Hey Guys. So I recently went to D.C and saw a story at the Holocaust museum that inspired me to write this story. Remember , this story is based of the one I heard, so not everything is true and the pictures are random ones I found on the internet!

Ana's POV
Cold. Pain. Hunger. These are the only things I can feel right now. The sound of coughing is the only thing herd in the wretched barracks. Death seems to be all around me. The person next to me, who I depended on for body warmth, died. All I have is a rag like blanket. And my bowl for food. Bunchenwald  concentration camp. One of the many camps the nazis set up in their plan of the extermination of the Jews. My parents, Eva and Desmond Colligher, are Jewish, but we were never religious. I have three elder siblings, Karoline, Ezra, and Lara. I also have a little sister, Kora.

I was born in Munich, Germany, but we moved to the Netherlands a few months later for my fathers job. I loved living there. Swimming and playing at the beach's during the summer. Ice skating and sledding during the winter. Bike riding. Playing at the playground with Sophi, getting ice cream at Mrs.Kolen's Place with Gina and Ellie, and sleepovers with Isabella. Isabella is my best friend. She came from Italy to escape Mussolini, but then Hitler took over. Life changed forever when that happened. Laws were put in place that prevented Jews from doing the things we liked to do. We couldn't even go outside our house past 8:00! Then, in October 1941, our family was deported, to the Westerbork transit camp. When we arrived, we were put to work for the German war effort. Karoline, Lara, and I worked on the sewing. After a month in westerbork, we were deported in a cattle cart to the east. The conditions were awful. There was almost 80 people shoved into the train, with only one bucket to use the restroom in. It was freezing. Days later, we arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. My mom, Karoline, Lara, Kora and I were separated from my brother and father. Then we formed a line. The Nazi pointed to the right for mom, Karoline, Lara, and I, but pointed to the left for Kora. My mom did not want to leave her daughter, so she went to the other line. They were both killed in the gas chambers.

Meanwhile, me and my sisters were marched into a room where we were forced to take off our clothes and get our heads shaved, given a tattoo with our number in it, as well as given ragged dresses to wear. It was freezing. Every day, the Kapo would wake us up to inspect our bunks, in which almost 6 or 7 people would sleep in a bunk. If we didn't do it correctly we got beaten. Sometimes we would stand outside for hours for roll call. Those who died during the night were piled at the door. One day, Lara collapsed from standing so long, and the Nazi  shot her. I wanted to scream, but i didn't want to get shot myself. Three of our family members already dead. Karoline promised to protect me after Lara was killed. One day, there was a selection. Anyone who was ill or injured was sent to the gas chambers. I was sick with typhoid, but Karoline convinced the guards that I was healthy, and I was spared.
After almost a year and half in Auschwitz, Karoline and I were deported to Buchenwald. There are no gas chambers here, but death is still a common sight. Honestly, I think every concentration camp is a death camp, not just the ones like Auschwitz, Sobibór, Treblinka,etc...
Karoline wanted to continue protecting me, but she got very, very, very sick with typhus. One morning I woke up, only to discover her dead. I was all alone.

And here I am now. Lying on my bunk. My mom and sisters are dead. And I have no idea what happened to my dad and brother. Today is my 18th birthday. I should be celebrating with all of my friends and family. I should be getting ready to graduate. I should be living my life, but the Nazi's made that impossible. I stare at the wooden bunk above me, listening to the silence. Wait, silence? The kapo is usually getting us out of here at this point. Why is nothing happening. I slowly get out of my bunk, pushing the dead body of my bunk mate on to the floor. I cringe as my feet hit the floor and the pain kicks in. The only shoes we have are wooden clogs, which gave many blisters. I made my way out of the barrack. I saw dead bodies, and dying people, laying around. But no Nazis. I was so confused. I went over to an older lady, huddling by a makeshift fire. Elsa, I think her name is. "Excuse me, but do you know where the Nazi's are?" I asked. She looked at me, eyes hollow from pain, but a hint of joy in her eyes. "Haven't you heard? The Nazi's abandoned Buchenwald early this morning. The Americans are only miles away." She said. My eyes widened. Nazi's...gone...Americans. This means, it's all over. My years of pain are done. And I I am alive to see it. Liberation day.

