| Writing - Division I I used to have a friend. His name was Yosi Huff. He was Jewish and a great musician. He played the violin. We were best friends and we played games together all the time. When we were younger we played board games a lot. Then something happened when we were older, we were about 12. It all started during the holidays in December. It was Christmas morning, Yosi always came over on Christmas. I got the best board game ever. It was called "Bombers over England." We competed to see who could destroy England by firing a ball on the playing board. If it, hopefully, fell on the one of the major cities, we would get a lot of points. If it landed on one of the Germans allies we would lose points. Yosi and I played this game all day long and we never tired of it. Yosi won almost every time because be kept on hitting London which gave him 100 points. I landed on Amsterdam, a German ally, so I lost a lot of points. I had so much fun, but I didn’t like to lose. Yosi would brag about how good he was at "Bombers over England." I started to feel angry. We have been playing games together since we were five years old. We always were together. We ate meals at each others houses. Yosi’s mother was the best cook I have ever known. When we moved in next door she made us a whole bunch of cookies. I ate all of them and had wished for more. Yosi helped me settle into the neighborhood. Yosi was my best friend for a long time after that. We used to walk down to the lake and skip rocks. We would see who could get more skips. We never thought we could be torn apart. My anger is what tore us apart. I heard my parents talking about Hitler’s war and the Jews. On the radio we heard how the German army was winning battles, but we also heard how the Jews were undesirable. Now I had good reason not to play with Yosi. At school I joined in with my friends making fun of Yosi because of the yellow Star of David he had to wear on the sleeve of his jacket. The more I listened to my parents, the radio, and my friends, the more convinced I was that Yosi was someone with which I didn’t want to be associated. Yosi wanted me to play, but I said I did not want to because he was a Jew. Yosi did not understand why I did not want to play with him because he has always been a Jew. I started to write hate letter to Yosi and he never said anything back. Every time I saw him I would join the other kids on the street calling him names and throwing rocks at him. He would always just ignore us and run home. I sometimes felt bad for him, but I thought it was the right thing to do. Then one day Yosi was absent from school. No one knew where he was. On the way home, I saw that his house was empty. They were gone. What a relief, the Jews were out of my neighborhood. I continued to listen to the radio and cheered for our victory. Then, a couple weeks later, on my way to school, I saw a truck full of Jews. Yosi and I saw one another. I could see the fear in his eyes. I knew I would never see him again. Now I realize how prejudice can easily harm other people such as Yosi. I started to think about how we played together when we were longer. I remember how good his mother’s cookies tasted. I remember how he loved to play his violin. I hope that other people realize that this is a terrible thing to do to people that are different than you and will learn from my mistake.
Bibliography German Children Played "Bombers over England" Board Game during World War II; Andy Dolan: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html |