My new job at the concentration camp

I finally found work! The military was running short handed and needed civilians to guard the camps at night. My family would finally eat good again and I might even buy stockings for my wife.

I had walked past the camp by the river many times and had no idea how large it was until I went inside. The Officer in charge of my group, told us that there were 28,000 undesirables in the camp.

I had read in the newspaper last week that 15,000 had been transferred from the east. They were brought in by trucks and rail cars.

" Such terrible times we live in today," I muttered to myself as I walked into the preparation hall. I was given my simple black uniform and what they called a "razor club." It was two foot long, thick stick with razor wire wrapped on one end.

I softly said to the new recruit next to me, "I can't use this on another human being." He looked at me strange and whispered loudly," Don't ever let them hear you say something like that, you will have no job!"

A Captain stepped into the hall and began telling us about our responsibilities. Three gunshots went off outside and the Captain smiled and said,"Three little bullets for three little pigs."

I thought to myself,"They must be slaughtering swine for food."

The Captain began talking with a raised voice," Rule number 1, if one of the prisoners takes your razor club, you will take that prisoners place.

Rule number 2, you do not talk to the prisoners.

Rule number 3, you do not listen to the prisoners.

Rule number 4 and finally, you do not ever discuss the events of this camp on the outside."

My group was then led to our station in the camp. We were to work near the west entrance, close to where the women and children were detained.

I said quietly to myself, "these are women and children, why do we need these clubs?" I soon found out. A woman came screaming and pushing against the 8 foot woven wire fence about her son needing medicine.

One of the guards ran up an smashed at the fence with his club while yelling, " Get back you whore, shut up or you will need medicine!" She just fell to her knees, sobbing as three other women helped her disappear in the crowd.

I was becoming quite confused. These were people that could have been my neighbors or people I worked with.

I knew from the stories in the newspapers and from local discussions that people in the camps were people that were a threat to our way of life but why don't they just conform and deny their past?

The group leader told me to walk the hedge. The hedge was a fence protected path through the people. I was to take the first two hours of walking. I was to look for signs of trouble or groups talking in huddles.

As I walked, the women stared at me as the children stared at their mothers. I walked through the shadow of the machine gun tower, looked up and saw a soldier pretending to rake the crowd with bullets.

As I walked, I began to hear my name in a loud whisper,"William, William it is me, Macie!" I slowed my pace and from the corner of my eye, I could see that it was a woman who once tended a pub in a town not far from here where I use to go for beer.

I just kept walking as she maneuvered her way through the crowd. I could see that she looked straight ahead while she spoke to me. I was thinking, "Why in the hell was this woman here, she is a bar tender, what threat could she be to our Nation?"

I stepped a little lighter on the gravel so I could hear what she was saying.

Her words were desperate and chilling. She said," William, they murder us by the day....the trucks that leave are full of bodies.....the public is told that were are being re-conditioned....they put us in the white tanks and pump out the the air until we suffocate....they murder at least 300 a day."

I looked over and saw her stepping in time with me. She had on a dirty yellow dress and her face and legs were just as dirty. I began to see the hopeless faces of the women and the empty faces of the children. My soul began to ache. I got to the end of the hedge and turned around. She turned with me and kept talking.

She said, "Tell anyone that you can, please tell them." By then a young teenage girl began keeping pace with her and talking also. She said, " They killed my twin sister, I know they did, I can feel it."

Just after she spoke, a large man in a black hood grabbed them both and shouted,"Shut up!" He then looked right at me and shouted, "Walk, you just walk!"

As I kept walking, I noticed that he was marching them both deep into the crowd. The faces behind the wire stared a hole through my heart as I walked with a faster pace to the end. When I got there, I told the group leader that I was feeling sick and wanted to go home.

He directed me to the main gate house and told me to turn in my uniform and razor club before leaving.

He made some kind of hand signal to the guards at the gate house. They grabbed me and stripped my clothes from me. I stood in my undergarments as they told me to never return and if I as much as muttered one word about the camp, my family would be arrested and imprisoned here.

They opened the large pipe and wire gate, slowly and I walked out.

The first thing I saw, far away down in the town were the old yellow arches of a McDonalds restaurant.

Here I am, going home half naked and jobless again. I believed that the Defenders of the Constitution were terrorists. I believed that the Activists were terrorists.

I believed that our government was rounding up insurgents to keep us safe. I believed that the camps were set up to re-condition people.

Now, I believe nothing.