After many days at sea, we arrived at a totally obliterated city, Danzig, Germany. We were ordered to get on a very long and dark train, there were no windows only a huge sliding door. After a few hours it started moving. Sitting in total darkness on the cold boards, the ride felt endless. The happenings during the long ride are etched so deep in my mind, they still linger on for the rest of my life. Finally we arrived in the middle of nowhere. I was wondering if that is what “nowhere” looks like. We all were ordered off the train. Severe blizzard raged outside and whipped the snow in my face. There was no trail, no road, all was covered by high snow-drifts. We just kept walking toward a small house, some were very ill and their life ended on the icy ground. A little girl held on to a dead woman’s hand and would not let go. I took her hand and we both kept walking. I was numb from the cold and sorrow, at least I had my parents there with me. The room was very small, a stove sat in the middle of the room, all sort of ropes marked tiny divisions, one of them was to be my place for an undisclosed time. My mother became very ill and was moved to a hospital, my father was forced to work for eighteen hours every day of the week. I had lost my voice due to the trauma on the journey, all I had left was to sit in my corner all alone. Now and then, some truck would stop by and hand us a small piece of bread and boiling water with a few kohlrabi floating in it. I always saved my bread for my father, he needed more than I. My life had stopped at a dead end. I just sat alone in my corner, holding my small stone in my pocket to keep it warm, that was my only thing I had left from my happy life. I was longing to see my parents, they seemed to be lost. I was wondering why has my life become so void, I never did anything to be punished in that way. Many years have gone by, those memories are deeply etched in my heart. I closed my eyes, my little snail, “Helix Aspersa” came to my mind, he had a hard shell to protect his tender body, I had my own shell, music and nature mixes organically into a whole for me, that is my shell, I had survived to share my story.
