Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Edith Kozlowski - August 19, 2010

Outbreak of War

Yeah.

The maternal grandparents. Uh, [pause] I saw, from across the street during the war when they came in. Oh, first of all--I'm sorry. We lived in Radom as I told you.

Mm-hm.

And they occupied Radom a week be... after, they came in. And soon the first--they threw the first bomb. I got sick with dysentery.

Right at the outbreak of the war?

Right--when the first bomb--they dropped the first bomb. Then I got sick, September 1.

September 1, 1939?

Yeah, they took it over September 8...

September 8.

Seven days, yeah.

What was your first impression of the Germans?

Oh, they took everything away...

Scared?

Scared--from the store what they wanted.

Mm-hm.

And on the--when I got--I was fortunate to have a doctor across the street we lived at fourteen Żeromskiego, fourteen. Across the street Żeromskiego, but thirteen there was our internist. So he was coming and treating me. But one day I saw--one day from across the street when the Germans grabbed Dad and started hitting him, and cut his beard off.

Shaved his beard.

While he was going to the store--it was just before the store.

So, were there increasing anti-Jewish measures than after they came in?

For sure, arm bands and with the hitting and taking to work and... Then we went to a ghetto, we moved...

Okay.

From the main street to Narutowicza, to the ghetto. We got a store there too, well a little grocery store.

In the ghetto?

Yeah, the store was downstairs in--we lived upstairs.

Okay and you were in the big ghetto?

No. We moved--Oh, there were two ghettos there.

Two ghettos.

Marvin was in the small one, I was in the big one.

Okay.

So we moved to the big ghetto.


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