Emma and Her Four Boys

#12, Auschwitz Album Revisited

Oil Painting by Dr. Pat Mercer Hutchens

Here is a mother with her four boys. Three are standing with her. One is in the womb. They are pausing in the line until prodded to continue shuffling slowly toward the gas chambers. None of these boys are 18, the age where many boys were kept alive for the horrible work force for the Nazi system. That included Jews herding Jews and sorting their possessions.

That included Jews digging ditches where more Jews were brought, made to undress and stand naked at the top edge of the pits, watch others being shot and wait for the one that would kill them and their children. After enough were shot and fell into huge piles in a mass grave, it was set on fire.