The Loss of Hearts- Alissa Velasquez Period:3 & Christina Nuno Period:1

    Section 7 - 100 gaunt souls are crammed into roofless cattle cars. Normally this wouldn't be possible but since these prisoners are mostly just bones it worked. Every so often they would stop to throw off the corpses. The trip last 10 days and nights.  His father came very close to death but then again who there didn't? Heartless Germans would toss bread into the cars to taunt and tease the starving Jews and watch them fight to the death for a minor piece of bread. In one bread scenario an elderly man reached for the bread but his own son attacks and beats him to death. His own son! Then the son is trampled and killed as well anyway by others for the bread. One night someone tries to strangle Elie and his father calls on Meir Katz to help. Meir Katz rescues Elie but after this Meir Katz feels he cannot go on. Finally they arrive at Buchenwald. Of the hundred that was loaded into Elie's car, only a mere 12 made it through that trip. Elie and his father were one of those lucky enough to pull through, but sadly was among the dead.  

(Crematorium)

   Section 8 - Elie's father is very weak when they arrive in Buchenwald. All he wants to do is lay is the snow and rest. Elie tries to encourage him to get up but then abandons him when air raid sirens go off. Elie falls asleep. The next morning he goes to look for his father not exactly sure if he wants to find him though. He thinks about what he's been told about doing better without his father dragging him down. He finds his father and gives him his food. he feels guilty that he'd rather keep the food to himself to increase his chances of pulling through.His father only gets weaker and gets dysentery which makes him crave water. His thirst is immense but it is horrible to give someone with this fluid but then again he is dehydrated and dying from both. Either way with out without water is bad for him. The doctors say he is hopeless. He ends up giving him water. Elie is told to give up on his father and focus on him because he should be more important. The next time the man who gave this advice hears his father screaming his beats him. His father calls to him once more but Elie is afraid to answer. The next morning, January 29th, 1945, he wakes to find his father gone to the crematory. But instead of morning over his father, Elie feels free and relief.

Section 9 - After his father's death, Elie continues on with a mindset on survival and food. He no longer has feelings or cares about anything other than feeding his dying body. On April 6th it is announced that the camp's being liquidated and food distribution will stop. On April 10th the last of the prisoners were to be evacuated and the camp blown up but it is postponed until the following day. However, these plans were ruined when the first U.S. tank arrives that next day. The prisoners were freed and all they could think about was food. Nobody cares enough for revenge. A few weeks after Elie got better, he looked at the heartless soul in the mirror that this experience had turned him into. It haunted him for the rest of his life.