I see none. I do not understand the language that they guards and officers speak. I do not even know where this camp is. All I know is that I don’t have too much longer to live, that I grow weaker by the day. Somehow, I am still clinging on to my life.
I was part of a upper-class family; my parents both had high positions in the government. When the war began, they made a bargain with some head officer guy they knew: keep my sister and I safe and healthy, and put them into different concentration camps. They didn’t want us to die or know the horrors of the real world. You can see how well that turned out. The man they made a bargain with was intercepted by his so-called friend who turned the three of us into some German man who had a higher position then them. The man’s friend was greatly rewarded, but the man our parents had made a bargain with was killed, and we were dumped worthlessly in this camp.
Everyone in this camp says I’m smart and full of wisdom. I created a story for myself that I was from a poor family, so that I wouldn’t be asked questions about being rich and why I was in this camp. Somehow I understand that one day, I will die. Everyone does. I just wish that these cruel people wouldn’t speed up the process. Some people in the camp want to kill the guards—but then where would we be? I have convinced them not to, as if they did kill, how would we, the prisoners, be any better than the killers? I have also convinced every prisoner in the camp, that each morning, when they wake up, they should praise God and thank Him for another day. I taught them that each day could be their last, and that they should make the most out of every minute.
My spirit has not broken yet. There was a load of new prisoners transported in the day before last. I found a young boy in the mud, only about a year old, who seems strong and healthy. I plan to teach him everything I know-to read, to write, to speak several languages, and about God. I will teach him to be positive and have faith in the world. When I die, I want someone will be there to remember me.
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ReplyDeleteNice Blog, but are you describing Johannes here as a boy or man? And by the way, Johannes was not a Jew, but he was French.
ReplyDeleteBecause I personally think Johannes was a man, for only someone that wise as a man can have those quotes and take care of David from when he was little. Also the movie states Johannes was a man, but your explanation describes the character well also.
ReplyDeleteHi Tamara,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my blog. Sorry about the mix-up with Johannes, I always assumed he was Jewish, and happened to live in France, because he probably taught David about the god of the pastures and the rivers. I always pictured Johannes as a very responsible boy who had once had younger siblings. I thought that he would be not too much older than David, and very wise and caring (after all, David had these qualities as well).
Yes, I first thought he was a young boy, but when it got deeper in the story, it made more sense to me for him to be a man. But I think you described him very well, so it is any possible for any reader to imagine him differently, and that's what makes reading eachother's thoughts and opinions interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt is not clearly stated how old Johannes is. My sense is that he is definitely several years older than David. - a man but a young man.
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