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Coller is born August 10, 1927 to a Jewish family in Lodz, Poland.
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"I went to a Jewish day school and had many friends there. September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland...I was kicking my soccer ball around the backyard when I suddenly saw German soldiers marching through the streets, some of them riding horses."
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Renamed Litzmannstadt after a general who captured the city in WWI.
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Ordinance issued that Jews 10 years or older wear Star of David pinned to chest or back at all times. This negatively impacted Jews living in Germany because now it made it easier for the Nazi's to be able to segregate the Jews into the ghettos.
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My sister and I waited in line all night at the bakery for bread, only to be kicked out in the morning when a Pole recognized us, shouting "Jews!" On the way to another bakery, we saw three Jews who had been hung in the street. We ran home.
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160,000 Jews are forced into the "Jewish Residential area"
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Forced labor Factories established in Lodz Ghetto
(Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski) -
Ghetto Established and more than 350,000 Jews forced to live in an area of 1.3 square miles with average of 7.2 persons per room.
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Warsaw Ghetto sealed with walls. Created "ghettoization" which restricted the rights of Jews, created inhumane living conditions, and clustered Jews into condensed areas. Once the ghetto was officially sealed, all Jewish civil liberties were suspended indefinitely.
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40,000 Jews and 5,000 Roma deported to Lodz ghetto
(Beno Helmer) -
Starvation and disease yield their highest mortality rates and ghetto reaches it max 445,000 people. Between 5-6000 die each month from the conditions. Smuggling of food helped most people barely survive.
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Germany occupying Lithuania. Spread of Anti-semitic propaganda that increases Lithuanian's disdain for Jews.
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"Order No. 1, signed by Oberführer SS Kramer, the "German commissar of the city of Kauen" declares: The Jewish population is forbidden to walk along city pavements. Jews must walk on the right edge of a pavement one behind the other."
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Schoolchildren in the Lodz Ghetto put together an album for Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski for Rosh Hashanah thanking him for what he did for them. https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/lodz/
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Ghetto ration card that allowed for 300 calories strictly from October 1941
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Relatively "quiet" in ghetto.Daily life activity was administered by the Council of Elders of the Kovno Jewish Ghetto Community and thei appointed and supervised the Jewish police, which was responsible for the forced labor and the maintenance of public order. Health, welfare, and culture services were provided. There were concerts and other events but life still difficult. Pregnancies forbidden. Women were to be shot if they didn't terminate their pregnancies.
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Jews begin being deported to Chelmno where they are killed in mobile gas vans.- Lodz
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Judenrat is no longer in charge of making a list of who is sent to camps. During round ups for deportations the SS shoot the crowd instead including children and elderly.
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In late 1943 I was deported from the ghetto to the Fuerstengrube labor camp in Poland. I worked in the mines...I did well because I was short and could fit in the small tunnels. I was fed only bread in the morning and soup at night.
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Decision to destroy Lodz ghetto restarting the deportation to Chelmno and Auschwitzz-Birkenau
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In January 1945 Yosel was one of many prisoners force-marched towards northern Germany. Liberated by the British on May 5, he eventually emigrated to America in 1947.
