The Nazi War - a War Journal (imaginary)

Note: This was my journal as a 10-year-old Jew living in Poland in 1940 during the Nazi invasion. I lived in one of the unheated houses in the cluttered squatters. Scores of poster lined the streets and lampposts: "Youth Serves the Führer. All 10-year-olds into the Hitler Youth." For countries invaded by Nazi Germany, membership in the Hitler Youth had become mandatory since 1936.

Only my mother and younger brother were staying with me in the house. My father has joined some underground troops to fight the Germans. Poverty during the war has left us with little. Homes were raided and the treasured possessions I had left with were the few family photos. Since there are many frequent raids carried out by the Germans, we have dug an underground ‘spy-box’. That is the place where we hide during raids.

Day 1, 3rd January, Wednesday. I see snow crystals on the window panes
Some of our neighbours have been hiding in our house. Our house has some secret underground exits. I heard the Reichezts had their exits raided by the Germans one day. I hope this won’t happen to ours… Ah, I am so lucky to have lived through the past week. These must be the worst months of my life so far. Provided I live through all these and if I don’t, ‘bang’ goes the gun and I’m dead. You don’t need to worry about dying or when you will die anymore. Anyway, thank God we are still here, although I always have this fear that I may eventually not hear from Dad….

Well, at least something ‘good’ happened last week. My father sent me a telegram to say that the Germans were temporarily delayed. The Polish had cut off one of the bridges which was above the water. They did not have boats prepared at that point of time. I thought that they would be sensible enough to send boats here. Instead, the Germans brought materials from their reinforcement supplies to build the bridge. It took them a few days to build the bridge back. It was a funny-looking bridge, made of wood. Well, at least it delayed them for some time.

Today, the Germans have just finished building the bridge. I heard they charged across to the opposite river bank since they wanted to catch up with lost time. I thought that the bridge would have broken under their heavy stomping. It didn’t break, however. Once they reached the other side of the river, they massacred all the Jews they could find. Luckily, my family was at the eastern part of Poland, while the Germans were at the west. I am still very furious about what had happened today. They should not have attacked us because we had every right to stop them from coming and this is our country! They were the ones who started the war, not us. Well, only for now. I am resolute my father and his troops will turn in victory for Poland soon.

If only the Germans would stop their attack. If we had made some peace treaty with them, then life could have been much nicer. I would rather have peace than to live in fear during a war like that. Without conflicts and fights, we will all be at peace, and fights will not happen. Before the Germans invaded us, we could go out freely. Although we knew Jews weren’t really welcomed outside Poland, we were safe at home. However, that has all changed. Nobody trust us and we trust no one. We keep a very low profile, for we are among the few Jewish families living in this neighbourhood. We want our dad back and see us alive!

Day 2, 4th January, Thursday. Rainy.
When it comes to Hitler, he is actually quite a charismatic man. He was able to persuade and convince the Germans to join him, and fight against other countries to win fame and land. All he used was just words. On top of that, he also threatened them that if they did not follow him, they would get killed. However, he is still a man with charisma. Too bad he committed his life to something that was bad for him.

Nevertheless, I am still very worried for my father, with very little hope for him. I feel that I should have been a better boy to him before the war, before he went to fight. I should not have quarreled with my father when I wanted to eat at my friend’s place, instead of the usual food I eat at home everyday. I wish I had a time machine to do that.

My mother has decided to meet up with the other Jewish neighbours at the underground ‘spy-box’ at about 10 o’clock tonight. They have to discuss some things, like how to communicate more often with their husbands, and about finding new hiding places, after what had happened today…

There was a surprise house raid. The one that I was nearly killed in, if not for my sheer luck. Fortunately, my family was close to the ‘spy-box’, and could hide in there in the nick of time.

One of my neighbours’ houses was raided by German soldiers, and I was there at that point in time. We were playing with some empty bullet shells that my friend and I had collected. We were playing, when suddenly someone shouted ‘Heil Hitler’ outside the house. The people tried crashing down our door with bayonets, and succeeded. My neighbour had already run to his ‘spy-box’. I was trying desperately to keep all the bullet shells because they were the memories of my friends. Once the soldiers crashed in, they saw me, but they didn’t care about me. After they had fired into their air, they grabbed me by the shoulders. One of them tried shooting me, but there were no more bullets left in the gun! They muttered something under their breath, and then stomped out of the house without me. Phew. What a lucky escape. I’m a Jew, I’m supposed to die, yet I lived. My life must have been spared for some reason unknown to me.

I think that Hitler should have been taught some values when he was young, like kindness and thoughtfulness for others. If he had spared a thought for us, Germany would not be in war with us and the countries around us. Jews or not, aren’t we all human and my dad used to say that all humans should be equal since they are fed on the same diet of rice and live on the same earth.

