The Hidden Girl

  • 1918

    Czortkow became part of Poland in 1918 16 years before Lola was born
  • 1930's

    Hitler and the Nazi party are telling the world that "Jew's are a diseased race".
  • October 4, 1934

    Lola was born
  • November 9, 1938

    A German officer was killed in Paris by a Jew. Sets off a backlash known as the Night of Broken Glass.
  • Summer 1939

    Czortkow starts having rolling blackouts. All the street lights are turned off, and Jews tape black paper over the windows so German bombers can not see them when flying over head.
  • Europe in 1939

    Six million Jews, of the nine million who lived in Europe, died in WWII, 1 1/2 million were Jewish children. Adults had a 33% chance of surviving, and children had a 10% chance.
  • September 1, 1939

    Hitler invades Poland, where 3.3 million Jews live.
  • September 1939

    Lola is free to walk around the marketplace with her mother. The Russian soldiers arrive
  • September 17, 1939

    Russians take over Czortkow
  • 1941

    Hitler comes up with a plan to execute all of Europe's Jess. It is called the Final Solution.
  • Spring 1941

    Lola is six and a half years old and is going to nursery school at her fathers cousen's house. There are about a dozen other kids there, too
  • July 6, 1941

    It was a Sunday, the Germans arrive in town marching with guns and tanks, wearing goggles, tall black boots, and leather jackets.
  • October 15, 1941

    The Germans made a law that anyone providing shelter to Jews giving them food or even selling the food will be killed
  • October 1941

    Lola goes to Brighton beach were she meets her husband. He is 11 years older and from Poland as well.
  • December 7, 1941

    Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, bringing the Americans into the war
  • December 7, 1941

    Japan bombs Pearl harbor in Hawaii bringing the Americans to the ar
  • April 1942

    The Jews in Czortkow are confined to a ghetto, a series of streets and buildings where Jews must live. You must have proper papers to leave the ghetto.
  • Summer 1942

    Lola's dad dies at home.
  • August 26-27, 1942

    The first "action" come. For Germans, it means a days set aside for rounding up huge members of Jews and sending them by train to concentration camps. Lola, her mother, and her grandmother hide in a narrow space between a storage area wall and a wall of another apartment.
  • March 21, 1943

    Today is Purim a Jewish holiday. Lola's mother, a cousin, and 2 other women were killed by a German soldier, Kurk Kollner enacting revenge for another German soldier going into his territory and "shooting his Jews"
  • May 1943

    A few months after Lola's mother is killed Bavcia takes her aside before bed, explaining she will be sneaking out of the Ghetto that night. Bavcia does not go with Lola. Tekla picks up Lola at the bridge
  • Spring 1943

    Tekla's son-in- law works in the fields even though it is still windy and cold. Lola is always scared of him.
  • June 1943

    A final "action" happened and the town of Czortkow was "liquidated", and all the Jew's were killed including Babcia
  • Summer 1943

    A couple months after Lola got to the house, a man and a women came in to the room where Lola was. The dog never barks. Lola pretends to be deaf and mute. The son-in-law says they the next day, he is taking Lola to 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
  • January 1944

    Just after the new year of 1944 Anna tells Lola and the others the Gemans are losing the war and retreating
  • March 1944

    Lola and the others hear fighting nearby. They can hear tanks rumbling and the crack of gunfire . To Lola, this time it is a wonderful sound.
  • a morning in March 1944

    Anna comes to tell them they have been "liberated" by the Russians. Before the sunrise Lola and the others crawl out of the hole, they were in there for 9 months
  • March 23, 1944

    Russians control Czortkow, which was officially liberated on March 23, 1944
  • March 25-26, 1944

    Germans come back to Czortkow trying to reclaim the territory. Lola had to leave Czortkow because Rose wouldn't take her back to the farm house
  • April 4, 1944

    Lola is 9 1/2 years old and was found passed out on the ground when walking from Czortkow. A man who knew her father finds her and brings her to a stranger's house, leaving her there. Russian soldiers come to take her to Dzymalow
  • April 10, 1944

    Lola has to beg for food. A Russian soldier offers to take her to the orphanage in Keiv
  • April 12, 1944

