Alicia

Alicia Appleman-Jurman's Story of Survival

  • Alicia is Born

    Alicia is Born
    Alicia is born in a small town located in Poland called Buczacz
  • Nazi Party Takes Power

    Nazi Party Takes Power
    Adolf Hitler becomes chacellor of Germany. Books with ideas that could challenge the Nazi belief are destroyed and burned
  • Hitler Becomes Fuhrer

    Hitler Becomes  Fuhrer
    Hitler combines positions of chancellor and president to become leader of Germany.
  • Germany Invades Poland

    Germany Invades Poland
    Jewish population at that time was 3.35 million. Beginning of SS Activity. Germany uses the Blitzkrieg strategy to invade.
  • Alicia's Life is Forever Changed

    Alicia's Life is Forever Changed
    Alicia had lived a peaceful life with her family up until this point. She is only 9 at the time of the invasion of Poland, and her city of Buczacz. Poland is partioned along with being divided by Germany and Russia after a negotiated a treaty. Russia got the part of Poland that included Alicia's city of Buczacs.
  • Quote From Nazi Newspaper

    Julius Streicher - "The time is near when a machine will go into motion which is going to prepare a grave for the world's criminal - Judah - from which there will be no resurrection."
  • One of Alicia's Older Brothers is First to Die

    (Exact date is unclear, year 1940)
    Moshe escapes from working in Russia and says conditions were hell. Russians come looking for him because they didn't want others to know. They find Moshe, imprison, and kill him. Family is distraught over the first loss of their family.
  • Alicia Escapes Death

    Alicia Escapes Death
    (The winter of 1941)
    Alicia is visting a Jewish family when Germans kick down the door and order everyone out. They are then loaded in a train and shipped out. The Jewish adults spread the bars of a window, and the children are pushed out so that they can live. The adults guess they were being taken somewhere worse than a ghetto, which is true. They are being shipped to be exterminated. The children all got lucky and only escaped with minor injuries. All adults on the train are later killed.
  • Germany Breaks Treaty, Attacks Russia

    Germany Breaks Treaty, Attacks Russia
    The attack is called Operation Barbarosa. Russians had had no set plan for the Jews they had in Poland, but Germany did. Germans gather 600 of the Jewish community leaders (including Alicia's father) and kill them by firing squads. The Holocaust is now fimly upon Alicia's family with the loss of their father Sigmund Jurman.
  • Ghetto is Created in Buczacz

    Ghetto is Created in Buczacz
    (Exact day is unknown)
    The rest of Alicia's family is forced to move from their beautiful home to the worst area of the city which was the newly established ghetto.
  • Another Older Brother Killed

    (Exact date unknown)
    Brunio goes to pick up wood in the forest, and is instead picked up by Germans and sent to a slave camp. One of the boys he is with trys to escape, so many more had to die. Germans use tactics to terrify everyone into not disobeying them. So the group of ten boys are killed as an example. Brunio, is one of them. Not even halfway though WW2, and Alicia has lost two brothers and her father.
  • Alicia's Third Brother Hanged

    (Exact date is unknown)
    Seventeen year-old Zachary has had enough with feeling helpless. He joins small groups to fight back against the oppresion. Then, he is betrayed by a Polish friend, and is caught by the police. They later hang him in front of the police building for everyone to see. Alicia is devastated by the loss and vows to protect her mother and little brother with her life.
  • Alicia Escapes Death the Second Time

    Alicia goes to prison in place of her mom to protect her. She is beaten in prison and almost dies due to the typhoid fever that she contracts. The guards think she's dead, so she's loaded up into a cart to be buried. A gravedigger couple realize she's not dead, and the couple nurse her back to health in secret. They then later smuggle her back to her family in Buczacz.
  • Alicia Survives Killing Squads

    Alicia had been hiding in the attic of her house with many other people when the search sqauds were about. She could hear babies crying, so she went to comfort them. The Germans found her, and shot the babies in the mouths. She is then ordered to take part in a death march, but before she was to be shot, her friend Milek grabbed a gun and yelled to run. Alicia went back to Buczacs, no matter how risky it was, because of the pact her mother, brother, and her had made if they were to be seperated.
  • Alicia and her Mother Escape, but her Brother Herzel Dies

    Herzl goes to look for his sister after she was caught. Their mother makes a plan to escape. Later, Herzel is no where to be found, and Alicia's mother finds Alicia. They escape to the countryside, and take refuge in an epileptic man's home. They take up farming along with other laborers in the field. Later, Alicia and her mother receive news that Herzl had been shot. Out of Alicia's six family members, only her mom and her are still alive.
  • Russian Troops Reach Former Poland Border

  • Alicia is Liberated

    Alicia is Liberated
    (Spring of 1944)
    Alicia and her mother are liberated by the Russians after they reinvade Poland. Her last encounter with the Germans though, ends with the death of her mother. Her mother (Freida Jurman) moves in front of the bullets that were meant for Alicia, and gives her life for Alicia.
  • Hitler Commits Suicide

    Hitler Commits Suicide
    Hitler takes Cyanide pills and kills himself in his bunker
  • Holocaust Ends

    Holocaust Ends
  • Quote From Hans Frank

    Hans Frank (a nazi war criminal) states, "A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased."
  • Alicia Sails Off On the Theodore Herzl

    Alicia Sails Off On the Theodore Herzl
    (Early 1947)
    Alicia sails off on a illegal immigrant ship to Israel. She later gets caught, and is detained in Cyprus by the British Navy for eight months. Afterwords, she studies in Israel and fights for her country against Arab villages.
  • Alicia marries Gabriel Appleman

    She meets her future husband while serving in the Israeli Navy.
  • Alicia publishes her book, Alicia: My Story

    Alicia publishes her book, Alicia: My Story
    This book describes her entire life of before, during, and after the holocaust.
  • Alicia Today

    Alicia Today
    Alica now lives in California with her husband and three children. She is 80 years old, and is one of the most mentally and physically tough people ever to survive the holocaust. She goes around synagogue to synagogue educating everyone about what happened in the Holocaust