Esther Posner - March 11, 1986
Life Under German Occupation
When did things start to change that, that you recognized?
Um, before the invasion uh, we lived in this particular, in this apartment with--I lived with my parents and my grandparents and my aunt and uncle and a cousin lived somewhere else, not far from there. And during the invasion or right afterwards, there was a lot of bombing in the city and my aunt and uncle were bombed out of their apartment. So that was the first thing--that was the first personal change that I felt that they came to move with us--moved in with us. Then there was an incident where these German soldiers came to our house, and they took my parents out of the house and they said it was just a meeting and my parents said to me, you know, they'll be back. And uh, I was frightened that they wouldn't come back but they did. It was just an evening--whatever it was--it was a get together, or--I don't know how they treated my parents or what they did. A lot of these early memories, you know, are seen through my parents trying to calm down a child and not get the child very upset about whatever the situation is but I remember being very frightened because these soldiers came and took my parents and the next morning my parents were back in the house. Uh, I, I remember the razzias, which we saw from the window of the house. And again, my parents, you know, wouldn't let me look through the window, but, of course, I used to glance out anyway and catch glimpses of these trucks going up and down the street and people coming out of their houses being uh, you know, prodded by soldiers and being herded into these cars and uh, not really knowing where they were going but, you know, having ideas that they would not come back. Um, then also there, there were the incidents of, of just seeing the soldiers around on the street.
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