Joseph Mueller's Survival Story

Joseph Muscha Mueller was born to Gypsy parents in Bitterfeld, Germany. He started his first year of his life in an orphanage. When Joseph was born there were about 26,000 Gypsies from different tribes living in Germany. Most the Gypsies were German citizens but still had to go through a great deal of harassment. When Joseph was a year and a half he was taken into foster care, which is the same time the Nazi party became powerful. When Joseph went to school he was physically and mentally harassed by students that were members of the Hitler youth movement. Joseph was taken from class by two strangers who said he had "appendicitis" which is inflammation of the appendix, they said he needed surgery right away. He disagreed and was beaten then forcibly sterilized and put in surgery. When he recovered he was planned to be sent to a concentration camp called Bergen Belsen. His foster father found a way to get him smuggled out of the hospital an hid him. Joseph ended up surviving the war by hiding in a garden shed for five months idcard.pdf(application/pdf Object) (United States Memorial Council).

Joseph's story really made me interested because I think it's amazing that a 12 year old boy can go through all these hardships and still find the strength to make it through. The fact that he had to hide out in a shed for five months is incredible to me. I knew that in World War II there were Gypsies that were also mistreated but I didn't realize there were that many. I definitely think I can come close to relating to Joseph's story.

Myself, And my two younger sisters that suffered the abuse

When I was about eight years old my younger siblings and I were mentally and sexually abused by a step-uncle. I remember being very afraid when my younger siblings and I had to visit my grandmothers house where he lived. I also had to be strong for my sisters because I knew they didn't know what was going on, and at the time I was threatened not to tell. My grandmother has been paralyzed since we could remember so she had no idea what was happening. This had been going on for maybe two months when I couldn't take it anymore, I told him that I was going to tell my parents and that this would stop. What scared me is that he laughed at me like it was a joke when I said it. The next time we visited, our grandmother had to go to the doctors and my stepmother was taking her. I knew that we had to hide or things would only be worse this time. I took both of my sisters to a crawl space in the attic and hid until I could hear my stepmothers voice again. We were hidden for about two and a half hours and everyone was confused as to why we were hiding and looked scared to death. After I told my parents everything that was going on my mother took it to court. My mother always told me I was a very strong, brave girl for protecting my sisters the way I did. I do not dwell on what has happened in my past or look for sympathy, I know that I simply survived!

Work Cited:
United States Memorial Council. "Identification cards" Division of Education Resources for the
       Classroom. USHMM.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum N.D. Web. 14 Sep. 2010.