Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Erna Blitzer Gorman - July 12, 1989

German Invasion

Do you remember when the invasion began?

Well, I think we were at first told to go somewhere else because they see another building another house and there was a lot of fear again, I remember being told that I should hide in the corner all the time and I can still see the corner as a matter of fact, um, I remember told, constantly to be quiet, I know that the drapes were closed in that room so that nobody could look in, I know that my uncle and my father started to lift up the floor boards in that room and at first I thought it were different people but now it is my uncle and I see him very clearly, he had thinning hair and he was very slight and he had a very refined manner about him. My father and him lifted up the floor boards and at night they were digging with cups, I would imagine we did not have shovels, and a cavity was made in that area and large enough to hold the four of us and there were two or three other people. Yeah, and the cavity had one or two steps, maybe only one step, and then you slid down into this cavity and the dirt was taken out at night where they put it I don't know, but I think that they did not want anyone to know that they were doing that. This was, I knew that we hadto go down there if shooting would started to getting the Jews. We must have been in the ghetto by now. The name of the ghetto, I don't remember, I remember different buildings and different, ah so I was in different ghettos, but I don't' remember any names to tell you.


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