My name is Adok, I am a 13 year old boy from Poland. This is the story of one of the most tragic moments in my life.

I leapt out of hiding, the Nazi’s came and they took my family; I felt a chill down my spine saying this wasn’t over. Another attack was coming, more people were going to be taken by the Nazi officials. I was the only one there on the road, a teenage boy from Lublin. I couldn’t imagine that I was being left alone; my parents gone, my grandmother gone, my sister gone. I was walking down the street alone searching for help, was anyone there? For hours and hours I kept searching for someone; later I found a man street, I yelled, cried, begged. Instead of responding the man walked away like he didn’t even hear me. I fell to the ground, cried, I wondered if anyone was there to help; I cried myself to sleep.   

I woke up, starving- I hadn’t eaten in days. I went to the grocery store nearest to me and grabbed a bunch of supplies quicky.  This place was broken down; snacks on the floor, shelves broken, glass was everywhere. I knew I needed to leave this place immediately before they came back. There was no one, absolutely no one, it was as empty as the store during Hanukkah. I decided to walk when I see 2 boys about my age; I ran to them as quick as I could. “ What is your name?” The boy said, “How old are you?” I told them everything about me and that I needed help because my family was gone. They introduced themselves, they’re names were Michael and Fen. Michael was a 12 year old boy who was very athletic, soccer was his passion. Fen was his brother, he was 18 years old; Fen was going to start university in the fall.  They were from a different city, and they were taken away from their families as well. We walked together, we were looking for a map to get out of the country in safe way and escape. We searched and searched for maps to lead us out of the city, this lead us to a tourist station where we could find them.  

We started our journey to leave the country. We entered the city Gdynia; it is far more populated than Lublin. There were Nazi officials everywhere, we knew they would catch us if we were just wandering around. We needed help, immediately. We knocked from door to door in one of the biggest apartment complexes in the city-no one answered their door. “They are probably afraid that the Nazi’s are here, we should hide.” I thought that was a terrible idea. “No, we have to keep on knocking.” I said. No one answered the door. We headed back outside with extreme stealth, all of a sudden a man was chasing us. “Stop right there!!!”  a soldier yelled. We were shocked, he was pointing his gun at us. He called the other troops to handcuff and take us away. “Please stop!!” I begged. It was no help, they took us away and we could do nothing about it.  

When I woke up Michael and Fen were right by me but they were not awake. We were in a jail, a very very broken down jail. A soldier approached us while we were on the jail floor, he talked loudly, “Where are you guys from?” he yelled. At that moment Michael and Fen woke up. They were stunned, confused, and scared; I could see the tears coming down from Fen’s eyes. At that moment I sat there helplessly. He yelled at us again, none of us answered as we were to scared. He eventually left us alone as we sat there quietly. “Hey!” someone whispered to us, the sound was very close to us. He whispered again, he was to the left of us. When I looked to the left there was a boy about the same age as me, his parents were asleep and he was the only one awake in his cell. There was a section of the brick wall which was completely cut off so I could see him. He looked terrible; his clothes were dirty, his eyes were baggy, and he was missing most of his teeth. “I need help.” he said, “ I have to get out of here, they are going to execute us in three weeks.” I was boiling mad. Michael and Fen were astounded, they couldn’t believe it, and neither could I.  

“We have to do something now, we have to escape now.” said Fen. “Sure, we can just walk out and get ourselves killed.” said Michael. I tried and tried to figure out some way to get us out of here. “Do you know any secret passageway or any way at all to get us out of here?” I asked the boy. “They let us out for work shifts at about 8 in the morning in the fields, there is a large fence hovering over us. Recently I figured out there was a barn in the right corner in the field past the parkplace, when you go in the barn there are stairs which take you to the basement,  then you turn to the right which there is a door. I don’t know if it works but it’s our best shot.” It was around midnight. “We should all go to sleep, goodnight.” I said.  

I woke up the next morning to a loud thump, “GET UP!” the man yelled. They pulled us out of the cell and made us wear very dirty clothes. They took us to the barn which was the same barn the boy was talking about. “I wonder what they are going to make us do.” said Fen. The men handed each of us a shovel, and told us to start working. We had to take out of the dirt out of the hole. “Such a pointless job.” Michael said. “Shut up or you’re going to get all of us killed by saying stuff like that.” replied Fen. We worked and worked in the hot sun until I distanced myself so I could go and see if what the boy said about the barn was true.The run down bar appeared depressed.  I eventually reached into the barn and I opened the door, it was dark so I couldn’t see anything. There was a small lamp downstairs which was the only thing I could see at the moment so I headed downstairs. I heard something behind me so I hid as fast as I could, it was just Michael and Fen they followed me. “What are you guys doing here?” I was very angry that they followed me, they could’ve been killed. “We are ready to get out of here.” They both said. I was unsure whether it would work. We spent hours and hours trying to search for the door but there was no luck. “I found it, I found it!!” said Michael. I was happy. We heard people approaching the barn, “Get in the door quick.” We all got in the door and we ran through the tunnel wondering what would come next.  

We headed through the tunnel, wondering for what would come next. There were mice and bugs everywhere, “Come on, we have to keep going.” We kept on walking, then we approached a little room; there was a small hut where there was food and water. We quickly grabbed as much as we could, we had no bags to carry it in. We had to continue because we needed to get to safety quickly. We kept on walking and then we finally see a hole in the ceiling, there was a big cover on it, we pulled it down and we got out. “We made it!!” I couldn’t believe it, the excitement rushed through me like my first tennis match. “Hey there is a sign over there, let’s check it out.” The sign said welcome to Lyon, France! Even though we survived, I still remember my family as we walk, tears come out of my eyes. “It’s not over.” Michael said, “We still have to stay safe.” The sad part was what he said was true, it wasn’t over not yet. “What do we do next?” Michael said worriedly. I didn’t know, only one thing came to my mind- Survive.