    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 in Keiv but his plans have been changed and he has to know go back to where they came. Sergei, a man who happened to be in city hall offered to take Lola.
  • Summer 1944

    Germans completely disappear from Czortkow
  • D-Day June 6, 1944

    American and British soldiers land on the beaches of Normandy, France, and begin to push the Germans westward, while the Russians are pushing them eastward. This is the day America thinks is the beginning of the end of WWII.
  • October 4, 1944

    Lola tuns 10 years old while living with Sergei. She is sad and upset but will not let anyone know. She is having big emotions over losing her family and being tossed from one place to another. Feelings of being unwanted. Sergei has been writing letters to Czortkow to try to find the family of Lola
  • April 30, 1945

    Adolf Hitler commits suicide
  • April 12, 1945

    Sergei finally gets into contact with Lola's uncle George. He is living in Lwow now. He is one of Lola's mothers's brothers. Uncle George goes to Keiv to look for Lola, not realizing she is not in the orphanage. He goes without and is placed in jail, where he gets really sick.
  • V-E Day May 7, 1945

    Germany surrendered. Known as "Victory in Europe Day".
  • Summer 1945

    Poles and Ukrainians are still killing Jews even though the war is over.
  • Early August 1945

    America drops two atomic bombs on Japan.
  • V-J Day August 14, 1945

    Japan surrendered. Known as "Victory over Japan Day".
  • September 1945

    Lola gets on a train with a man named Romek heading to Krakow to be reunited with her uncle George. when she gets there, she feels no emotion when reunited. She's numb Evan though she knows this is an emotional moment
  • Late summer 1946

    Lola's Uncle Isaac shows up at Uncle Georges 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
  • Fall 1946

    Lola, Uncle George, Uncle George's family, and Uncle Ich are moving from country to county trying to escape the persecution of Jews.
  • December 1946- January 1947

    Lola finds herself in a displaced person camp in Eschwege, Germany run by the United Nations. She spent over a year there. Lola tries to go to Israel because she doesn't want to go to America
  • July 7, 1949

    Lola gets clearance to travel to America. Uncle George and his family received clearance the year prior but waited for Lola.
  • September 1949

    Lola starts high school but drops out to work full time because she takes care of herself not asking her aunt and uncle for anything.
  • October 4, 1949

    Lola is a teenager but still feels like a child. Being able to walk is the only thing she knows for sure.
  • September 1950

    Lola graduates with her comptometer operator certificate. She starts working at Saks Fifth Avenue on 34th Street during the day and attends high school at night, but drops out again.
  • April 1952

    Lola and Walter get married. Lola returns to school and earns her high school diploma.
  • 1955

    Lola is 21 and worked until the birth of her first child, Deborah Renee. She was named after her mother Dworja, and after Walter's mother, RAchel. They live in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklen.
  • 1958

    Lola's second child is born, Michael Jay. He is named after Wlter's father and Lola's father. Walter has gone to school to design and Crete patterns for coats and suits. they moved to the suburbs in long island
  • June 26, 1962

    Lola is 28 years old and has been living in America for 13 years. She opens the New York Post and sees an article with the headline NAZI OFFICER GETS LIFE IN 9 MURDERS. Kurt Kullner was found guilty of killing Jews in Czortkow in the years 1942-1943. Her mother's murderer was held accountable in a German court for his wrongdoings.
  • 1966

    Lola gives birth to her third child, Jefferey Scott. He is named after Lola's paternal grandfather and her oldest uncle.
  • Memorial Day Weekend 1991

    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 memories too.
  • 1993

    Jane Mark's book on hidden children during WWII was published.
  • November 21, 1994

    Anna Aksenczuk, the non-Jew who hid Lola in the hole, was officially recognized as one of "The Righteous Among the Nations" in Israel.
  • 2001

    Lola receives a letter from the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., donated the dress she wore for nine months.
  • 2002

    Lola's dress travels to different states and cities. Lola travels with it and Sara Bloomfeild. Sara gets Lola to publicly speak about the events of WWII and the dress.
  • 2008

    Lola rights and publishes The Hidden Girl: A True Story of the holocaust
  • October 1, 2014

    Lola passed away at age 79.