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Pile of ashes, growing too fast.

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In together, out with one soul ceased.

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The grotesque orders of the nazis sounded customarily in my thoughts. Their loutish voices surging heinously into my mangled eardrums. My fathers eyes met mine, once last time before he perished, and his decrepit fingers entwined in mine. I was filled with warmth from his familiar amiability, until my dreams subsided and I awoke to see the dark tattoo on my starving arm: 161154.

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The pile grows, the stretch grows. The pile grows their spirits rise. There spirits rise our spirits sink. We work harder, more lifes loss.

We grow weaker, they grow stronger.

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I hear them crying as I’m dragged away, I hear them yelling “MOMMY!” Tears start rushing down my face this is the end.

Babies crying, mothers dying, no hope.

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How is it possible that such a large group of people, so intricate and detailed; seen as so little to one man? A man we trusted

hit as object. felt as human.

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the blood flows down my wounded body . my breath short and slow . the bodies around me -- i see , eyes closed . will we make it through?

piled like wood , about to burn .

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Waiting. The shatter of a bowl , surrounding precious memories. Young and old ones. My last moments. Waiting , wanting it to end. Click, click, Bang.

6 word - the hard barrel , pressed against me

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25 word-As I fly this nazi plane, knowing the people below, I smash the button to let the bombs go, hovering down, I watch them fall.
6 word-Bombs go, hovering down, I watch

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Frightened, punished; no reason, no sense

Is It bad that we were tattooed numbers to keep us organized. Throwing us in giant cages like animals in the zoo- that's not fair

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25 words

The last thing I remember seeing were the strong people fighting right beside… we were all here  doing the same thing fighting for our lives.

6 words

Running with a friend returning alone

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I can’t blow my cover but I can’t kill all those people… What can I do? Without thinking, I push them into the chamber, and run.

finally taking over; ending this war

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Soon, I'd be one of them.

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6 - Armed, ready to kill at any moment.

25 - As he holds the grenade in his hand and throws it, he thinks to himself in his mind. “What has this world come to.”

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25 word:

Alright guy we are pulling up to the Island. Get ready to let down the payload. Here we are. Now boys on my count, 3-2-1 fire.

6 word:
Japanese Pilot: Bringing death to Americans… slowly; painfully

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The pile grows, the stretch grows. The pile grows their spirits rise. There spirits rise our spirits sink. We work harder, more lifes loss.

The Crack of the Whip;282 281

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They die: We Kill: No Mercy

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25 words-I never wanted to leave her  it’s so hard to say goodbye to someone you love especially when you don’t know it was your last goodbye.

6 words-

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25 words-

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25 words-

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25 word

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The grotesque orders of the nazis sounded customarily in my thoughts. Their loutish voices surging heinously into my mangled eardrums. My fathers eyes met mine, once last time before he perished, and his decrepit fingers entwined in mine. I was filled with warmth from his familiar amiability, until my dreams subsided and I awoke to see the dark tattoo on my starving arm: 161154.

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We were there living peacefully - and then they came in. The Japanese were flooding us with bombs. So we fought back as well with our own planes.

We live for our own Freedom

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I look up at the Führer and my breath is taken away. Everyone’s inspiration, everyone’s favorite German ruler. Everyone’s everything, but mine. I despise him.

It hurts to look at him.

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Jew Family-  We were being marched. To the fire pit of death. They threw us all in at the same time. My little brother screamed and so did I .

Being marched: Fire Pit: Screamed Death

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They continue yelling. “Don’t take my baby.”  Being pryde apart one by one. Then there was a bus. A death camp bus. They are gone.

Pyred apart. No mom don’t go!

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25 words-

Still smiling we carry on knowing there isn’t much hope left we still work for the worthless men who want to hurt us just because our religion.

6 words:

one repeating word one bad man death

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25 words

I see the hatred, I see the pain, it’s hard to go on performing . Keep smiling, keep dancing. It hurts to see the soldiers suffer.
6 words

One seat saved: forever empty

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Rummaging through the rubble a little piece of happy times come shining through the clouds of gray bricks… the smile that was once my daughters.

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Work's tough, but so are we!

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25 words-A piece of cloth sets us apart from the other children. I long to be the same kid I was three years ago, a star makes that impossible.

6 words-Bomb dropped on Hawaii, whole country exploded

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No telling between living or dead.

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Bombs fell, people screamed, I watched.

