My Lost Year
an excerpt

I got another letter a week after.
I would be going and guarding Auschwitz.
My father and I were stunned.
Neither my mother or sister had ever heard of Auschwitz. My father explained to them, as bluntly yet softly as he could, that it was an extermination plant for those against the Nazi party. My sister asked if he meant the Jews, and he said yes. My mother looked at him, both angry and scared, and shook her head. "My boy will be a killer. A murderer. You have saved him from nothing, Adolf, you have just given a new face to what torture he will live."