Kestenberg Archive - Depositions

The goal of her diary was to describe the last days of Jews from Drohobych, Zhovkva, Zloczow, Tarnopil and Lvov in Poland and the Ukraine. In these cities, the Nazis selected strong men and pretty women only. They were moved to a labor camp in Lvov. The women worked in workshops in D.A.W. and the men were given physical assignments. In the lager, there was the Piaski from where people were executed. She described the increasing antisemitism of Ukrainians in Lvov, including attacks on Jews on the streets, throwing Jews out of their apartments, firing Jews from work, and forcing them to wear Jewish bands. At some point, meldenkarten were introduced and those who didn't work couldn't receive these meldenkarte and were sent to Belzec camp. In 1941, one week before the Nazis organized a ghetto in Lvov, she escaped the city alone and stayed in Czarny Potok. On the 20th of September she came returned to the city, but she didn't stay in the ghetto with her mother. Soon the ghetto was closed and the Nazis liquidated the kahal (Jewish administration) and killed all of its members. In February somebody reported about her illegal stay outside of the ghetto and she, together with her mother, were arrested and placed in prison in Pelczynska Street. Owing to the intervention of friends, they were not transported directly to the death camps but were sent instead to the Julag barracks in Lvov.