I sat there with my brother. He looked so happy, watching the soldiers march by. If only he knew the horrible things those soldiers do

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death everywhere it …took out everything

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6 Word: Bombs dropped; The war was ending

25 Word:

I was in Gross- Rosen Camp on work detail when a plane flew over dropping black specs nearby! All the Jews in the camps then became a little happier as it was the Allies

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Could always be worse. I could....

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25 word-

Why did we have to take this long, Lives we could have saved, down the Nazi drain.  Just numbers to them, but names to us.

6 Word-

Smoke fills the air-- my soul

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Nazi's Round up Children, Gas Chambers

I watch, from a distance, as the Nazi’s round up all the children for the gas chamber, but I cannot stop the horrifying scene.

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25 words -

The Japs had us on our heels. Though we stood together… fought together. We were bonded as one. Giving our lives for our brothers.

6 words -

We live together; forever; in eternity...

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25 word-

It was just a normal flight. A regular perimeter check. Then I saw it. I thought it was just a rumor. Its Hitler's Secret weapon.

6 word-

We were protecting something world changing

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Men were scared, men would die, I would survive... no matter what. I was going home on my feet or I wasn’t going home at all.

Men... Death... Survival... It’s so unfair.

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25 word

It was a typical day in Hiroshima until i heard engines. i thought this was unusual. I looked over head and i saw a US aircraft opening its bomb doors, I ran

7 word

Over head. bomb doors opened; I ran

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6 words-Bomb dropped on Hawaii, whole country exploded

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Born- Lives, Laughs… Captured, Torchered- Dies

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25 word-

As the bombs fell everyone panicked. The sounds of the bombs could be heard from miles away. The more explosions there were the quieter the world got.

6 Words-

As the bombs fell everyone panicked.

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“sub 8 o clock torpedos incoming, full speed ahead , depth charges out following sub - keep rolling depth charges out.” “Sir they've breached permission to full broadside?”

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6 words

Faith,Family,Freedom,Together,Brotherhood,Sisterhood
25 word

I knew I had joined the military for a reason. For freedom, for the people back in my country that couldn’t defend for themselves. I had one job , kill or be killed. That's what everybody was saying. We were no more than a quarter mile away from shore when bullets just rained down from the bunkers the Nazis had created. But that wasn't going to stop me unless I got shot.

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25 Word-The only sound on the street is the hooves of the horses. People come to pay the last respects to the President-dead from a stroke.

6 Word-Have no fear. Harry is here.

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25 Words-

I held him. This man shaking with pain, asking us to just let him go. I held my brother. I would not let him go.

6 Words-

The white light pulled me in.

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6 words - “Heil Hitler”; pride, honor, wealth now ours

25 words -  I raised my hand in a salute,” Hail Hitler!” This man would bring honor and wealth to our country; my children would be in a world of luxury.

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25 word story-

I stood, waiting for the officer to call my name, to get beat again on my tiny, body with barely any flesh left over- I felt more tired and more pain after one whip, then I ever did.

6 word story-

The walking dead, but still surviving.

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25 word - I watched them as they stared at my fallen brothers. With all this loss was there really any gain? How could one look at the bodies, knowing they caused this, and live with themselves?

6 word - They were dead… Now they’re deceased

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I tried. I failed. I was beaten. Only to wake up and have a rope around my neck. I scream but they just laughed as I hung there dying.

The rope. The fall. The darkness

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I put my shoes in the bag as a tear dripped down my cheek. I wiped it away in fear I would be beaten by the officers. My shoes gave me hope.

Almost Survived. I needed my shoes.

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”Five got away.” but I already knew that I helped them. I was a German soldier that helped Jewish people get out of concentration camps.

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25- We were too late. The Nazis killed them all. They lay dead in lines as far as the eye could see. They were… liberated.

6- I miss them. Should I join?

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As we raised the American flag, we recalled all those who had fallen. They did not die in vain. We are Americans. We are proud.

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25 word-

Broken buildings, burning buildings, buildings that were nothing. I was surrounded by a graveyard of the once beautiful London. What a tragic beauty it is.

6 word-

It’s painful to see everything crumble.

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25 word story: I extend my hand--weeping inside. I take a breath and forget, trying not to hear the man weeping in front of me as I release the trigger.

6 word story: Waiting, trembling--cold metal against my head.

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Why? The one of us who wants to live -- the one who deserves to live, dies and the ones who deserve to die, keep on living?

Waiting, thinking,wondering, Who will survive?

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25 words:

Hiding. The one place I feel is good. The Camps. I dread the camps. People always keep asking are you a jew. Yes I am.

