The Nazis were committing genocide and it was becoming deadlier, day by day. Summer was long gone and it had been over two months since the tree leaves had changed from deep greens to all shades of fire before becoming bare with slumber. The season had become bitter as now a blanket of snow covered the naked land. The winter nights were long and even the bravest of hearts prayed for the warmth of morning despite the little comfort it gave to the war torn country.

The full moon hung like a watchful eye in the starlit sky. It gazed down upon the world as though it knew itself to be the only thing left untouched by the war. Tinted indigo by the dark, the desert of snow spread across the landscape. The few trees that had managed to survive the destruction of the countryside were nothing more than looming silhouettes, spiking upwards into the dark blue heavens. An eerie silence hung in the air and it seemed to go on forever. The Polish countryside had become a frozen wasteland; an abandoned world unto its own. No animals rummaged through the snow and no wind cut the air.

Nestled between the drifts of snow, amidst the emptiness of the world around it, a steel railway line cut the pristine white. It extended into the horizon until it touched the sky. With no beginning and no end, it ran its course across the soundless land. Until that night, the rails had been the pathway to death for those hand picked by the Nazis.