Harry Praw - June 30, 1982
Start of War
Until uh, September 1939 the war broke out. A week later the Germans came in. There wasn't too much of a war in our city--in Łódź. There was nothing like a bombardment or anything like that. There was nothing ruined. The city remained in one thing--in one piece as it was before. And the Germans came in a week later.
Mm-hm.
Unfortunately, their first thing on the agenda was the problem with the Jews. So we put on the yellow star with the word Jew, I'm sure you've heard of that before.
Mm-hm.
And...
That was in the first week after the Germans...
First week--the second day when they came into the city.
Uh-huh.
Another went out. A curfew was put into effect and we couldn't be on the street after five o'clock in the afternoon.
Mm-hm.
Most of the living in Łódź--in the big city--was apartment style living. So every apartment building had a gate. Even before the Germans came in, after eleven o'clock at night the gate was locked. So if you wanted to get in, you had to ring a bell and the caretaker--janitor came in and looked through a peephole and if he saw that he know you, he let you in.
Uh-huh.
And when the Germans came in, the five o'clock curfew we had to be in the house after five o'clock. And a day or two later, words got around that the Germans are picking up Jews off the streets and loading them on trucks. They, they always said they were going to work. A lot of them came back beaten up, women were raped.
[long pause] Sorry.
It's all right. No, it's, it's hard to talk about it. I understand.
[interruption in interview]
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