Poisoned | Teen Ink

Poisoned

April 16, 2010
By Kandabear SILVER, East Bend, North Carolina
Kandabear SILVER, East Bend, North Carolina
7 articles 0 photos 93 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I went insane from long intervals of sanity." - Edgar Allan Poe
"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say but what we are unable to say." - Unknown
"You must say drunk on writing so that reality can not destory you." - Ray Bradbury


Liberation they said as they walked through the aftermath, the evidence of our dual existence, our obvious conflict. It was difficult to witness their tender faces painted noble and uniforms of immortal heroism. They gathered some and set others aside and called us liberated.

And how am I liberated? While darkness still haunts my mind’s eye. The air I breathe, the world as I see, and everything in it is tainted with humanity’s ignorance to our plight, our suffering. They took us up in the masses, outwardly gregarious yet still coarse. We tromped through our dead, fallen kin and neighbor. And as we moved, I tried to rectify the last decade of my existence.

I closed my eyes against the outside watched the nightmares unfold. I remembered all I had seen. The distorted images of children face down in streets, of bodies broken and battered, of the smell and taste of flesh in the wind. The SS screamed in my head that I was a demon, my blood was a blemish in the sight of my own country. My friends and family were pushed together in cramped complexes, begging for water, food, and mercy. I signed a card on a train for my family of forced reassurance.

Would it be difficult to breathe in society? I could be like so many others, dogmatic in disbelief, denying such scrupulous evidence for false satisfaction. I might stand in the crowds and portray the illusion of gross disgust and deep sympathies. I could pretend to forget. But in doing so, would I not be what the nations had acclaimed for years?

Would I not be a poison?

Would I not be a poison to my fallen, a poison to the truth and the very history of man? Would I not be the virus of plaguing ignorance? The very thing I despised in this world. I would only become the representation of the uniforms’ words.

I looked into the sky and saw the ash that shaded the sunlight. The warmth that once seemed so tenuous, now my spirit longed for dried and withered. And still they carried me as a shell of my prior identity and still they screamed that I was liberated. Tenacious soldiers pushed us to our freedom.

My freedom.

As I watched the last of us alive being filed in a most civil fashion, I was reminded that though I was alive, I had already died in this place. The rationalism I had once understood, my observations, the general familiarity I’d loved, now corrupted by the abundance of failing will-power. My training and discipline were now a decaying memory. Insignificant.

I was no longer who I had once been.

I was no longer who I once knew.

I was an empty vessel.

And for the first time in my years of imprisonment and slavery, in my time of fighting to survive, and justify; I felt weak and vulnerable. I felt as though I couldn’t survive, that I would fall and never open my eyes again.

I felt like a poison.


The author's comments:
This is a piece from the point of view of a German Jew after the end of the Holocaust

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This article has 114 comments.


Zach K said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 12:02 pm
Zach K, Waterford, Wisconsin
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
It was very moving. It had a lot of good describing words. After the first paragraph I got hooked and wanted to read more. It was outstanding.

Katie said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 11:46 am
Awsome!! There was great word choice and it kept me guessing whose point of veiw it was, a jew, a soldier, or a normal American.

mianie99 said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 11:42 am
This was a great and moving story. I truly like the way you described it. It was very well put and great word choice.

on Jan. 3 2012 at 8:27 pm
Scripturient_Scribbler BRONZE, Madison, Mississippi
1 article 7 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." -- C.S. Lewis

Excellent word choice!

Bauhaus BRONZE said...
on Jan. 3 2012 at 9:12 am
Bauhaus BRONZE, Ocala, Florida
3 articles 0 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
"And so being young and dipped in folly, I fell in love with Melancholy."

fantastic, i myself am a holocaust writer, loved it!

Morning SILVER said...
on Dec. 5 2011 at 5:23 pm
Morning SILVER, Greensboro, North Carolina
9 articles 0 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
"There is no perfect time to write, there is only now." ~Barbara Kingsolver

Wow! This was amazing work. The writing was elegent and true. It spokes so clearly and beautifully. It made me shiver. Wonderful!

on Oct. 23 2011 at 7:24 pm
pens-are-mightier-than-swords SILVER, Caledonia, Michigan
8 articles 0 photos 46 comments

Favorite Quote:
"we often put up walls not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down"
~Author Unknown

Beautiful job! Well written, very touching, very striking. It deserved the editors choice badge, and then some.

eli15 said...
on Oct. 7 2011 at 5:30 pm
Good imagery and use of historical context. Seems to miss the life affirming reality to those survivors of the holocaust that was also present. Good essay overall.

takeitasitis said...
on Aug. 15 2011 at 8:50 am
takeitasitis, Lakeville, Pennsylvania
0 articles 0 photos 22 comments

Favorite Quote:
Life may cause you to suffer, but you can learn a lot from pain.

