Resistance

Strange Men

A scream echoes outside. One by One, the houses on the street go dark. My house is next. This is exactly what Frieda Kraus was observing as she lays on her windowsill in her cold dark attic room while she is supposed to be sleeping. Her whole family was asleep as she was supposed to be and she was wondering what was happening outside to be making such a ruckus. At Only 12 years old she supposed there must be something small happening like the birth of a child or maybe a wedding engagement.

Who knows and who cares she's just excited to go to school tomorrow and see her friends. As she's thinking about school she hears a very loud knock on the door and yelling coming from outside. she stays upstairs and hopes her father will answer it. Frieda Hears a bunch of yelling and rustling downstairs so she decides to go down and see what was happening. As she descends the stairs she sees her father at gunpoint being forced out of the door by a strange man in uniform. The other strange man was looking through all of her families things in their living room. She loves her family very much even though it only consisted of her papa and her precious little brother Hans. Little Hans was only 3 years old and was currently sleeping peacefully upstairs in his small bed in Frieda's room.

As the strange soldier man started looking through all of her families papers and forcing her father to give information she felt very worried and scared. Thankfully no one had spotted her and she would like it to be kept that way. Things in this world of course don't always go your way and a few seconds later she was found by the strange man as he was still rummaging through her house.

She didn't understand what was happening and still was very confused as she was dragged right beside her father and told not to say a word. Once this had happened her father started begging for them to be set free and let go of. They let go of Frieda but her father was taken later that night. As he was dragged out the door yelling and crying he told Frieda to stay strong and to take care of her brother and that he will be back.

Frieda of course believed him even though she was crying she still thought he would come back for her and her brother soon enough and they could have their normal life back. By this time the Sun was Starting to rise so she went to go wake up her younger brother and then make breakfast. Her younger brother Hans was always in a good mood and always smiling. In that way he reminds Frieda very much of her mother. Her dear mother had been taken from this world by an awful illness about two years ago. Hans doesn't remember his mother but Frieda still misses her every day.

As she was making breakfast Hans kept asking where his papa was, she always replied that he was gone on a little trip and that he will be back soon. Little did she know that her father was never coming back and she would never see her father again, but that's a story for later.

As Hans was not old enough to be going to school yet Frieda could not go either as she would have to take care of him. As the day progressed she decided that they would go for a little walk to the markets. As they walked together down the busy streets of Vienna they knew something was a bit off but decided to just keep walking and ignore it. Every few blocks they would pass soldiers and people would be giving them dirty looks. Eventually after many awkward stares and weird interactions they made it to the market. Frieda knew that she would have to get some bread as it was not overly expensive and that her brother and father loved it. She made sure that Hans was holding her hand the whole time as she found a vender that sold bread. She seen a small sign on the booth that said "No longer serving Jews". Of course there had to have been a mistake she thought but it was true. at every booth there was those small signs. Being Jewish she didn't know why all of a sudden these things were happening and why people would have problems with Jewish people.

After finally realizing that she wouldn't be able to get her bread there she slowly walked home confused and quite sad. At least she had her brother to cheer her up and there was still a bit of food left at home. As they arrived home she buttered some bread for her brother but she decided she wasn't hungry and went to bed. Her and her brother slept well that night and woke up felling a bit better in the morning.

As the days went by Frieda was impatiently waiting for her dear papa to return home and declare that everything will be alright. Of course that was never going to happen but you could always hope? right? As the nights go by and the food runs low even Hans is getting in a worse mood and that was very rare of him. One rainy night Frieda and Hans were peacefully sleeping when the front door of her house was burst open and two German soldiers walked in. Hans had woken up and immediately thought his papa was finally home and rushed downstairs to find out no he had not returned and that there was something odd about these strange men in his house.

Frieda was still peacefully sleeping as the men rummaged the house. Little Hans was taken captive as they searched the house taking valuables and looking for other people or any sign of anything wrong. Minutes later Frieda was abruptly woken up. Who knew waking up with a dagger pointed at your throat is actually as terrifying as you think it would be?

Authors note- This is one of my first books and any comments or feedbacks would be amazing.