War: The Death of Faith

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Long ago, back in 2000, I wrote a short story based upon a choice my maternal Grandfather made.

He was 25 and when Pearl Harbor happened he had a choice to join the war to escape the Kentucky coal mines. Go to war, or continue in the mines, where he also did the accounting.

So my grandfather choose to join the war, leaving his dog behind, a dog that waited for him at that corner of the property until he passed away, waiting for my grandfather to come home from war. But not everything of my grandfather made it back. He stopped believing there was a God the day he and the rest of the troops entered the concentration camps. His faith was killed seeing the evil and depravity of humanity.

When he passed away in 1999 we found more details out about his service, he got 5 Bronze stars, he was at the Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, and so many other major battles. He left the Army in 1945 Sgt. Ross J. Kitchen.

I am taking that short story and creating a novel. Though my grandfather is the inspiration, this is a work of fiction.

War: The Death of Faith

I didn’t know at the time; but when I made my choice of the coal mines or the Army, I traded one death for another. The world was at War, and I choose the Army. I said goodbye to my family, signed my father as my next of kin and I left. February 10th 1942, should have been a date of death on my stone.

This novel is going to follow the story of a young man who makes the choice to join the Army after Peral Harbor and will follow him through the war, to the discovery of the concentration camps, to coming home, and to making a life outside of the horrors he discovered about humanity.

Copyright © 2000 by Katherine Rochholz

Waterloo, IA

Publisher’s Note

All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means, mechanical, electronic, or otherwise, without first obtaining the permission of the copyright holder.

This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to persons living or dead (unless explicitly noted) is merely coincidental.

Pacify

Twitter VSS365 Prompt

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She felt nothing would pacify her soul.

She shuffled into the room, wrapping the worn out quilt tightly around her.

Shadows of the night still fading.

Her sleep crusted eyes twinkled in happiness when they zeroed in on the lone package under the tiny tree.

She had never, in her life, gotten a present.

What she did not know, the moment she opened the box, and gave her loyalty to the man who was raising her, she was signing her death.

She closed her eyes that night with a smile, holding on to the black teddy bear.

Her first ever gift, for her first true Christmas.

As she held that black teddy bear close to her chest, she sold her soul to an evil greater than the devil himself.

She just did not know it yet.

Condemn

Twitter VSS365 Prompt

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I stand silent.

As to speak would mean my own death.

I stand silent.

As the rivers run with the blood of the innocent.

I stand silent.

As my fellow women hang from the trees.

I stand silent.

As their screams ring out.

I stand silent.

As they drag them from their homes.

I stand silent.

As I face my own judgment.

I stand silent.

As they condemn me to death.

I didn’t stand silently.

As I faced my death.

I cursed them all.

I showed my truth.

I stood silent.

And now we are all condemned.