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First Train ride
14 year old Daniel was sitting on a train with his family feeling shocked, because he has no clue where he is going and he doesn't know why he's going.He opens a picture album that he brought on the train, the memories begin on his 6th birthday (8 years ago). Daniel says on that day that his father and uncle were fighting when they were taking the photo. Another memory was when Daniel saw his father store had the word Jew on it, because apparently it was being boycotted by the Nazis, and Hitler. -
Daniel learns about whats going on
He took pictures of their Jewish identification cards and ration cards and people looting his father's store. He learns about power and abuse when he wears a Hitler Youth uniform that his Oma gave him and he is forced to take pictures of four Jewish men being harassed in the public square. He decides that he would rather be himself, a Jew, than an imposter. -
Class Photo
Daniel continues looking through the pictures . The next one is a 1937 class picture, his last year at a public school. Many of his (Jewish) classmates are not in this picture because they have already been either forced to leave the public school or left by choice. -
The holocaust has begun....
Three years later, Daniel (17 now), is once again on a train. This time he is packed with 100 people in a closed freight car.He has pictures that help him remember his time in Lodz and recalls the filth, cold and starvation.After some time people started dying quickly.First a cousin, then a Uncle, then Oma started getting sick. Oma went to the hospital but then the hospital evacuated.Children and old people were being thrown out the window.Oma did escape but the next day the Nazis come for her. -
They get deported...
Daniel reads the package and it was from Dachau.When they open it, Daniel is confused, the box holds only ashes. Then he understands,Uncle Peter is dead. The Nazis sent it. The whole family is devastated.As summer passes, Daniel begins to feel ready for school to start. Now they are forced to wear a yellow star imprinted with "Jew" on their clothing. A month later they are being deported so they are together to wait for the trains. They are body searched, humiliated and Daniel feels helpless. -
Daniel meets Rosa
He met Rosa when Erika brings her home to visit. Daniel is sitting in only his underwear as his clothing is being washed, and his family reacts to his embarrassment with great laughter. This is the first time he has heard laughter in months. He attends a youth meeting with Erika and Friedrich where they meet several other young people and discuss what they can do to keep the ghetto from falling into chaos. -
Stealing is no good
Erika plays the violin. Rosa tells Daniel about two children whose father steals their ration of food.She wants to help them by breaking into their apartment and stealing the father's rations. They do just that, and then the father will stop taking their rations.Eventually, the Nazi's insist everyone turn in their musical instruments. -
Things just keep getting worse..
Rosa and Erika in front of the sewing factory which reminds Daniel of how Rosa decided to stop eating the soup for lunches at her factory as there was nothing in it - the vegetables were being stolen out before the workers got it. When she and others are fired for refusing the soup, Daniel organizes a group to take their soup over to the sewing factory to show solidarity. Erika also organizes a hunger strike until Rosa and the others are rehired. -
CAUGHT!!!
Daniel and Rosa say goodbye to each other as they separate and go into hiding. He and Friedrich wait until after dark and then leave the apartment, one at a time, to hide.When it is Daniel's turn, he is caught and taken to the transport. When the train finally stops, he disembarks and is able to find his parents and sister. They are separated first by gender then by health. He and his father are both sent into a barracks and they are shaved, disinfected, and then given striped uniforms to wear. -
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Erika now knows that her brother and father are alive. The next is one worse than a nightmare. He sees the dead bodies of people who were gassed but could not be cremated; instead they are thrown into massive burial pits. Adam tells him that the Russians are close, don't give up. Adam also recruits Daniel to join the resistance movement in the camp. He will be given a camera and will take pictures of the burial pits, the crematoriums and the stores of supplies. -
ssssssssssssssssss
Daniel watches as his friend Adam creates his own death. He is afraid that the captured rebels will turn him in so instead of being captured he steals a guard’s gun and shoots him. The other guards shoot Adam. Daniel manages to get another note to Erika and they meet at the fence between the yards for a brief conversation. Erika knows she won't survive the next selection, she is so weak, and the next day she is not playing her violin as Daniel and Father march by. -
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Daniel and his father are again on a train after spending just three months in Auschwitz. It is the middle of December and the Allies are advancing so the Germans evacuated the camp.He will remember - even without his pictures. At the camp, they are forced to march four miles to the work camp. On the way Daniel notices Erika playing her violin with a group of other musicians as they march past. -
s
Daniel is in a seat on a train with pictures, some in his hand, others in his head. He is liberated and going back to Lodz to find Rosa, but first he must remember his time in Buchenwald. They were given soup and put in quarantine for three weeks. Not such a terrible time. But the main barracks were rough, he describes the contrast between the barracks and the gardens the Nazi's had created. Daniel worked in the photography studio; taking photos of guards and families. -
dd
Daniel is now 18 years old. As part of the resistance, Daniel and his father help dismantle a gas chamber. He listens to Karl’s radio one evening and learns that the Allies are very close. Daniel fears the Nazis will shoot him just before being liberated. He continues with his job until March when the Allies are getting closer and they want no more pictures. Daniel continues undercover.He photographs rows of prisoners being marched out of the camp. He wants to fight now. -
ssss
They spend the night in the hospital where Father gets his bullet wound cleaned and they eat sparingly. The next morning, the realization of freedom hits Daniel hard, and he yells for pure joy, hugging those around him.He takes pictures of everything,but he also takes pictures of the walking skeletons who did not survive even though they are now free. His goal is to return to Lodz and try to find Rosa. They wanted to find Erika and Friedrich. -
Things didnt end on the right term.
They got off the train from Lodz, suddenly behind them these polish kids start beating them up because they knew they were jews. When Daniel had the right to move his hand he took out his hand gun and shot one of them to make them scared. Peter was suffering bad, they need to go to the hospital asap.After the surgery, Peter is in bad shape. Just before he dies, Daniel tells him he will find his family. Father said that Peter will have a proper funeral and sends Daniel off to find Rosa.