The Horrors We've Seen

If walls could talk. They could share the beautiful things they’ve witnessed. The love they’ve seen, the compassion they’ve felt. But they could also weigh on us the horrors they’ve had to endure.

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“I’ve lost count of how many there were today,” sighed North Wall.

“Not as many as yesterday. Perhaps 4,000?” said West Wall. “They took it easy.”

“I can’t stand this smell, it’s making me nauseous,” said South Wall. He coughed violently so that the room shook slightly.

“They’re experimenting with a new agent. I think it’s hydrogen cyanide,” said North.

“It’s foul, and I don’t like it,” groaned South. His throat felt like he'd swallowed bricks.

“There’s not a damn thing you can do about it other than accept your fate,” said North.

“It’s all anyone ever does around here,” said South.

“I hear another train. That means tomorrow will be busier. And the day after that, and the day after that…” trailed off North.

“East, you’ve been quiet today,” said West, noticing the prolonged silence from the one opposite him.

“I can’t handle all this pain,” East Wall said.

“I’ve been telling you for a while now that you need to ignore it. You’ll always feel this way if you let it control you,” said North. He felt like a broken phonograph. No matter how many things North suggested, East just couldn’t get the idea.

“Don’t listen to him, East. What’s hurting you today?” asked West, ever the one who cared to support his fellow walls.

“The scratches. There are so many scratches. One man reached a place I’ve never had touched before.”

“Oh, I saw him. He climbed over the woman who was holding her baby,” said South. He had been the first one to understand what their role would be once the groups started coming in regularly. There was no room for sentimentality in this business.

“I don’t know if I can do this anymore. I can't stand to hear their screams. Their faces make such awful expressions. Everywhere I look, I see their misery,” said East. If only walls could cry.

“The scratches won’t sting for much longer. We’re almost done for the day. Then you’ll be able to rest,” said North. He knew what it was like. He had scratches of his own. Most were forgettable to him, but there were a few he could vividly remember being made. The wide eyes, open mouths, gasping for air that was complete poison. He had trained himself to not let it get to him. But even so, there were nights when the others were asleep in which he’d battle with his emotions one on one. But they were battles doomed to fail. He couldn’t block out the echoes of their desperate wails. He couldn’t erase the horrors of death from his memory. It always left him drained.

“Here comes the next… oh no,” said South. As the people walked in, the others realized why he’d hesitated. Tiny hands clung onto their mothers' fingers, and small feet walked onto the cold, unforgiving floor. Their faces were smeared with snot and dirt. They didn’t know what awaited them. They had no idea this was their end.

“Oh God,” wailed East. “I can’t do this, not this time. It’s too much. I’m going to lose my mind!”

“God isn’t here, East. It’s just us, and them,” North said. The adults were easier to deal with. But this time there were too many little ones to count.

“Brace yourselves. It’s about to begin,” said West, his voice cracking toward the end. North saw one of the haggard guards take a last look back at those he’d ushered inside this putrid chamber. Was that a hint of remorse in his eyes? It might have been. He was a new recruit, and a young one at that. He couldn’t be more than twenty. It was still early enough for him to have some shreds of his humanity left. But that would evaporate quickly, and soon he’d be just another pawn in the game.

“And now the gas is filling the room,” North says.

“See their faces? They’re confused because it wasn’t the shower they’d been promised,” continues West.

“The bodies fall, one by one. But they’re fighting, they reaching for an escape we can’t give them,” says South.

“They’re clawing at me again! Please, make them stop! I can’t handle this. No more. No more!” cries East. But there is nothing anyone can do.

And then it was over. North, South, East, and West watched as the guards came in and rounded up the lifeless bodies, tearing out the gold from their mouths, snatching any jewelry they might have had on them. They dump the bodies away like scraps, no care for them in their treatment.

“One day they’ll know the weight of what they’re doing,” said South. He hated these men who could so easily view these people as nothing. “I’d fall and crush them all, even if it meant I’d crumble to pieces.”

“I hope one day we will. But I’ll always feel we should have never come to be. No wall should have to witness what we have here,” said North.

“The world should hear of what’s been happening. They need to know what lengths humans will go to for their ideals,” said West.

“I just need this to stop. This madness needs to stop…” said East, the defeat heavy on his soul.

“It will. It has to. For now, we must watch on. But I’ll be ready to tell our story. The world will know what Germany has done.”