The Hidden Girl

  • 1918

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

    Hitler and the Nazi party are telling the world "Jews are a diseased race"
  • October 4, 1934

    Lola was born
  • November 9, 1938

    A German officer is killed is Paris by a Jew. Sets off a blacklash known at the Night of broken glass.
  • Summer 1939

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

    Six million Jews, or the nine million who lived in Europe, died during WWII, 1 1/2 million were Jewish children. Adults had a 33% chance of surviving children only 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

    The Russians take over Czortkow
  • Spring 1941

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

    Hitler comes up with a plan to execute all the Europe's Jews. It's called the Final Solution.
  • July 6 1941

    It was a Sunday, the Germans arrived in town marching with gun and tanks, wearing googles, tall black boots, and leather jacket.
  • October 15, 1941

    The Germans made a law that anyone providing shelter to Jews, given them food, or even selling them food, was to be killed.
  • December 7, 1941

    Japan bombs Pearl harbor is Hawaii, Bringing the Americans into the war
  • April 1942

    The Jews in Czortkow are confined to a ghetto, 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 " comes, For Germans, it means a day set aside for rounding up huge number of Jews and sending them by train to the concentration camps. Lola, her mother, and her grandmother hide in a narrow space between a storage area wall and a wall of another apartment building next door
  • March 21, 1943

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

    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 does not go with Lola. Tekla picks Lola up at the bridge.
  • Spring 1943

    Telka'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 " liberated " and all the Jews were killed, including Babcia.
  • Summer 1943

    A couple 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 three other Jews.
  • January 1944

    Just after the new year of 1944. Anna tell Lola and the others that the Germans are losing the war and retreating.
  • March 1944

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

    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.
  • March 23, 1944

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

    Germa return to Czotkow, trying to reclaim the territory. Lola had to leave Czotkow because Rose wouldn't take her back to the farmhouse.
  • April 4, 1944

    Lola is 9 1/2 years old and was found passed out on the ground when walking from Czorkow. A man who knew her father's finds her and brings her to a stranger's house, leaving her there, Rossian soldiers come and 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 tro 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 now go back to where came. Sergei, a man who happened to be at the city hall, offers to take Lola.
  • Summer 1944

    German completely disappear from Czorkow.
  • 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 WWI.
  • October 4, 1944

    Lola turns 10 years off while living with Sergei. She is sad and upset but will not let anyone know. She is dealing with 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 12, 1945

    Sergei finally gets in contact with Lola's uncle George. He is living in Lwow now. He is one of Lola's mother's brother. Uncle George goes to Kevin to look for Lola not realizing she wasn't in the orphanage. He goes without papers and is placed in jail, where he gets really sick.
  • April 30, 1945

    Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
  • V-E Day May 7, 1945

    Germany surrendered known as "Victory in Europe day"
  • Early August 1945

    America drops two atomic bombs on Japan.
  • Summer 1945

    Poles and Ukrainians are still killing Jews even though the war is over.
  • V-J Day August 14, 1945

    Japan surrenders known as " victory over Japan day."
  • September 1945

    Lola gets into a train with a man named Romek heading to Krawkow 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.
  • LAte Summer 1946

    Lola's uncle Isaac shows up at Uncle George's house. Lola likes Krakow. However, they don't stay long and 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 itch are moving from country trying to escape the persecution of Jews.
  • Decmeber 1946-January 1947

    Lola finds herself in Eschwege, Germany in a displaced person's camp 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 finally 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 or uncle for anything
  • October 4, 1949

    Lola is a teenager but still feels like a child, being able to walk is the only shes knows for sure.
  • September 1950

    Lola graduates at 16 with comptometer operator certificate. She starts working at Saks fifth Avenue on 34th Street during the day and attends high school at night, but again drops out.
  • October 1951

    Lola goes to Brighton Beach, where she meets her husband. He is 11 years old older and from Poland as well.
  • April 1952

    Lola and Walter get married. Lola goes back to school and gets 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 Brooklyn.
  • 1958

    Lola's second child is born, Michael Jay. He is named after Walter's father and Lola's father. Walter has gone to school to design and create 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 and article with the headline NAZI OFFICER GETS LIFE IN 9 MURDERS. Kurt kullner was not found guilty of killing Jews and Czorkow in the years 1942-1943. Her mother's murder was held accountable in a German court for his wrongdoings.
  • 1966

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

    50 years of silence was broken when Jan Marks asks Lola for an interview for a book on hidden children. Jane unlocks not just Lola's words but her emotions 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 hola, was officially recognized as one of the " righteous " at the " the Righteous Among the Nations' in irsrael.
  • 2001

    Lola receives a letter from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. Looking for artifacts that survived the war. Lola donates the dress she wore for 9 months.
  • 2002

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

    Lola writes and publishes. The Hidden Girl. A true story of holocaust
  • 2008

    she writes and publishes her book
  • October 1, 2014

    Lola passed away at age 79.