War. Raging fire. Blackened skies. Death lingers among the forsaken earth, where wreckage and blood shed tainted the ground. Hatrid. Violence. Discrimination. A place where naught matters but bringing an end to the beginning of a people. Adolf Hitler, leader, diplomat, member of the Third Reichstag of Nazi Germany. The man who brought the death of millions of people. My people. My name is Nava Onsaut, and I am a Jew. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The night was November 9, 1938. There was nothing particularly spectacular about the evening; the moon was waxing, surrounded by millions of eternal lights. No clouds speculated, no rain lingered, the air, yet, was exceedingly cool. My father was working late downstairs in the parlour- likely doing paper work. Mother had already fallen asleep before the midnight hour had come, and my eldest brother, Rudy, lingered in the kitchen, nibbling on a slice of bread. I was writing at that specific moment, carelessly sitting in my diary about my crush from school, and my upcoming 13th birthday. Nothing unsettled my giddy thoughts, not even Rudy. Or so I thought. A shattering of glass, explicit yelling and the sound of my mother riding from her slumber. Rudy, in a sudden haze of frantic motion, ran to my room- telling me to hide. My parents never revealed to me why we must wear the golden "Jude" star, or why I was shunned in school at times... maybe that's why I never knew to hide when it happened. I hid myself in the lowest, smallest cabinet I could find, believing the intruder was nothing more than a vagabond robbing us... I never expected what was to come. I heard my father screaming angrily, and my mother's passionate tears, Rudy was silent, maybe he had not been found, I thought. My mother's terror could not make me move from the cabinet, more my father's anger; I was a coward. As the screams grew quiet, and the yelling faded to the distance, I stepped from my refuge. Daylight was breaking. My home was silent and as I called shamelessly for Rudy, I got my answer upon looking out into the streets. They were hollow. Broken glass shattered on the ground, everywhere. Kristallnacht- the night of the broken glass, was the night that permanently changed my life. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Should I continue??? Feedback is appreciated ! Thank you for reading! -Jenna