6 words:

Hiding: found; Camps: Dreadful; Showers: Death.

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Ceasar Maragni/The Southern Illinoisan via AP

ST. LOUIS - A doctor once told Albert Brown he shouldn't expect to make it to 50, given the toll taken by his years in a Japanese labor camp during World War II and the infamous, often-deadly march that got him there. But the former dentist made it to 105, embodying the power of a positive spirit in the face of inordinate odds.

"Doc" Brown was nearly 40 in 1942 when he endured the Bataan Death March, a harrowing 65-mile trek in which 78,000 prisoners of war were forced to walk from Bataan province near Manila to a Japanese POW camp. As many as 11,000 died along the way. Many were denied food, water and medical care, and those who stumbled or fell during the scorching journey through Philippine jungles were stabbed, shot or beheaded.

But Brown survived and secretly documented it all, using a nub of a pencil to scrawl details into a tiny tablet he concealed in the lining of his canvas bag. He often wondered why captives so much younger and stronger perished, while he went on.

By the time he died Sunday at a nursing home in southern Illinois' Nashville, Brown's story was well-chronicled, by one author's account offering an encouraging road map for veterans recovering from their own wounds in many wars.

"Doc's story had as much relevance for today's wounded warriors as it did for the veterans of his own era," said Kevin Moore, co-author of the recently released "Forsaken Heroes of the Pacific War: One Man's True Story," which details Brown's experience.

"The underlying message for today's returning veterans is that there's hope, not to give in no matter how bleak the moment may seem," added Moore, whose nephew just returned from military duty in Afghanistan. "You will persevere and can find the promise of a new tomorrow, much like Doc had found."

The Bataan Death March. (U.S. Army)
Brown, recognized in 2007 at an annual convention of Bataan survivors as the oldest one still living, couldn't muster the strength to talk about his experiences until about 15 or so years ago, said his granddaughter, Susan Engelhardt of Pinckneyville, Ill.

"I'm not a big military buff at all. But just reading the story about the death march and the situation in the Philippines, it's an incredible story. And incredibly sad," Engelhardt said. "He's an incredible man, and he had an incredible legacy. He came through horrible times and came out on top, rebuilding his life. But so many of those men and women triumphed."

Brown's account described the torment that came about every mile as the marchers passed wells U.S. troops dug for natives but weren't allowed to drink from once they became prisoners. Filipinos who tried to throw fruit to the marchers frequently were killed.

Family Photo

Brown remained in a POW camp from early 1942 until mid-September 1945, living solely on rice. The once-athletic man - he lettered in baseball, football, basketball and track in high school - saw his weight whither by some 80 pounds to less than 100 by the time he was freed. Lice and disease were rampant.

Despite the hardships, Brown focused on bright spots, including a prisoner called on to fix Japanese soldiers' radios. The prisoner managed to steal radio parts, scraping together enough components to build a functioning unit of his own. Brown helped craft a listening tube for the device, which brought the captives news from San Francisco that the U.S. actually had won a battle the Japanese soldiers were celebrating as a naval victory.

"He had this incredible spirit to live and overcome," Moore said. "Positive thinking or whatever you call it, he survived."

Born in 1905 in North Platte, Neb., Brown was the godson of Wild West folk hero " Buffalo Bill" Cody, who often let the boy sit on his lap and tug his beard. Brown moved with his family to Council Bluffs, Iowa, after his father - a railroad engineer - died when a locomotive engine exploded.

He studied dentistry at Creighton University in the 1920s and was called to active duty in 1937, leaving behind a wife, children and a decade-old dental practice his war injuries prevented him from resuming.

By the time the war ended in 1945, the 40-year-old Brown was nearly blind, had weathered a broken back and neck and suffered through more than a dozen diseases including malaria, dysentery and dengue fever.

He took two years to mend, and a doctor told him to enjoy the next few years because he had been so decimated he would be dead by 50. But Brown soldiered on, moving to California, attending college again and renting out properties to the era's biggest Hollywood stars, including Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland. He became friends with John Wayne and Roy Rogers, doing some screen tests along the way.

"I think he had seen so much horror that after the war, he was determined to enjoy his life," Moore said.

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Oldest survivor of Bataan Death March dies at 105

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A doctor once told Albert Brown he shouldn't expect to make it to 50, given the toll taken by his years in a Japanese labor camp during World War II and the infamous, often-deadly march that got him there. But the former dentist made it to 105, embodying the power of a positive spirit in the face of inordinate odds.