I miss my dad. I miss the days before the Germans invaded our country. We used to help one another and share food and supplies with neighbours, Jews and non-Jews alike. We did not judge people by their race or religion. Now, every household is short on something yet nobody wants to help one another. Now, each person would rather hold on and not lose even what little he has…

Day 3, 5th January. Friday, Misty, to the extent that I cannot see anything.
Yippee! I lived through yesterday. I could have been killed in the raid. I feel happy to live to this day. I received a letter from my father delivered to our house too! The messenger must have risked his life to make such a delivery and I am eternally grateful to this unknown person.

My father told me about a boy called Farcjserhagane, a 20-year-old German soldier. He parachuted down from the enemy plane to Poland. However, there were some Polish soldiers patrolling that area, and caught Farcjserhagane. He was disarmed, and sent to the war camp. Some of them were shouting ‘KILL HIM’ while some shouted ‘GIVE US INFORMATION ABOUT THE GERMAN CAMP AND STRATEGIES!’

However, there was a group of soldiers who stood out and shouted, “Stop it! If you were caught by the enemy, would you want to be killed or tortured?”

The whole group fell silent. They muttered something under their breath and released Farcjserhagane.

I am very amazed by what that group of soldiers had done to save a live. It took them courage to stand out and speak up against their own people, even a whole group of people who were of higher rank than him.

Through my father’s letter, I saw the humane side of people who would put aside differences and give others a second chance. My dad had always told us that every one deserves equal access to all opportunities in life because “we are all fed on the same rice grains”.

To put aside our differences in war times as such requires people to have “big hearts”, and stand up to the true test of integrity, thoughtfulness and discernment. You have to put yourself in another person’s shoes, and spare a thought for the consequences of your action. Also, you can’t right a wrong with another wrong. The more people we fight and kill in the war does not justify having the war to begin with, let alone ending it sooner...

Day 4, 6th January. Saturday. Sunny, hope it is a good omen.
After the ‘surprise’ I had at my neighbour’s house on Friday, I have decided not to meet at her house, but at the spy-box of my house. We never really liked to go to the spy-box because it was dark, stuffy and SMELLY. It’s never really been cleaned out and has become very damp with the cold winter. It was pitch black inside. However, we’ve been in there often enough since the war started, so we’ve developed a better sense of directions within the spy-box. We had the faintest possible light from a small candle and played all afternoon. We played with my collection including bullet shells, broken knife hilts and some broken rifle parts found in the woods some time back.
In our make-believe game, the bullet shells were tokens. If you won in a round, you will get one bullet shell, until there are no more shells left. The game went like this: you had to aim at your opponent. You would then throw one of the knife hilts you had at the opponent. The broken rifle parts were for hand-to-hand combat, or for tripping people.

This game gave us the feeling of the soldiers at the battlefield. We learnt how to fend off blows and react in a faster way. The game trained our reflexes, and we imagined ourselves being ready to fight for Poland when the need arises.

Well, no raids today. Peaceful. Days like this I wish for harmony to arrive soon too.

Day 5, 7th January. Sunday. Breezy with sun. Hope it continues like this.
Ah, this has been an eventful day, unlike yesterday.

My neighbour invited me to a gathering at an underground attic one kilometre away from our house. We met some friends along the way, and brought them with us to the gathering. For safety reasons, different batches of people kept a safe distance from one another to avoid arousing suspicion.

The few I knew who joined the gathering were: Rezteich, Gaezjex, Zdejonsiw and Tywhersd (we are all Jews). I found out later it was a Christian gathering, and they were all singing praises and hymns. They could not hold the gathering in public because this was not allowed during Hitler’s reign.

Our leading pastor was a man called Rezseight. He told us the story of Paul and Silas, two characters in the Bible. He told us how the two of them continued to pray and sing praises to God while in prison. They were jailed for being zealous for the Lord and the authorities tried to set them up and have them thrown into prison. The story encouraged me greatly because I felt that we (especially us being Jews) are like prisoners of war; we do not know our fate. The example of Paul and Silas made me realize that they continue to look to God for help and He created a miracle when the chains broke and Paul and Silas were freed.

After his preaching, Rezseight passed some papers to us. They were not in good condition. I looked at the paper, and realised they were torn from the Bible. I learnt that they were torn because if anyone is caught with a whole Bible, the German soldiers would kill him. Hence, Bibles had to be smuggled, disguised and hidden in their shirts or socks.

I think God must have been watching over us today. If we had been spotted, we would have died in the infamous gas chambers.

