Narrative: Who Are We Are Here Today?

Ingrid and I were good friends growing up. Three times a week we did gymnastics, and we spent much of the time in between together as well. Before practice, which started at 4, we would always go to Ingrid’s grandparents, who made us lunch and gave us rides. This was a practical arrangement, as all of our parents were working past practice hours. Going to her grandparents became something we would look forward to.
As kids we come and go, without registering much of what the things around you might say about somebody. In retrospect, I am glad to have made the acquaintance of my friends grandparents. The story I am about to tell was highly formative.
Ingrid’s grandparents were Jewish, and so was Tiril herself. When you are a kid, those differences

Persecution leaves you with two options, and those are either to surrender or to escape. When I was just a little girl, I had to leave my friends and my town in Austria because of the ongoing persecution. Survival was critical, and we had to act fast. Your great grandparents, Ingrid, took me and my brother away in time. We went to Paris, but we did so without my grandparents. My grandmother was virtually incapable because of her bad hips, and they couldn’t find the strength to move quickly and hunt for a new home. It was too overwhelming for them, and there was nothing we could say, nor offer to make them come with us. Luckily, perhaps, I didn’t understand what this meant for their fate until later. Yet, I still remember our goodbyes. My grandma made me promise to keep my head high, and never let anyone tell me how to live my life. As with their fates, I didn't understand this until much later in life.” Ingrid’s grandma paused at this point, and stood up. She left the room, but came back with an orange, tiny

In the 30s in Germany, an Austrian man called Hitler came to power. He was a dictator, and he ordered persecution of the Jewish people. He believed there was a superior race, the Aryan, and the rest were not to have power in this world. At the bottom of his list were the Jews, and he demanded that all Jews were to wear an orange star, the Star of David, to mark their inferiority. The dictator’s followers, the Nazis, followed his orders, and this is ultimately the reason we had to escape. The Holocaust, this period of unjust treatment and gruesome manslaughter, cost the lives of over 6 million Jews in total. Luckily, we managed to get to France in time, but it wasn’t safe there for long. Paris was soon after invaded, and therefore we couldn’t stay there either. So we left for Portugal, temporarily, as we didn’t intend for it to be our new home, primarily because it felt too close to the war zone. We made the decision to cross the pond to Brazil, but we did so without your great grandma. One sunny morning in June, my mom went to the market in the town of Lisbon, but she never returned. The time after, dealing with my little brother and a heartbroken dad, I started losing faith. When we got to Brazil, I found myself committing crimes, such as stealing and threatening innocent people. I was burnt out, and I believed in no such thing as humanity any longer.” At this point, Ingrid’s grandmother had lost herself in the horrifying memories and looked