The joy is so overwhelming I have to clutch my chest. I have barely anything but my ribs there now, and I don’t know if they are strong enough to hold the weight of joy in my heart.

As we march, I take Mutti’s hand and we move bit by bit through the group. Slowly, gradually, inching towards him. He does the same. It takes him much longer than us as his limp is so pronounced now, but we come gradually closer, and as we do I realize that it’s not just Otto. Beside him, there is a thin, grey, hunched-over man.

This time my heart almost rips in two. ‘Vati!’

We are together. The four of us. Every fibre of my being aches with a longing to hug them, to hold them close to me and never let them go, but I know I can’t. We have seen people kicked and beaten for less. I see in their eyes that they want to do the same. But we know the rules. We know the consequences.

We settle for simply knowing we are all alive and walking together.

Finally, we reach the railway track. But there is no train here. Up ahead I can only see cattle trucks, a long line of them. I guess we will have to wait for them to move before our train comes.

But the cattle trucks aren’t moving. In fact – the guards are opening up the carriages and ordering people into them. Shouting and shoving and pushing them in as if they are bags of junk to be packed in as tightly as possible.

The crowd is gradually being pushed towards the trucks. Mutti grabs my hand. I grab Otto’s on the other side and see him take hold of Vati’s with his other hand.

‘Do not let them separate us,’ Mutti hisses.

And then it is our turn. We are in front of a truck that is already so full of people I assume we are to move to the next one. Still gripping Mutti’s hand, I turn to look. The butt of a rifle in my side turns me sharply back.

‘Get in!’ the guard shouts.

How are we meant to get in? The truck is full.

We aren’t left wondering for long. We are shoved and squeezed and pushed and dragged until we are in. I am slammed against the side, face to the wooden slats. Mutti is beside me. Otto and Vati have got separated from us, but if I crane my neck, I can see them. They are in the same truck. We are together again, that’s the main thing.

I remember the train ride to Theresienstadt and how squashed in we were. But at least that was a train designed for humans to ride in. At least we could breathe.