Personal Narrative: Two Tales Of Survival

Survival, by definition, means “the state or fact of continuing to live”, but personally, life is not all about surviving. What is life without experience? Day to day, people face harsh living conditions- children in Africa are dropping from starvation, Syrians seek refuge from a horrible war, and homeless people in cities need to provide for themselves and families. On a more serious note, there are even worse tales of survival and making it out alive from the past, especially in times of prejudice and warfare. One of the worst cases in history of prejudice, in our case against Jews, and warfare is World War II. Krystyna, a young Jewish child, and Anne Frank both went through this tough time, and even though one didn’t make it out alive, their tales are inspiring and …show more content…
In my own life, the closest situation to theirs’ I’ve ever came close to having is camping. We packed enough food and rationed appropriately throughout the days we stayed, but besides that, I’ve never had a close encounter with survival. My survival is very different to theirs, seeing as I’ve never had a life or death situation before. The only similarities between the stories is everybody has the same necessities; food, water, clothing, and even family in general. While Krystyna and Anne faced their survival, they were lucky, for the most part, to have these. The Holocaust was a difficult time that put the lives of any Jewish person in jeopardy. Anne and Krystyna’s stories paint clear pictures of what this time was like; harsh, life or death situations. Survival is something humans are only capable of holding onto for so long. While Anne met an unfortunate end at the Bergen-Belsen camp, at the hands of Typhus fever, Krystyna’s story was just as heart-wrenching, but her tale gives us hope. In times of peril, you need to hold on to what you have, not on what you