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When I got back they had said I had four holes in my chest. They were devastated. They had no parents now.

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25 word story...

I lost him... he was gone... my own American hero was dead, why him? I thought, why not take me instead? He did nothing wrong.

6 word story...

He’s gone; my own hero… dead

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I was ready, memories flashed in my mind bad but i was ready. Then all i heard was deafening. Grenades, tanks and guns boomed.

Deafening sounds panicking ;tragic memories flashed.

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6 Word Story

The wounded;hoping;fighting for our country.

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25 word Story:

I see it in his eyes--yearning for forgiveness, filled to the brim with guilt; sorrow. “Forgive me,” he manages under his breath. He pulls the trigger--I’m gone.

6 Word Story:

One more step--last uneasy breath.

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I am a true American Hero.  I slaved through days of starvation and thirst to end the Nazis.  And this Nazi flag is my legacy.

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25 Words-

They are like small clouds, but they make so much noise. Dropping pellets just like birds would. But those are more than just bird pellets...

6 Words-

bullets scream, blood flies, women weep

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6 Word-As I sit there:Lifeless;Help!

25 Words-As I stand there,the lifeless bodies look like my stuffed animals.I was trying not to cry but my dads in there.

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We thought it would last forever, we thought it would never end, I thought I would die in this nightmare, then they finally came, the Americans were here.

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6 word story- cold, frightened, I've lost this war

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25 word-
Surrounded by soldiers, but feeling so alone. Isolated in my own mind… thoughts so terrifyingly sad. Picturing my life as a child this is not what I saw.

6 word-

Blurry pictures--horrible memories, “what happened?”

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When I got back they had said I had four holes in my chest. They were devastated. They had no parents now.

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25 word story

We have been through thick and thin together.”Will I make it out alive?”I thought to myself. “Will I see my family again?”The whistle of a bomb approached.

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6 Word-

Cold, broken, hungry, why not free?

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25- She stood there holding his final letter in her hand. A tear falls down her cheek. She wasn't sure if it was a tear of joy or fear.

6- Letter addressed to her from no one

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There was no food just cheese.

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6 word

Daughter born: loving mother: no father
25 word
“I promise I will come back to you”. Those were the last words my husband said to me...4 years ago. Today he actually came back.

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6 word- Hopes gone; Holocausts won. Deaths Coming.

25 word- My hope is gone, my family is gone, and Jews are almost all gone. I’m a sack of bones, crippled by starvation. I want to die.

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25 Word- The man lay dead on the path so many Nazi’s walked before in triumph. Now--Americans strode over his body like it was rotten meat.

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25 Word -

I reminced the pain of the lifeless bodies, stacked like books. Faces unrecognizable, personalities lost. I realized, they were alive, and I was the dead one.

6 Word -

Attention: Life stolen. Return to: Jew.

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25 word- Nowhere to go, nowhere to run. With a gun to my back, I knew it was my slaughter that would be next down those train tracks. 6 word- Herded like sheep, slaughtered like cattle.

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As we dropped the bombs, we were shot down. I strapped myself to a chair and prayed. The water rushed in so fast. I was stuck.

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25 word-

It’s been so long, since I last saw my family. I remember that day as clear as can be. She was wearing purple fluff and he was doubtful, that I could ever succeed.

6 word-

Weaker than ever; Stronger than before.

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25 word-

I was the bad guy.  I killed thousands of innocent people today, but I had to or was I just helping myself?
6 Word-
Killing thousands of innocent people... save myself.

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25 word-

1. It isn’t the end yet. Being in Wehrmacht is one terrible place in Germany, but it will have to do for now.

6 word-
Rain? That’s just the ashes of corpses.

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25 word-

I’m surrounded by enemy soldiers. My cover is blown, this is it. The soldiers line up neatly in a row, guns ready. Everything is perfect.

6 word-

A smile is worth 1,000 wars.

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25 words-

I scream, sobs escaping my throat gulping with gasping cries. My knees buckle and I see him among the corpses. Strewn here, among the crowd, insignificant.

6 words (actually 7) -

Screams-haunt me. It was my job.

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25 Word-

Promised with a shower and bread, I know they lied, I have that fear. The showers spew mist and gas.  I wilt to the ground, drowning in gas.

6 Word-

Stacked-gassed bodies like Jenga blocks.

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6 Word: Hot fire: Crying, freezing, uncomfortable, goodbye

25 word:

The day I got up and started taking my clothes off with tears running down my face; I knew that it was the last goodbye