The Hidden Girl

  • 1930's

    Hitler and the Nazi party are the telling word that "Jews are a diseased race" and "Salve Race"
  • October 4, 1934

    Lola was born
  • November 9, 1938

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

    Czorkow starts having rolling black out. All the streetlight are turned off, and Jews tape black paper over the windows so Germans bombers can not see the when flying overhead.
  • September 1,1939

    Hitler invades Poland because, 3.1 million Jew living there. England and France declared war on Germany. this it the beginning of World War II
  • September 1939

    Lola is free to walk around town with her mother. but in the same day the Russians soldiers arrive.
  • September 17, 1939

    The day when the Russians take over the town of Czortkow.
  • 1941

    Hitler comes up with a plan to kill all the Jews and he called it the "Final Solution".
  • Spring of 1941

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

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

    The Germans made law that anyone providing food and shelter for the Jews will be killed.
  • December 7, 1941

    Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, bringing America into the war.
  • April of 1942

    the Jew in Czorkow are confined in to a ghetto, a series of streets and buildings where Jews must live. you must have the proper papers to leave the ghetto, or they'll be shot on the spot.
  • Summer of 1942

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

    the first "action" comes, for Germans, its 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 grandmother hide for two days behind a wall, from the Germans.
  • March 21, 1943

    today is Purim, a Jewish holiday. Lola's mother and her cousin and 2 others killed by a German soldier enacting revenge for another German soldier going in to his territory and "shooting his Jews".
  • May 1943

    a few months before Lola's mother was killed, Bebcia takes Lola aside right before bed, explaining she will be sneaking out of the ghetto that night. Bebcia does not go with Lola. Tekla picks Lola up at the bridge.
  • Spring of 1943

    Tekla's son-in-law works in the fields even though it's still windy and cold. Lola is always scared of him because he doesn't want her there.
  • late June of 1943

    A final "action" happened and then the town of Cortkow was "liquidated": and all the Jews were killed, including Babcia.
  • Summer of 1943

    A couple months after Lola got to the house, a man and a woman come 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'll take her to the Gestapo. Tekla takes Lola in the middle of the night to her sister, Anna, in the middle of the night. Anna places Lola in a 6 1/12 x 6 1/12 foot hole with 3 other Jews.
  • New Year of 1944

    Just after the new year of 1944, Anne tells Lola and the other Jews that the Germans are losing the war and are retreating.
  • March of 1944

    Lola and the other Jews hear fighting nearby. they can hear the tanks rumbling and the crack of gunfire. To Lola and the other Jews time it is wonder sound.
  • Morning in March of 1944

    Anna tells them that they have been ''ilberated'' by the Russians. before sunrise, the next day, Lola and the other Jews crawl out of the hole they had been in for 9 months.
  • March 23, 1944

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

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

    Lola is 9 and half and she was found passed out in the snowy ground when walking from Cortkow. A man who knew her dad finds her, and brings her to a stranger's house, and leaves her there. then the Russians come and take her to Dzymalow.
  • April 10, 1944

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

    the Russians solder has to drop Lola off in the small town of Gritsev. He explains to the Kiev but his plans have been changed and he has to go back from where they come now. Sergi, a man who happened to be at city hall offers to take her.
  • June 6, 1944 / D day

    American and British soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, and began to push the Germans westward while the Russians were pushing the eastward. This is the day America thinks is the beginning of the end of WWII.
  • Summer of 1944

    Germans finally disappear from Crotkow.
  • October 4, 1944

    Lola turns 10 years old 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-feeling of being unwanted. Sergei has been writing letters to Cortkow to try and find family of Lola's.
  • April 12, 1945

    Sergei finally gets into contact with Lola's Uncle George. He is living in Lwow. He is one of Lola's mothers brothers. Uncle George goes to Kiev to look for Lola, not realising she isn't in the orphanage. He goes without papers and is placed in jail where he get really sick.
  • April 30, 1945

    Adolf Hitler Commits Suicide.
  • V-E day May 7, 1945

    Germany surrendered and is known as "Victory in Europe Day".
  • Summer of 1945

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

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

    Japan surrendered which is known as "Victory over Japan Day".
  • September of 1945

    Lola gets onto a train to a man name Romek heading to Krakow to be reunited with her Uncle George. When she get's numb even though she knows it is an emotional moment.
  • Late Summer of 1946

    Lola's Uncle Isaac shows up at Uncle George's house. Lola like Krakow. However, they don't stay long and end up leaving because the tension between the Poles and the Jews has not gone away.
  • Fall of 1946

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

    Lola finds herself in Eschwge 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.
  • 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 of 1949

    Lola starts high school but drops out to work full time because she takes care of her self. She doesn't ask her aunt or uncle for anything.
  • October of 1949

    Lola is 16 but still feels like a child. The only thing she knows for sure is that she can walk. This is stemming from her trauma from WWII.
  • September of 1950

    Lola graduates at 16 with her comptometer operator certificate. She starts working at Saks 34th Street during the day and goes to high school at night but again drops out.
  • October of 1951

    Lola goes to Brighton Beach where she meets her husband. He is 11 years older and from Poland too.
  • April of 1952

    Lola and Walter get married. Lola goes to school and gets her high school diploma.
  • 1955

    Lola is 21 and works until the birth of her first child, Deborah Renee. She was named after her mother, Dwarja, and after Walter's mother, Rachel. They live in a one-bedroom apartment on Brooklyn.
  • 1958

    Lola's second child is born, Michael Jay. he is name after Walter's father and Lola's father. Walter has gone to school to design and create patterns for coats and suits. they move to the suburbs of long Island.
  • June 26, 1962

    Lola is 28 years old and has lived 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 Kollner 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, Jeffery Scott. He is named after Lola's paternal grandfather and her oldest uncle.
  • Memorial Day Weekend of 1991

    50 years of silence was broken when Jane Marks asked Lola for an interview for books on hidden children. Jane unlocks not just Lola's words but her emotions, too.
  • 1993

    Jane Mark's book on hidden children during WWII is published and Lola's story is told for the first time.
  • November 21, 1994

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

    Lola receives a letter from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. looking for artifacts that survived WWII. Lola donates the dress she wrote for the 9 moths in the hole.
  • 2002

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

    Lola Rein Kaufman writes 'The Hidden Girl: A True Story of the Holocaust'.
  • October 1, 2014

    Lola past away at the age 79.