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Hitler and the other Nazi party are telling the world that "Jews are a diseased race."
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Lola was born
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A German officer is killed in Paris by a Jew. Nazis break the windows in synagogues, set them on fire, and smashed the windows of Jewish-owned stores. Known as Night of the broken glass.
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Czortkow starts having nightly blackouts. All the streetlights are turned off, and the Jews tape black paper over the windows so German bombers can not see them when flying overhead.
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Six million Jews died during WWII, 1 and a half million were Jewish children. Adults had a 33% chance of surviving, children only had 10%
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Hitler invades Poland, where 3.3 million Jews live, more than any country in Europe. England and France declare war on Germany. This is the beginning of the Second World War, which lasts six terrible years.
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Lola is free to walk around the marketplace with her mother. Russian soldiers arrive.
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The Russians take over the town.
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Hitler comes up with a plan to execute all of Europe's Jews, called the Final Solution
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Lola is six and a half years old, and going to nursery school at her father's cousin's house. There are about a dozen other kids there too.
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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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Germans made a law that anyone who hid, helped for even sold food to the Jews was to be killed.
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Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, bringing the Americans into the War.
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The Japanese, (who sided with the Germans), bombed Pearl Harbor. Bringing the US into the war
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The Jews are confined to a ghetto, a series of streets a buildings where Jews must live. You must have proper papers to leave the ghetto.
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Lola's 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 grandmother 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, Kurt Kolliner, 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 does not go with Lola.
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It's windy and cold. Tekla's son-in-law works in the fields, even though it's windy and cold. Lola is always scared of him.
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The "final" action happened in Czortkow. The ghetto was liquidated, and all the Jews in it were killed. If Germans thought Jews were hiding in a building, they burned it down. Babcia was killed along with very many other Jews.
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A couple of months after Lola gets to the house, a man and a woman come to the room where Lola is. 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.
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Just after the new year 1944, Anna tells Lola and the others that the Germans are losing the war and retreating.
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Lola and the others hear fighting nearby. They can hear the tanks rumbling and a crack of gunfire. To Lola this time it is a wonderful sound.
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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 dark hole that they have has been in hiding in for 9 months.
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All the Germans have fled, and Russians now control Czortkow. It was officially liberated on March 23, 1944
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Rose won't bring Lola back into the farmhouse and makes her follow the crowd out of Czortkov. Lola is 9 1/2 years old. She is found passed out and gets taken to a strangers house.
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Lola begged for food, a Russian soldier offers to take her to an orphanage in Kiev
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The Russian soldier has to drop Lola off in the small town of Gristev. He explains to the mayor that he was taking Lola to the orphanage in Kiev but his plans have been changed, and he now has to go back. Sergei a man who happened to be at city hall, offers to take Lola.
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The Germans return for several days, but in the summer of 1944, the Germans completely disappeared.
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American and British landed on the beaches of Normandy and France and begin to push Germans westward while the Russians were pushing them eastward. This is the day America thinks this is the beginning of the end of WWII.
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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. Feelings of being unwanted. Sergei has been writing letters to Czortkov to try and find the family of Lola's.
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Sergei finally gets in contact with Lola's uncle George. He is living in Lwow now. He is one of Lola's mother's brothers. Uncle George goes to Keiv 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.
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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 bombs on Japan
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Japan Surrenders. Known as Victory over Japan Day.
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Lola gets onto a train with a man named Romek heading to Krawkow. When she sees Uncle George she has no emotions when reunited, she feels almost numb. It's an emotional moment.
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Lola, Uncle George, his family, and Uncle Itch, are moving from country to country trying to escape from the persecution of Jews.
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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 finds herself in Eshwege, 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 starts highschool 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 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 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.
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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 Dworja and after Walter's mother Rachel. They live in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.
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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 move to the suburbs in Long Island.
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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 MURDERERS. Kurt Kollinur 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 wrong doings.
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Lola gives birth to her third child, Jefferey Scott. he is named after Lola's paternal grandfather and her oldest uncle.
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50 years of silence was broken when Jane Marks asks Lola for an interview for a book on hidden children. Jane unlocks Lola's words, and emotions.
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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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Jane Marks's book on hidden children during WWII is published
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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's dress travels to different states and cities. Lola travels with it and Sara Bloomfield where Sara gets Lola to publicly speak about the events of WWII and the dress