Option 1 Number 2

"...a corpse gazed back at me."-Elie Wiesel

After their time in concentration camps, the prisoners came back empty corpses, just a shell of the human beings they were years ago. When the terrorizing first began for the Jews, they were scared, but they still had hope. However, in their hope was ignorance. They had no inkling of the hardships they were yet to face. Herded into cattle cars, the Jews were on their way to Auschwitz. Terror overcame them at the smell of burning flesh and unwelcoming conditions at the concentration camp. Already they were starting to question their faith, which was most important and unfaltering to them. Family, at the beginning, was important but not worth risking their own lives as well. Nothing was said when a loved one was getting beaten, it was every man for himself. This was understandable for survival, but it only got worse in the later years of being in the camps. Faith was all but completely forgotten after awhile. There was no reason to think that God should be blessed in any way. Not for creating a living hell. Not for eliminating an ethnic race that had believed so profoundly in Him. Soon, family did not matter. If an elderly member was of any inconvinience, he was left behind. Sons were killing their fathers for scraps of food. There was no compassion or recognition in their eyes, only ravenous hunger. Upon the release of the concentration camps, all faith was gone, and their soul had vanished. They were empty.