The war began, in the early morning of 1 September. Nothing like that had crossed our minds as we went to bed the evening before. I had made plans about how I would spend the day: swimming at the stadium in the morning and other pleasures in the afternoon. I was awakened by the echoes of a detonation. At first, I thought it was a storm. Then my mother got up, went to the window and noticed strange clouds of smoke in the sky and swarms of aeroplanes circling around like flies. (p. 2)

Prices kept going up. In general, things were getting worse. Regulations came out requiring Jews to wear an armband ten centimetres wide, with a blue Star of David, on their right sleeve. What would that look like? We could not accept it. I don’t remember when the deadline passed, but I did not put one on; in fact, I did not wear one for about two weeks. On my way into town by tram, I got my first look at a Jew wearing that symbol. What a sight! I was stunned. Anybody who felt like it could pick us out and harass us. We were like those Medieval Jews marked with a yellow patch and this was supposed to be the civilized Twentieth Century! (p14)

Life in the ghetto worsened by the day. We sold things to buy food. The overcrowding was worse and worse. Then, sometime in December, we had to turn in all our fur. This was an operation on a large scale. The penalty for possessing fur after the deadline was death, so it was no trivial matter. (p.32)

We could hear shouting and weeping from the street. I went to the window and saw the SS herding people like cattle, kicking and beating the defenceless people with their rifle butts. It was a terrible sight. I could not watch, so I backed away. A moment later, the Germans came to our apartment. We were ready for everything; nothing mattered to me anymore and Janek had also stopped crying. One officer came in and looked around. I simply don’t know how I managed to explain our situation so fluently and the fact we were alone, but he understood at once and left politely. A stone was removed from our hearts. Now we realise how great a person’s desire to live is. (p.38)

What a disappointment I felt when I reached the place and learned that the transport had left long ago. I lost my last hope of offering any kind of help, my last hope of even being able to wish them well. All at once I had lost everyone, everyone who was dear to me, and only later did I understand this. How difficult it was to get used to my emptiness and loneliness. (p.56)

After standing for a long time we finally marched out of the ghetto, which is completely deserted…. For the first time, I saw the panorama of our future residence, the barbed wire and the guard towers all around, and in the middle the tiny barracks, huddled up against one another, that are supposed to hold an entire ghetto. We had to stand again at the gate and they counted, re-counted, added up and subtracted, and they managed to play around for half an hour before deciding we should go to barrack no.18

One whole Barakenbau group of eighteen people was shot: several unemployed women who could not cope with the stone-breaking work and fifteen people laid off at the Kabel factory. One more crime to match the others. And where is the Lord God who watches all this and does not help us, who does not send any punishment for these criminals? Dear Lusia is in complete despair. Working at the stone-breaking group, she saw it all. She has no work assignment and we cannot arrange anything for her since we have no acquaintances. How terribly I feel the lack of my beloved father, who everyone knew