Cady's Life by Anne Frank

Meanwhile, for the Jewish population life was rapidly going downhill. In 1942 the fate of many Jews hung in the balance. In July the Germans started sending call-up notices to sixteen-year-old girls and boys and taking them away. Luckily, they seemed to have overlooked Cady's friend Mary. Later, it wasn't just young people who had to go, but everyone. Throughout the autumn and winter, Cady saw the most terrible things. Night after night the streets were filled with the sound of roaring lorries, screaming children and banging doors. Beneath the lamp, Mr and Mrs van Altenhoven and Cady looked at each other, and in their eyes was the question, 'Who will be gone in the morning?'

One evening in December, Cady decided to visit Mary, in the hope of taking her friend's mind off things for a while. That evening, the streets were in a worse turmoil than ever. Cady had to ring the bell to the Hopkenses' three times and assure Mary, who peeked cautiously out of the window, that it was safe to open the door. Mary led her in to where the whole family was sitting around, metaphorically kitted out in sports togs with rucksacks on their backs, simply waiting. They were pale, and didn't say a word when Cady entered the room. Had they been sitting like this every night for months? Seeing all those pale and frightened faces was awful. With each bang of an outside door, a shock went through everyone in the room, as if the door to life itself were symbolically being slammed shut.