Oh, the Secrets We Could Tell You:Silent Witnesses to History

Through the Eyes of a Jewish BadgeThrough the Eyes of a Jewish Badge

Many kids think history is a real snooze fest. Sometimes history is boring. Textbooks skip over the interesting stories and leave nothing but dead people and dates. Teachers can sometimes make history as interesting as watching paint dry!

History is stories about kids just like you. Action, adventure, horror, drama, comedy; history has it all if only you will take time to listen to ALL ALL of its participants.

We are silent participants to history, often forgotten , and rarely mentioned. However, we are the things that tell the real story if anyone will listen. With no real voice, our story is told in other ways. Each tatter, flaw, and tear has a story of its own.

Badges are used as a symbol of achievement and honor. However, I was used for a much different reason. Let me introduce myself. I am a badge that was worn by a Jewish boy during WWII. To identify the Jews, they were forced by law to wear me.

There I am!!

Okay, I am getting ahead of myself. You see, there was a really bad man named Adolf Hitler. He was kind of like the president of Germany from 1933-1945, but he was nothing like the American presidents. The German people didn’t have any of the rights and freedoms US citizens have.

My Mustache is awesome!

Whatever, Hitler wanted, Hitler got. Whatever Hitler didn’t want, he got rid of. Hitler was kind of a spoiled brat, and for some strange reason, he didn’t like the Jewish people.

After World War I, Germany was in an awful mess. People were starving and dying. The people needed someone to blame. The Jewish people were used as a scapegoat. No, it doesn’t mean a goat trying to escape. It means that the Jewish people were taking all the blame for Germany’s problems. When Hitler came into power, he knew he needed to give the people a common enemy. He did this with the Jewish people.

I’m free!

At first, he just singled out the Jewish population. He created rules that each person had to follow called the Nuremberg (N-er-m-burg) Laws.

Examples of Nuremberg Laws:

1. Each Jew will wear me (a yellow badge that says Jew) at all times. 2. True German citizens will boycott Jewish stores. 3. German citizens were not allowed to marry a Jew. 4. German business owners couldn’t hire Jewish people. 5. Jews were not allowed to use public transportation.

I am the badge on a little boy named Isaac Goldberg. Isaac is ten years old. He loves to play baseball, draw, and he loves to read. I am honored to be pinned to such a nice boy. Isaac always takes great care of me. He never forgets to put me on each morning.

The Goldberg family were all born in Germany. Isaac’s dad, Joseph, was awarded several metals of honor for his service during WWI . His dad and Eliza, his mom, own a butcher shop in Berlin. Isaac has three sisters: Eva, Esther, and Elizabeth. He and his family are a good Jewish family. They go to the synagogue each Saturday and observe all Jewish laws.

By 1939, Hitler and his followers, called Nazis, took away all Jewish people’s property and forced them to live in run-down houses called ghettos. Isaac’s family had to give up their butcher shop and move east to Poland.

Their house was five times smaller than their home in Berlin. The food, if you can call it that, was not enough food for one person, let alone six. No one dared to complain. We have heard stories of what happens to complainers, and I don’t want that happening to Isaac.

One day, I found myself covered in hair. I had no idea what was happening until later that night when I saw all of Isaac’s hair had been shaved off. Boy, did he look silly without his hair.

Day after day, I was wet with Isaac’s sweat. Not only that, I started to sag on his shirt because of all the weight he had lost.

“How much more of this can his family take? “ I thought. The next day, I got my answer.

The next day Isaac, his family, and I were told that we were moving away from the disgusting ghetto. The SS Guards told us that we were going to be sent to a nicer place and that we could open up another butcher shop. That night, we had a celebration party. I for one couldn’t wait to leave this dump.

We boarded the train boxcar the next morning. We were packed in there like sardines. Some people smelled worse than animals! Not only that, some were sick, very sick. We had to stand the whole way. I was cheek to cheek with another badge beside me. I have never been so scared in my life. Isaac’s mom didn’t look well. Anymore time on this train may kill her.

Just when I thought I could take no more, we began to slow down to a stop. The SS Guards opened the door. My eyes hurt from the brightness of this new place. It took my eyes a few minutes to register the sign. It said,

“Auschwitz-Work Makes You Free”

Work will make us free? Isaac and his family are hard workers, so soon we will be back in our Berlin butcher shop.

Auschwitz looks like a nice place. There is even Jewish music playing. Then suddenly, the guards tell us to line up. They are shouting orders

at us. “You this way, you that way,” he says. Isaac, his 3 sisters, his mom, and I go into one line and his father goes

into the other line. I wonder why we are being split up?

The SS guards make Isaac and his mom write letters to relatives back home. Isaac doesn’t get to decide what the letter says; the guards tell him what to write.

Dear Aunt Sarah, We have arrived at Auschwitz. It is beautiful here. The German guards are treating us so nice. If you have a choice, you should come here. Hope to see you soon.Love,Isaac

Next the guards say, “Shew! You Jews stink. Off with those clothes and into the showers at once.”

I am glad to be clean. Isaac was really starting to smell. I am thrown into a huge pile of clothes and shoes. I

can’t wait to be back with Isaac.

An hour later, I wonder what is taking Isaac so long to come and get me? He has never taken this long to take a shower before.

Hour after hour passes, still no Isaac. I think maybe he has gotten some better clothes and has gotten rid of me. What will become of me? Will I ever see Isaac again?

An SS Guard scoops me up and puts me in a burlap sack. I am there for the longest time. Then I was sold to a thrift store. Different people bought and sold me throughout the years. Although they were nice, no one was like my Isaac. Finally, in 1993, I was given to the History of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Each year, people come from all over the world to look at me. I guess they think I am special because they keep me in a glass case. I do not think of myself as special. Isaac, was the special one.

Isaac, his mom, and his sisters were thrown into the showers. Instead of water, poisonous gas came out. Some say that the gas chambers were a more humane, or less painful, way to die. Isaac’s dad, Joseph, died in what the Nazi’s called, “Destruction through work.”

Over 6 million Jews, like Isaac’s family, were unnecessarily killed in the Holocaust. 1.5 million were children like Isaac and his sisters.

Some may wonder how does something like this happen? Who was to blame? The Leader or the Followers? Adolf Hitler was an evil man, but he couldn’t have done all this alone. He had many followers. Although this is a hard subject to read about, it is important not to forget the lessons to be learned from this time.

1. Don’t judge people until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.2. Don’t be afraid of standing against wrong.3. You are who you hang with.4. You control your actions.5. Don’t blame others for your problems.

Although Isaac and his family are fictional, the Holocaust is sadly true. All the terrible things described in this book did happen to Jewish citizens in Europe. Jewish music was used to trick the prisoners into a calm state. Letters were sent home describing camps as a great place as a deception tactic for those back home. Jews were robbed of their dignity, pride, and for many their lives. It is important to remember the story of those like Isaac so that he and others will not be forgotten.