The story of Penny Casspi

May 14th, 1944

The images were still crystal clear in my head as i sprinted, the voice of her screaming and pleading.. Nothing in this world could ever erase the sight of her tortured, motionless body in a pool of blood and the agony of her voice in my head. No other tragedies could be worse than witnessing the one person who'd brought me into this world getting shot in the head right in front of your very own eyes. The only person I had in my eighteen years of life was stripped away from me, leaving me completely shaken and devastated. It took what seemed like ages for the realization to finally sink in that she's in fact, gone forever in my life, taken away solely by force from me. I am totally on my own now, clueless of what further sufferings I will have to encounter tomorrow. I can only hope to live through another day and pray to God to protect my soul.

May 15th, 1944

My sleep was interrupted by the screams of a girl, only to find that the owner of the distressed wailing was no one but me. She's gone. I have to accept the painful fact that I no longer have anyone I ever loved on earth. The images and glimpses of her torturing continued to haunt me through the day, and it only gets worse by night. I had no where to go but to only move forward, and to fulfill the one thing she wanted for me, which was preserving my life. All I can do now is to leave, for this place is no longer secured, and find a safer location to survive. I gathered the essential things and found a slip of paper on the table. It was from her. I guessed she saw it coming and had already planned ahead for my escape. I kept it safe in my pocket and took off without looking back at the place where was once called home. Now it's just an empty, a total wrecked of a building filled with nothing but sorrows and broken dreams. Without sparing a minute longer, I took off into the woods.

May 16th, 1944

Clothes tattered from the thorns in the woods, Lungs burning from the lack of oxygen, Legs hurting from the uneven surface, blood slipping through the openings of the wounds on my body.. Panting from all the miles I had ran from the pursuers.. And finally collapsing on bare ground, breathless.. My mind drifted to the day when i last saw her before they took her life away like how they are determined to take mine too. I remembered she mouthed something at me when she took her last breath: 'run and hide'. Those were her last sentence before they blew head off. Her words were the only reason which was holding me together and pressing me to live on for the days to come. I can't fail her. If i were to just turn myself in to them now, all the effort she'd put in to save my life would all go to waste. I have to stay alive, that's the least I can do for her since she's dead now. Throat blistering from the thirst, I manage to drag myself through the dirt despite every cell in my body was groaning with objection. My mind was shutting down and energy was sipping away every second and I knew it would be a matter of minutes before I completely black-out if I don't find a stream of water soon. Just as I was about to give up, I felt soft, wet mud in contact with my hand. I gathered my remaining energy to lift my head up, and was rewarded with relief and satisfaction to find a river-stream just a few feet away. I hauled my weak body towards the river, threw myself in without a second thought and drank gulp after gulp of cool, refreshing water. This was the first near-death experience I've ever had, an encounter I'd rather not speak about or remember.

May 17th, 1944

The days which I have managed to stay alive somehow was a miracle, considering a young, helpless girl like me who's indeed needless to say, incapable of fighting or equipping a weapon for self-defense. Thank heavens I did manage to learn a little amount of hunting skills from my father before he was buried alive buy those cruel mortals. Today was the first time I've fed on raw meat, pretty sure it won't be the last time seeing that I've ran out of food and water supply. It was disgusting and tasted bloody but it was too dangerous and risky to set up a fire to roast it in case they noticed the smoke. By night I crawled back to my tent which was just enough to shelter me from the weather, and stayed awake the whole night in spite of the fatigue I bore to avoid the horrifying nightmare of her death which kept persistently repeating the moment I shut my eyes.   

May 18th, 1944

The sound of gunshots awoke me from my usual nightmare, and as i was recovering from the drowsiness, I witnessed a troop of men heading towards my direction. They were dangerously near and time did not permit any chances of running, so I was left with the only option I had to survive: disguise myself. I quickly gathered fallen leaves on the ground and dip myself in a pool of mud which I had fortunately found near my tent. And there I laid, waiting for the troops.The wait was nerve-racking and i was close to losing my mind in that instance. The sound of footsteps were terrifying as they were nearing me. While they were barely a step away from me, one of them stopped. My heart was pounding so madly against my chest and the sound of it was so deafening I could swear anyone who's within a mile's radius could hear it clearly. As i stayed silently facing the earth covered in mud, I gave God a silent prayer to spare me just this once. I heard one of them shouted an order, and the rest hurried away in another direction. After a long tormenting minute, I assumed they were gone.Turned out I was wrong. Suddenly, I felt something being jabbed hard on my back. I was fighting every nerve in my body to hold back my scream and it took me seconds for me to realize what was happening. I was being stepped on. The weight of the soldier squeezed every breath of air out of me and I was trying hard to not move a muscle. Eventually, the weight was lifted and the pain subsided. I waited for any sound or signs of movement but  the woods were dead silent except for the rustling of the trees. I scurried back immediately to my hiding place and thanked the heavens. Sometimes I questioned God, why did He bring this on us Jews? Aren't we the chosen ones? Aren't we the ones he favored upon? What have we done wrong to deserve all these punishments? I knew I had to act fast and leave before the soldiers come back, but ultimately I gave in to exhaustion and went into a trance. 

May 19th,1944

I knew the odds of surviving will never be in my favor again when I encountered them for the second time. It all happened so fast and I was still in a daze when they caught me. The next thing I knew I was kneeling on concrete ground, vision blurring, hands bound by ropes, mouth gagged by a cloth coated with gasoline, and a throbbing pain filling my head. The sun was just rising above the horizon and the air was fresh and filled with the scent of flowers. I tilted my head to see a couple of my own people being captured as well. I could hear footsteps and voices behind me mumbling in a foreign language, which was no surprise for me for it was the same language used by the people who killed my parents. My view of the beautiful scenery was obscured by the silhouette of a man. I looked up and saw the most horrid and hostile face I've ever seen in my entire life. He gave me a sinister laugh and bent to get a closer look at me. 'What's your name little girl?', he spat. I snorted. That really ticked him off. He grabbed me and stuck a blade in my mouth. 'WHAT IS YOUR NAME GIRL?' 'Penny.. Penny Casspi.' I slurred. 'I guess you really do worth nothing more than just a penny.' he scoffed. Then he gestured to the men behind us,and I knew this was the end. I have not much time left.. I guess I failed her after all. I couldn't manage to get to the address written on the slip where my mother desperately wanted me to be. But a part of me was secretly glad. I no longer have to suffer and bear the load of fear everyday. And the uncertainty of surviving every hour kills me inside. To me it was sort of a blessing in disguise. The thought of reuniting with my parents brought a smile to my face. I wasn't afraid anymore. A teenage boy who was kneeling beside me stared at me with panic and sheer fear in his eyes when the soldier behind him aimed the gun at his head. The echo of the ear-splitting gunshot carried on for a good minute and I watched in horror as his figure fell beside me, brain blasted out of his head. I was next. As the man took his aim, I prayed to God one last time and asked Him to make them pay for everything that they've done to the innocent. Particularly Adolf Hitler. He will be damned and punished painfully in hell..