March 28, 1944, 7:15 pm.
“Shhhhh!” said Kyle.

“I’m trying to be quiet!” whispered Nick.

The group of four hid behind a wall of a near wood sided house. Just as they did this, a Nazi patrol squad drove by on a half-track.

“We have to be more careful!” said Mr. Schmidt. He then looked around and found that they were all in an alley. At the end of the alley, there was a pile of cardboard and wooden boxes. “If we put those up in a certain way, this could be our shelter for the rest of the night.”

“I think that is a great idea. The Nazis are everywhere here, plus it is getting dark out,” said Mrs. Schmidt. They all looked into the western part of the sky and see the sun just above the edge of the dingy wood sided houses. The sky is turning a bright red and orange, caused by the glowing brilliance of the setting golden sun.

“Isn’t this sight just wonderful? It makes me think of when we were free, and not having to run for our lives. But mainly, it gives me hope. Hope that we will all make it to Normandy and then off to America to be free!” exclaimed Mrs. Schmidt.


“Ahhh… What I would give to be free again!” said Nick, Thinking about his life when he was a free man.

“And we will all be free again!” exclaimed Mrs. Schmidt, “After we escape this retched hell-hole of a place!”

“Yes, we will be,” agreed Nick, “But first we need to think about tonight. Now, how about we help Mr. Schmidt with building our shelter for the night.”

They all take one last glance at the bright golden sun, surrounded by the reds and pinks and oranges it creates as it sets below the top ridge of the dismal wooden houses. Then, they all go over to the boxes that would make up their shelter for the night.

Together, they built a structure that is like a lean-to, but it is not easy to tell what it is. They tried to make it look like piles of garbage so that any wandering Nazi patrollers wouldn’t know that there a group of Jewish people using it as home for the night.

It’s 4:30 AM. The group is up and has packed up their things into their makeshift packs, and are ready to head out again on their way to Normandy.

Slowly, they all come to the end of the ally and peer around the corners to see if there are any Nazi patrols on the street. Seeing that there were none, the group slowly made their way out onto the main street.

“We need to get off this road and onto the back roads,” whispered Kyle, looking around. “I have a strange feeling. Like someone is watching us…”

“Calm down! We need to stay calm!” whispered Nick. “We will be off this road shortly. Look, right over there is an alley. We can go down that alley, and then just keep following them until we run out of daylight.” This is exactly what they did.

The time is 12:30. The group has been walking down small alleyways and back roads for 8 hours already. They are at the edge of the medium sized, dismal, Nazi occupied city. Kyle suddenly stops and turns to the others.

“Is anyone else hungry?” asked Kyle.

“I don’t know about the others, but I sure am!” exclaimed Nick.

“Then I guess we all are,” said Mr. Schmidt. “But don’t eat too much; we only have a few cans of food left.”

“Then let’s open one up and enjoy!” blurted out Kyle.

They all stopped and gladly ate the can of food that they opened. Wanting more but knowing that they can’t have more, they set out again. At the end of the alleyway that they ate in, they peered around the corner. There seemed to be no one on the road, so they set out.

“Halt!” boomed a mysterious looming voice.

The group took off running to the nearest alley. While running, Mr. Schmidt looked back to see what was the source of the voice, and where it came from.

To his horror, he looked back to see a grimy, filth covered half-track gaining speed, and coming right at them.

“NAZI PATROLS!!!” screamed Mr. Schmidt as loud as he could. As he said this, they all took off running. As they started running, they heard something that made their blood curdle. Machine gun fire.

Just as they noticed that they were being shot at, a spray of bullets whizzed past the group. One of them missing Nick’s head by mere inches! Just as it seemed they were all going to get shot, they arrived at the beginning of the alley, and dove into it, and out of the way of the speeding bullets. This proved life saving because just as they got out of the way, 5 bullets landed in the exact spots that they were just standing at.

The group took off running towards the nearest source of shelter, trying desperately to get away from the patrols. Running down the dark and dingy alley, they found that one of the doors to a house was unlocked. They all were happy for a place to hide.

Once they got inside the house, they locked and barricaded the door. Once all seemed ready, they all took up their hiding spots. Nick hides in a closet, and crawled up so that he is up high instead of on the ground. Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt took up the opening they found behind a dark wooden wall panel that was loose. Kyle hid under the table, which was furnished with a table cloth that hung over all the sides all the way down to the floor.

Just as they all got into their spots, they heard the screeching sound of the half-track as the patrols came closer and closer. Just as it seemed that they were going to pass, the leader of the patrol yelled, “Suchen Sie die ganzen Häuser! Finden Sie sie!” (Search all the houses! Find them!)

The whole groups’ blood went cold as they heard footsteps coming up to the door that they had entered through. The patrollers tried to open the door, but soon realized that it was barricaded.

“Schießen Sie es ab!” (Shoot it down!) ordered the head patroller, and then an instant spray of gun fire was heard.

There was a loud crash as the door fell, and then the sound of boots scraping over the barricades. The sound of shuffling boots was all that was heard next. There were 3 sets of boots, and then they stopped.

A thunderous crash boomed out. The patrollers flipped over the table to find Kyle cowering underneath.

“Wo sind Ihre Freunde?!” (Where are your friends?!) demanded the lead patroller.

“I’ll never tell you!” yelled Kyle, and spit on the patroller’s boots.

“Töten Sie ihn,” (Kill him) whispered the lead patroller to the nearest one with a machine gun.

Almost immediately, a single shot rang out.

“No,” whispered all three of the other friends in unison. They all silently started crying as they heard their good friend Kyle hit the floor, dead.

The Nazis quickly searched the rest of the house and didn’t find any of the other three, so they finally left after almost half an hour. Slowly, the three stumbled their ways out of their hiding places to see the flipped table, and the blood stain beneath it.

“I can’t believe it!!” sobbed Mrs. Schmidt.

“I don’t think any of us can,” said Mr. Schmidt as he hugged his wife.

“There is nothing we can do now, but continue on,” said Nick after a few minutes of silence.

The date was May 30, 1944, at 5:45 pm. The group of friends has slowly but surely made their way to Normandy. There, they first met Allied forces, and were welcomed with open arms. From here, they all catch a ride on a ship headed for America, where they planed to start new lives.