Tahseen Murad Haider has told his story many times by now, and he doesn’t want to spend much time rehashing it. It’s understandable why.

Haider was an emergency room nurse in Sinjar General Hospital as the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, drew near in its bloody march to conquer the region. Haider is a Yazidi, an ancient people that have a religion that ISIS considers to be demonic. And ISIS intended to wipe out the Yazidi. Haider was working at the hospital on Aug. 3, 2014, when a call came in: ISIS is coming; you have five minutes to get out. 

“If you didn’t get out, it means you would be arrested,” he said. And that meant almost certain death.

“There were only two options: Either you want to save your life or stay with the patients,” he said. “So we could not stay anymore. I heard after that all of the patients got killed.”

Haider and thousands of other Yazidi were forced up Sinjar Mountain, in what would become known as a massacre as ISIS besieged the mountain in an attempt to destroy the Yazidi. He would eventually have to walk to Syria before returning on foot.

“It was a terrible life,” he said. “We lost hope. We lost everything.”