Diary of a Nobody (A Holocaust Survivors Story)

March 17th 1945

After they take all that you have; after they destroy every part of whom you once were; and after they break your spirit, there is little else as a man that you can do; except live in hope. And entrust that hope unto God, as you understand him to be.
Many, many times within the last eighteen months, I have begged my God to lend me compassion and let me die. And many, many times, death itself has become all that I exist for, its arms outstretched, its welcoming voice beckoning me.

My tears have all but run dry. I have witnessed the epitome of brutality; watched my brothers, their faces and bodies emaciated, fight over a scrap of potato peel. Is this what we have become? Is this what they have done to us? But for today, my will to live goes on.

My wife and children are no more. I know this. I am man enough to face the unthinkable reality of the place to which they have been sent. The wretched place, which has stolen thousands of women and babies; babies torn savagely from their mothers’ arms as their mothers screams ring out, penetrating the souls of all that hear them. And for them, I have cried a thousand tears. I will never stop. But for them; their memory, I too would allow myself to be taken from this world. Haunted by their screaming at night times; my eyes assaulted by all that I have seen, all that I do see, my will to live goes on.
Because my God above sees all. Only He knows the real suffering of the people. And only He can set us free from this pit of living hell.

But today, my heart still beats and blood courses through these veins. And just for today, life-giving oxygen still fills my lungs. And for as long as it does, my will to live will go on. Because I have made a promise; a promise to my God; and a promise to all those who have been taken, mercilessly; that someday, I will tell the world their story; my story. And the truth in itself, will keep their own hearts beating ever more.

Because for today, I live.

Signed; Michael .J. Goldman (The diary of a nobody).