World War 2 Memoir timeline.

This was right before the war started for young Yehuda Nir. He was apart of a semi-wealthy family because of his fathers thriving business. An extravagant apartment, a lovingly family, and an abundance of money, his position before the war was fortunate.
Since Yehudars ninth birthday, his household was tense with his father anxiously listening to the radio for hours. Everyone around him was talking about politics and the new leader called "Hitler" for reasons unknown to him.

The war had begun. Warplanes flew overhead and air raid warnings began blaring through his town, though they didn't know when the war would break out, or where. Only two days after they arrived home from their yearly vacation, they were forced to leave. Being transformed from a well-to-do middle class to four refugees evacuated from their home. The family packed whatever they could, and without a car, the four looked out of place in their expensive clothes in a cart pulled by horses.

Traveling was harsh. Going to the Russian border in search of sanctuary, they were constantly stopped by polish soldiers to search their cart for suspicion that they were spies or smugglers. They never made it to the Russian border and went back to their home ten days after exile, happy as it was just as they left it. This phase of happiness would not last long.

All too fast, his life began to change. His father was pronounced a capitalist, lost his business, and was forced to hide every night. Main source of income gone, his mother became the backbone of the family. Food was starting to become rations, Russians had started lining the streets shooting at low flying German planes overhead, the idea to flee or stay torn through them. They knew the Germans were to come. Now it was only a question of when.

The Germans had invaded. Taking to the city arresting Jewish men on the streets, rounding them on the sideways for mass public executions, their presence wasn't a secret. Yehuda lost his father weeks after the invasion, being caught in one of the executions.

With his father gone, Yehudar, Mother, and his sister were left to fend for themselves. Jews families were start to be evicted from their homes and sent to the ghetto. Yehudar was learning to live from crisis to crisis. They were having to sell their personal belongings in exchange for food, and were now forced to wear white arm bands to show they were Jewish, making their position even more dangerous. The freezing conditions of Poland left the question if they would survive another season.

Yehudar and his family had another painful departure, this time to the Jewish Ghetto. Only being able to pack a bed, table, and three chairs. Hearing of his young cousin being killed, he grew terrified, knowing that age no long offered him protection in death. After a few days they made plans of escape. Their good friend in town, Ludwig, could make them fake documents claiming that they're christian, thus beginning their new life of foreign identities and constant relocation for safety.

Their departure from home, then the ghetto, landed them in Krakow. Afraid and vulnerable, they rented a room in a spa-house. Being a man had become dangerous since the Germans invaded, them being killed on the streets, so Yehudar was confined to a small, cold apartment for many months with little contact from the outside . While in Krakow, his physical appearance changed as well, changing his clothing and bleaching his hair blonde. Growing glum because of his ever changing motions in life.

Yet again, they were packing their things and heading for the next place in search of safety. Their neighbor had suspected them of being a Jew and were reported to the police. With no time to waste, they set on train to Warsaw, a large city, with hopes to go unnoticed in a place of that size. Surviving meant having to claim they weren't family as to get jobs, as they would suspect them as Jews fleeing together, so his sister became "close friend", and his mother a lady he saw only once a week.

Now in the fourth year of war, living in a packed house and sharing a bed with a boy he did not know, Yehudar had survived many life and death situations. Traveling by train, constantly looking over his shoulder, fake identities as Christians among-st Germans, he had turned 13. Lala, his sister, has gotten him his first job as a messenger boy to a German dentist as they needed all the money they could get. His life depended on it.

Work was hard. He now worked six days a week for his German boss, knowing little German himself. His boss had gifted him a suit specifically reserved for Germans. Whether he liked it or not, he was finally starting to blend in, even if it was with the race that had caused him so much agony. For the first time in four years, he felt safe with his sister and mother, celebrating his birthday since 1939.

Yehudar and his family were sure the Germans were losing the war. Life was going all too well for them. Steady jobs, places to live, food on the table and clothes on their backs. Their German bosses were beginning to writhe in the face that the Nazi's seem to be losing with the Russian army pushing back at them, but the hiding Jews cheered at their discomfort. Victory was at hand, and he was sure the war would be over in a day or two.

With his boss leaving to return back to Germany, fearful of the end, he was left to go live with a close relative, Zosia, leaving his mom and sister behind in the city. Days upon arrival, bombs from enemy plans were dropped and the Germany run town in Warsaw became secluded, as they didn't want invaders, trapping his sister and mother within the city. Contact was cut off. Hope for Yehudar seemed lost and he was terrified. How could he lose his only family, now, when victory was in their grasp?

Days of bombings went on. He was at a loss if his surviving family had made it, yet he clung onto his hopes. Yehudar had had enough of being helpless and took control of his own fate during this horrid war. He joined the Polish armed forces. If he had to die, he wanted to die fighting. The armed forces were cruel. Making deliveries with snipers at every rooftop, avoiding landmines, going through sewers to ambush German shoulders as they threw grenades, death was at every corner. All at age 14.

After serving in the Polish Army for a while, he grew deadly sick and was forced to withdraw. It wasn't stated how, but during recovery he was reunited with his mother and sister. The Polish had a harsh lost to German forces and now they were at a loss of where to go. To German "Prisoner of war" camp, where they would work for Germans, or stay in Poland and risk being discovered as a Jew. Yehudar had fought so hard to be in the same position again, wondering if they would survive another day.

The choice was made: they were to be Prisoners of war to the Germans. An attempt to be hidden in plain sight. Packing their belongings and starting over again was miserable, and the train ride was even worse. Packed in a cart used for transporting animals with other prisoners, the conditions were unpleasant. No place to relieve themselves, no space, no air conditioning. Some didn't make it off the train alive. He had begun to block at the constant knocking of death at his door.

To see that they were sent to a work camp and not tricked into a death camp was a relief. Although they now had no rights or privacy. Bathrooms and showers were joint to show Jews weren't to be respected. Gang activity was ignored, violence crawling within the camp. Yehudar, his sister, and mother were there for some time working for the Germans, until his mother bribe a Nazi solider with their last valuable item, her diamond ring, to make a phone call. Now, they had truly lost everything.

The call was to his mothers boss, Rockshmidt. When his mother worked for him, they had become quite close and had promised to take them away from the P.O.W camp site in return they work for him. Yehudar became a worker on his farm, his mother a maid for Rockshmidts mansion, and Lala a nanny for his son. Yet again, they took what little of what they had, with fake identities and changed appearances, to start a-new. Luck was persistently kissing their knuckles and urging them to survive.

Work was beginning to become domestic. Their lives didn't depend on the money, housing was given to them for free, and the fear of being killed had lessened dramatically. They were together, safe, under the care of the Rockschmidts. Yehudar began to love the work of the farmland. Truly this time the Germans were losing, reports of the radio saying causalities were high. Though his childhood had been stripped away from him only in grade six, his life was starting to look hopeful once again.

Yehudar was unaware that he was free until three days after they had been under Russian rule. To say he was underwhelmed was an understatement. Fighting for his life for five years, and when he's finally saved, he wasn't told the news of it happening. He was upset, yet the crushing weight of the war was lifted off his shoulders. For Rockshmidt, a German, this was awful news. Russians began reinstating his luxury items, taking things like his Mercedes and farmland. The war was over.

Yehudar and his family left the day after the news of liberation. Again, they packed their belongings. After so many years it was reduced down to one suitcase for all three of them. On a cart and horseback, they left. Yehudar thought of all his family that didn't make it to the end. His father, aunts, uncles, and so many cousins. Winning was bittersweet, empy, and yet.. he was free.