The fellowship was a peaceful one and Rezseight ended it with benediction for all. Rezseight also explained that although God is a God of love, he has allowed good and bad things to happen, including the present war. He said wars are realization of the prophecies in the Bible. He also said that Christians should not have to fear death because God has promised them eternal life. It is more important that our soul does not die with our bodies. I will tell my brother and mother more when I get home.

I will pray to God and ask that the opposing countries can make peace. I hope God will bring my father home soon, so that he wouldn’t be fighting undercover or at the frontline anymore.

***REFLECTIONS***

I selected this piece of work because I could act as one of the Jews in ‘The Nazi War’ journal. This was because I knew the topic pretty well. I knew how a Jew at that time would have felt and reacted to different risks and situations. I also knew about the history of the Nazi War fairly well, so I did not have to spend too much time to research on the topic. However, the main reason I chose this piece of work was that I could relate my ‘The Nazi War’ journal to many values I have learnt.

I wanted to create this piece of work for my portfolio because I wanted to share how life was like then, and how I would have felt. As I wrote this story, I felt like a bird, trapped in a cage and tortured. Not only does the prisoner not have freedom, he also gets tortured – physically and mentally. I also wanted to show how one war could lead to another, because each losing country would want revenge on the winning country and this becomes a vicious cycle.

As I wrote the journal on “The Nazi War”, I learnt some strengths and weaknesses about myself. I would like to share these as well what I have learnt from this exercise.

ü MY Strengths

About the portfolio style I chose
· I could write in the 1st person point of view. I like it because I am good in writing from this perspective.
· I could write about anything I wanted, because I was writing a journal and could express almost feelings and thoughts I wanted.

About the story I made up
· I could generate interesting ideas for the story. For example, the story about Farcjserhagane was one of them.
· I included my opinions and thoughts. This made my account original.

About myself
· I could act as one of the Jews in ‘The Nazi War’ journal. As I knew the topic pretty well, I could effectively put myself in his shoes. I knew how a Jew at that time would have felt and reacted to different risks and situations

About the topic itself
· I also knew about the history of the topic on Nazi War fairly well, so I did not have to spend too much time to research on the Nazi War.
· I could relate my ‘The Nazi War’ journal to the social studies values I have learnt very well.

ü MY Weaknesses

About the portfolio style I chose
§ In this journal style, I tended to go off the point from The Nazi War into story-telling of one’s childhood.
§ This was an old-time event, so there were no such things as Gameboys, Xbox or fast food. A few times, I have accidentally included those stuff into the story. I think it was I have taken modern technology and luxuries for granted.

About the story I made
· As I said, I tended to include hi-tech electronic and luxurious stuff as part of my day-to-day account .

About myself
· I tended to make point-of-view errors. I think that happened because I did not go through the war myself. Writing the journal would have been easier if I had lived through the war, and I would have been spontaneiouso in my writing. J
· I did not plan properly on how my journal would end, so
· The original draft of my journal was way too long.
· Therefore, it took me a very long time to correct it.

About the topic itself
· It was quite difficult to write about the good side of Hitler, because he is known more for being a bad person.

ü What I have learned
I should plan to start with and write a shorter journal in my next attempt. Even though writing a long story might make it look better, a longer story will mean: spending more time to write and edit it, and potentially mean more mistakes or erroneous assumptions with facts that I may not be able to verify.

When I plan, I should think of how the story would end too. Better still, to begin with an end in mind. Without an ending in mind, I could be going round and round in circles. As there is a time limit to the project completion, I will then run a high risk of ending my story abruptly. Also, I should not write off point, as it will cause digression of the story. I should also remember not to include stuff that were never invented then, as that would make the story’s facts wrong.

I decided to improve and revise the parts which contained wrong information, like the part where I said about ‘Xbox’. I also revised the grammar mistakes, like tenses. I also revised parts where I used the wrong description words. (E.g. when I said that Hitler was a good leader, it sounded as if I was on Hitler’s side) This was wrong because in the story, the Jews were against Hitler. When I revised it, I used ‘charismatic’. That word did not make me sound as if I was a “betrayer”.

It was the first time I wrote journals in a portfolio assignment. I guessed that when I write journals, they tended to become long, and would usually means ‘more mistakes’. However, I could express my feelings better in such a journal.

If I had more time to complete this piece of work, I would have taken the opportunity to use better words to describe my views more aptly too.

I discovered that I was a naturally good writer, and I could organize very well. I discovered that I could make my story interesting easily, without having to think much.

The second draft is surely better than the first. The second draft has fewer time mistakes (Xbox in the past?) and fewer grammar mistakes.

Thank-you reader, for reading my portfolio and I hope you enjoy it!!!