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Hitler and the Nazi party are telling the world that "Jews are a deceased race."
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Lola was born
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A German officer is killed in Paris by a Jew. Sets off a backlash called the Night of Broken Glass
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Czortkow starts having nightly blackouts. All streetlights are turned off, and Jews tape black paper over the windows so German Bombers can not see them when flying overhead
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In Europe, at least 6 million Jews died in WWll. 1 1/2 million were children. Adults had a 33% chance of surviving but children only had a 10% chance.
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Hitler invades Poland, where 3.3 million Jews live
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Lola can walk freely around the marketplace. The Russian soldier arrive
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Russians take over the town
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Hitler came up with a plan to execute all Europe's Jews called the Final Solution.
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Lola is 6 and a half and goes to a nursery school with some of her cousins. There are about a dozen kids.
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It was a Sunday, the Germans arrived in town marching with guns and tanks, wearing goggles, tall black boots, and leather jackets.
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The Germans made a law that anyone who provided shelter to Jews, or gave them food, or even sold them food, was to be killed
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The Japanese (that were sided with the Germans) bombed Pearl Harbor.
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Now that the Germans are there they make all Jews in Czortkow must live in Ghettos (a series of streets and buildings that Jews must live in). You must have proper papers to leave the ghetto.
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Lola father dies at home
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The first "action" comes. for Germans, it means a day set aside for rounding up huge numbers of Jews and sending them by train to the concentration camps. Lola, her mother, and her grandma hide in a narrow space between a storage area wall and a wall of another apartment building next door.
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Today is Purim a Jewish holiday. Lola's mother, a cousin, and 2 other women were killed by a German soldier enacting revenge for another German soldier going into his territory and killing a Jew.
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A few months after Lola's mother is killed, Babcia takes Lola aside right before bed, explaining she will be sneaking out of the ghetto that night. Babcia doesn't go with her. Tekla picks her up.
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Tekla's son-in-law works in the fields even though it is still windy and cold. Lola is always scared of him
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The final "action" happened late in June. The ghetto was "liquidated" and all the Jews were killed, including Babcia.
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A couple of months after Lola got to the house, a man and a woman came to the room where Lola was. The dog never barks. Lola pretends to be deaf and mute. The son-in-law says that the next day he is taking Lola to the Gestapo.
Tekla takes Lola in the middle of the night to Anna where she is put into a 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 foot hole with 3 other Jews. -
Anna tells them that the Germans are losing the war and retreating.
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They hear tanks and gunshots in the distance. Anna tells them that they are free.
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Anna comes and tells them they have been "liberated" by the Russians. Before sunrise Lola and the others crawl out of the hole they were in for 9 months.
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Now that the Russians controlled the town, the Germans were officially liberated from Czortkow
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The Germans tried to come back and take back Czortkow. Lola has to leave because Rose won't take her back.
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Lola is 9 1/2 years old and was found passed out on the ground when walking from Czortkov. A man who knew her father finds her and brings her to a stranger's house leaves her there.
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Lola begs for food. A Russian soldier offers to take her to the orphanage in Kiev
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The Russian soldier has to drop Lola off in the small town of Gritsev. He explains to the mayor that he was taking Lola to the orphanage in Keiv but his plans have been changed and he has to go back from where they came. Sergei, a man who happened to be at the city ha;ll, offers to take Lola
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The Germans are officially gone
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American and British soldiers land on the beaches of Normandy, France, and begin to push the Germans westward while the Russians are passing them eastward. This is the day America thinks is the beginning of the end of WWII.
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Lola turns 10 in in the Sergei's house. While Sergei tries to find more of her family she tries to fight her strong and hard emotions.
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Sergei finally got in contact with Uncle George. He got in jail because he didn't have the proper papers and he is sick.
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Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
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Germany surrendered. Known as "Victory in Europe Day"
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Poles and Ukrainians are still killing Jews even though the war is over
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America drops two atomic on Japan
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Japan surrenders
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Lola gets onto a train with a man named Romek heading to Krakow to be reunited with her Uncle George. When she gets there she feels no emotions when reunited. She's numb even though she knows it is an emotional moment
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Lola's Uncle Isaac shows up at Uncle George's house. Lola likes Krakow. However, they don't stay long and end up leaving because the tension between the Poles and Jews has not gone away.
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Lola, Uncle George, George's family, and Uncle Itch are moving from country to country trying to escape from the persecution of Jews
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Lola finds herself in Eschwege. Germany in a displaced person's camp run by the United Nations. She spends over a year there. Lola tries to go to Israel because she doesn't want to go to America.
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Lola finally gets clearance to travel to America. Uncle George and his family received clearance the year prior but waited for Lola.
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Lola starts high school but drops out to work full time because she takes care of herself not asking her aunt or uncle for anything
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Lola graduates at 16 with her compometer operator certificate. Starts working Saks 34th Street during the day and goes to high school at night, But later drops out of high school
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Lola goes to Brighton Beach where she meets her husband. He is 11 years older and from Poland too.
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Lola and Walter get married. Lola goes back to school and gets her high school diploma.
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Lola is 21 and worked until the birth of her first child Deborah Renee. She was named after her mother—Dawoja and Walter's mother- Rachel. They live in a one-bedroom apartment
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Lola's second child is born. Micheal Jay. He is named after Walter's and Lola's father. Walter has gone to school to design and create patterns for coats and suits. They move to the suburbs in Long Island
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After living 13 years in America she opens the New York Post and finds that the person that killed her mother is finally going to jail for life. She is 28 years old and the man, Kurt Kollner, was sentenced to 9 life sentences for each person he killed.
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Lola gives birth to her third child. Jeffery Scott. He is named after Lola's parental grandfather and her oldest uncle
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50 years of silence was broken when Jane Marks asked Lola for an interview for a book on hidden children. Jane unlocks not just Lola's words but her emotions too.
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Jane Mark's book on hidden children during WWll is published
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Anna Aksenczuk, the non-Jew who hid Lola in the hole, was officially recognized as one of the "righteous" at the "The Righteous Among the Nations" in Israel.
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Lola receives a letter from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. looking for artifacts that survived the war. Lola donates the dress she wore for 9 months.
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Lola'd dress travels to different states and cities. Lola travels with it and Sara Bloomfield where Sara gets Lola to publically speak about the events of WWll and the dress