There once, was a young boy. Only twelve years old, Ludwik, was taken away from his family in Poland. He was then placed in the concentration camp, Aushwitz. The gate that stood before him as he was herded along with hundreds of others was a gate that led to something worse than hell itself.

The Nazis, only a dozen or so, rounded Ludwik and the others into a building. Once they were all inside they were forced to take off all of their close. Ludwik will never forget the sound of the Nazi officers yelling at him, the fear he felt as his soul was taken from him. He didn’t know it, but he lost his humanity long before he was stripped down to the skin.

His fate was sealed the day the Nazis raised the fence around his neighborhood. He was young and didn’t know what was happening, his parents didn’t even know what was happening. The day the Nazis fence surrounded his home was the last day he would feel warmth, the last day bread would taste the same.

Crammed into the building the Jews were now totally naked, at least the Jews that survived the initial sorting. All of the women and children were sorted away from the men, Ludwik survived because he lied about his age. His father lied too, but wasn’t successful. Ludwik was the only member of his family that has survived.

The Jews were hastily rushed from the first building through an elaborate track of fences into several buildings. Those who couldn’t run fast enough, or those who fell, were taken away. Ludwik could only guess their fate, execution by furnace.

At the end of this race for life, life was long gone. Ludwik, not even there a full day, was demoralized beyond repair. The view of a nice neighborhood that he saw as the train he and the others were in as they arrived to this land of death was a mirage, this was a place with only one purpose. That purpose was to kill, not only the body but the soul.

The trip was cold and the bread was stale. The car of the train Ludwik was in was piled full. There was human excrement on the floor and not even enough room to sit. Two elder people died on the train, others vomited at the site of the dead, causing mass vomiting among the passengers.

Ludwik, and the rest of the Jews, were pilled into barracks and given assignments and jobs to do at the camp. Ludwik, was chosen to be Professor Carl Clauberg’s experiment, being injected with a strange substance.

Within the hour Ludwik could feel nothing but pain. The cold that had once caused him to shiver and shake was now numbed by the immense hell caused by the injection. The Professor, watched as Ludwik began to cough up blood. As Ludwik’s skin began to change color the Professor smiled. Finally, after what felt like an eternity Ludwik died. His last thought was of his father on his twelfth and final birthday, he was leaving hell. On to better pastures.

“You lasted longer than I thought!” Professor Carl Claudberg chuckled.

The Holocaust is not a laughing matter. Many people faced the same horror as Ludwik. Other less fortunate were forced to wait longer before death consumed them. The concentration camp Aushwitz was a place of death. It killed minds, bodies, and crushed souls as if they were ants beneath the foot of a giant.