Edith Kozlowski - August 19, 2010
Life in the Ghetto I
Can you tell me what it was like when they moved you to the ghetto, did they just show up one morning and say everybody has to go? Or...
I don't remember, but I know that my uncle was even in the Jewish community center working. Esther's--you know Esther's husband. That he was...
Husband: Husband?
Esther's--Ida's--Ida's father. Esther's husband was working in this department, to assign to the Jewish people places.
Housing.
Yeah, they were helping.
So he worked for the Judenrat, or...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he went before we did. They took these people to Auschwitz before they...
Right.
Touched us.
The first, the first, the first group.
The workers. Right, right, right.
Under Diamant? Was the head of the Judenrat, Yosef Diamant? Do you remember that name? Doesn't ring a bell?
No. Anyhow, so we moved there.
Mm-hm.
And we had a store there too. Uh, my girlfriend started to work for the Germans, repairing uniforms that came from the war to the cleaners first, and then for repair to this place. It was called uh, AVL
Do you know what the initials stand for?
Allgemeine, ???, I don't know, Lager I know.
Husband: What was the name.
AVL, Allgemein
Husband: ???
For what, the...
Husband: ???
Maybe. He doesn't know--yeah.
Okay.
She worked there. So there were different departments.
Okay. So there were--there were shops all through the ghetto? Different little shops...
Not...
Not shops.
In the ghetto? No.
No, no.
This was a development--it was on the, in one place, the AVL big place, big buildings. It was uh, shoe maker, it was a tailor. Uh, for them--to work for them.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn