HW # 18

As of today, it seems that I will never be able to go outside showing my true self; all freedom is lost here, I can see now that it is undeniable. As a Communist, a working man trying to make a living for his family and get what he deserves, I am naturally not loved by our so-called Chancellor, Hitler. I have seen the way he changed the country over the past couple years, and from the beginning I knew it was no good that he could be appointed to the position of Chancellor. He won his seat with violence and used fear as a weapon -- his Storm Troopers frightened Hindenburg into allowing it to happen, the president was too afraid of civil war to take a stand. Perhaps Hindenberg thought he could control the monster, but it is clearer every day that it was not so. Soon he convinced the Reichstag to give him authority to do what he wanted without its consent; then he outlawed other political parties in Germany, took away our human rights! And all I could do was watch in horror as Germany as I knew her crumbled around me, turning quickly into a dangerous machine operated by a more dangerous criminal. I held on to the hope that things might be turned around, and that Hindenberg might reclaim control -- a foolish hope, but I had nothing else to cling to -- but once word that President Hindenberg was dead, I knew it was over. And soon after, Hitler named himself Fuhrer and President over Germany. I am so angry that such a thing was allowed to happen; surely the people saw it coming, but nobody stopped it, and the Nazis silenced my party. Now everyone is too afraid to try to dissent. I myself have not had dealings with the SA or the SS, thankfully, but they have touched my life. In the election of 1933, when we still held on to the illusion of democracy in this country, I knew several people who were beaten by the Storm Troopers, in an effort to keep them from voting. One of them died. All this, when Hitler was not so firmly in power! How could this happen? I have been hiding, ever since Hitler became our Fuhrer; I have heard many stories, and I know that as long as I am visible, I will be a target for the Gestapo. I am determined that my life will not end in Hitler's concentration camp, even if it means that I must keep myself hidden in an old barn, coming out only at nights. I try to have secret meetings with my friends who feel similarly, but we have no chance of changing things now; and besides, it is dangerous enough to be a communist without having meetings. The rise of the Nazi party has ruined me. I have lost my job, my home, my family, and my freedom. I am reduced to crouching in the dark, waiting for the end to come, of either the Nazis or of myself. I am trying to hold onto hope, but it is slipping away like a ghost.