Fantastic. Your words are well chosen. Every sentence felt so significant and strong. I truly felt like I was talking to a true Holocaust survivor. You know your character well. Your vocabulary, also, is stupendous. By all means, keep writing. 

on Jul. 14 2011 at 2:01 pm
Tongue_Blep PLATINUM, ????, Ohio
40 articles 1 photo 769 comments
I loved it! It was a very emotional story!!! Great job! i just wrote two stories called nightstalker and the beast. If any of u read them please post comments if u liked them or not or if i should change anything. Thanks! :D

on Jun. 10 2011 at 6:04 pm
StephanieI SILVER, New York, New York
5 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
What does not destroy me only makes me stronger

I bet this is how they felt, athough we will never truly understand what they thought, what they felt...

on May. 31 2011 at 1:01 pm
Shminkanator5000 SILVER, Rochester, New York
9 articles 0 photos 67 comments

Favorite Quote:
"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

Loved this, very emotional and very well thought out. I loved the "I was an empty vessel." line. This all reminded me of like someone at a bar telling their story, or a family member telling another a sad story of their past. It was depressing, but the truth rang from it. Fantastic! Check out some of my stuff if you get a chance? Thanks!

mlynch BRONZE said...
on Apr. 27 2011 at 8:20 pm
mlynch BRONZE, Summit, New Jersey
1 article 0 photos 43 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why they call it present."

This is a really nice piece. You have a good writing style. Would you mind checking out my story, "Just Like My Mother" in the realistic fiction section of Teenink? I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

LASwan SILVER said...
on Oct. 5 2010 at 8:36 pm
LASwan SILVER, Yukon, Oklahoma
5 articles 0 photos 55 comments

Favorite Quote:
Don't worry about the world endng today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.
-Charles Schultz

A very good piece. Stirring and depressing, in a good way. Mind reading some of my works?

MaggiHair said...
on Sep. 28 2010 at 10:17 am
MaggiHair, Gangtok, Other
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
Wow. Great piece. Please write more!!

on Sep. 25 2010 at 4:00 pm
AllAmericanGirl, Buffalo, Wyoming
0 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
There can be no future without the past.

WOW! This piece was well written and thought out. Written from a perspective very hard to write from not to mention understand.

Aria1 BRONZE said...
on Sep. 17 2010 at 1:31 pm
Aria1 BRONZE, Holland, Michigan
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
\\\"If anybody says anything bad of you, live so that none will believe it.\\\"

This piece was very interesting and very descriptive. the author used great vocabulary to make a detailed picture in the readers' mind.

on Aug. 21 2010 at 11:33 pm
Seelix PLATINUM, Chandler, Arizona
20 articles 3 photos 72 comments
I absolutely loved your concept as well as the closing! You can tell there was a good deal of thought behind it=). My only (hopefully constructive) criticism would be to try to write more like you are telling a story; let your reader have a vivid picture of what’s happening. Your word choice in this narrative would be perfect for an essay or a more journalistic piece, but I got a bit bogged down sometimes, and was slightly distracted from the actual plot. You are a extremely lovely writer! Keep it up!

on Jul. 21 2010 at 5:35 pm
peacemaker14 SILVER, Hubbard, Oregon
6 articles 2 photos 38 comments

Favorite Quote:
"in my life I've learned that growing up is hard and head banging is crucial"- hayley williams

wow well writen but i wish i could understand it there are so many big words alough it's cool that you can not only undrestand big eords but you can put them together in a sufisticated peice of writting, good job,

P.S people chaxk out my work although my best pieces are still pending


on Jul. 17 2010 at 11:30 pm
WordSmith BRONZE, Sydney, Other
2 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
"The price of freedom is eternall vigilance."

Very nice! I really liked it