Oliver's POV
My eyes widened at the sight I saw. I've been serving in the US army since the war began, and I don't think I've ever saw anything like this. People, innocent civilians, walking around like skeletons, dead or dying. How could the Nazi's do such a thing, and how could we not notice? As me and the rest of my division enter the camp, a young lady, maybe around 18, walks up to me. Her face gives and expression of pain and loss, but her eyes, her bright blue eyes, show determination and hope. It's very admiring. "Um, do you speak English?" I ask in German. "Yes." She answers in English. I can't help but feel warm as I hear her sweet voice. "Can, you explain what all this is." She nods, and she explains how this was apart of hitlers plan of mass extermination of the Jews, as well as some other people. I'm almost in tears as she tells me what she's been through. "My Mom and all of my sisters are dead, and I don't know what happened to my dad and brother." I gasp. "Oh my goodness. I couldn't imagine...I'm so incredibly sorry...um...what's your name?" I ask. "Ana Colligher. What's yours?" "Oliver Watson. Corporal Oliver Watson." I said. We just stare at each other for many moments. I mean, what do you say to someone who just went through the most traumatic experience anyone could ever go through?
5 weeks later
Ana's POV
I woke up feeling heavenly. For the first time in a long time, I was in an actual bed with a mattress and blankets and wearing real clothes. The Red Cross nurses took care of us in a hospital they set up in a town 20 miles from Buchenwald. It was so nice to be cared for. And to have real food and good water. At first they didn't give us too much food because after are diet too much food at once would get us sick. But now I get yummy soup, bread, and strawberries, witch to me taste like heaven.

Oliver often comes to visit me. At first, I thought he was doing it to be nice, that he visited all the survivors. But I soon began to notice he visited the most and often. He was very handsome, his hazel eyes giving me goosebumps. He was also very kind. He felt so bad about what I went through, and offered to do anything for me. He even asked if he could find my brother and father for me. I felt so good around him. "Hello, Ana. How are you doing today?" Oliver says as he walks in in his army fatigue. Did I mention I think he's handsome in his uniform? "Very good, actually. The nurse says I might be able to leave soon." He nods. Then his cheerful expression left."Um, Ana? I've learned what happened to your brother and father." My eyes widened. "What did you learn?" I asked. He sat down, taking off his hat and held my hand. "Your father, he was sent to the gas chambers when he was sick with beriberi. Your brother was killed on the death marches." I sunk back into my bed. "My whole family. Dead." I realized. I finally let out all the tears I had be holding back for years. Oliver comforted me.

I couldn't go home. There was no one there for me. What was I supposed to do? Where was I to go? Oliver seemed to be reading my mind. "Would...um..you like to go back to America with me? My family would be happy to help you." He said. My eyes widened. "Really? You would do that for me?" He nodded, his eyes sparking. I again got goosebumps. "I...don't..know what to say." "Well, I don't know if what I'm going to say is too soon or not, but...I...I love you Ana!" He sputters out. I didn't know what to say, so grabbed his face and kissed him. "I love you too."

April 12, 1946, Oliver and I stood on the side of a large ship, getting ready to enter New York City. We had left Germany when the Germans surrendered in may, and went to Belgium to bored the ship. I couldn't go back to the Netherlands.  At least not right away. The memories were too painful. Now, I was looking forward to my future in America. I touched my head. My hair had grown down to the bottom of my neck. I looked like I did before the war, just a little older. Physically, I looked the same, but I could never be better emotionally. The things I saw, the places I've been, it will never fade from my memory.

Oliver POV
So much has happened since I met Ana in Buchenwald. I took her to my home in Peoria, Illinois, and introduced her to my parents and brother and sister. The welcomed her warmly, knowing the experience she went through. And on June 30th, 1948, we were married.

A year later, a young lady showed up at our door. Ana knew at once who it was. "Gina! Your alive!" Ana exclaimed. "I can't believe your alive!" Gina said. Gina was one of Ana's friends from the Netherlands. Her mom and twin sister, Ellie, died in the holocaust, but she and her father survived. "When we got back to the Netherlands, we received no information about you, so I assumed you were dead. But I recently moved to Chicago, and someone told me you were here!" Gina also brought the news about some other friends. Her twin Ellie died in the gas chambers when she became really ill.

Their friend Sophi starved to death at the Ravensbrook camp.

And Ana's best friend Isabella killed her self by throwing herself against the electrified barbed wire at Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

Ana was so overcome with emotion, she didn't want to think about the friends she lost. She was in a depression for a couple years, until 1952. That was the year our daughter, Ella Renee, was born. We named her Ella in honor of Ana's friends Ellie and Isabella. Ana was so thrilled with our daughter, she perked up and saw the bright side of life.

It's hard to imagine that our amazing love story started from a place where love was the least likely thing you'd find. But somehow, against all odds, we made it. I'd often ask her how she was able to survive this horrible thing, and she would always say"Hope. Hope is how I was able to get through it all." And hope is the motto by which our family lived by. As well as love. We always tell our daughter to love everybody, no mater who they are. Because it was the lack of love that killed over 11 million people. In 1962, when Ella was 10, we helped out many African Americans who were escaping racism in the south. Ana felt a connection to them and helped out anyone who came into their area.

Life is so valuable, and Ana and I are certain to make the most of it.