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5. Moving to the Ghetto The moving of the Jews to the ghetto started in the middle of the week. The sky was covered with very small white clouds through which the sun's rays beamed brightly. Our community started to move as soon as the order was issued. We could see caravans ofdisheartened men, women, and children. They were still alive but their faces were dead. Everyone carried on his shoulders whatever he could; those who were more prosperous rented a cart or wagon and horse from the Lithuanians to move all their belongings. Those who could afford to rent a wagon and horse didn't have to worry so much; they could take all their necessities. But people who couldn't afford it took only the bare essentials. This caused some jealousy among the Jews. One would say, "Look who's riding, taking his belongings in a wagon. I have to walk and take only what I can carry on my shoulders." It wasn't that way; people with horses and wagons took other people on, but there wasn't enough space for all. Some Jews who were dragging their things called out loudly, "Hey! Look at his horse. They are sure to live through the war, but I won't even make it alive to the ghetto! I can only take a little; I have to leave all my belongings to the Lithuanian murderers." Some took all their furniture and some did not, but a little later the Germans came into the ghetto and took all the furniture anyway. There was a saying about jealousy at this time: "As long as you are alive, your eyes are very big, even when death is waiting on the tip of your nose." Since my grandfather's wagons and horses had been nationalized , we rented a wagon and horse to take what we could to the 42 The Shadow of Death ghetto. We packed everything that would fit, but we took no furniture. When the wagon was loaded, we sat on top of our belongings-all ofus on top ofthe wagon, my father and myself, three uncles and three aunts and three cousins. When we reached the bridge that crossed to Slobodka, two German SS men with a few Lithuanian partisans came up to us and told the driver ofthe wagon to stop. They told us all to get down, stand in a line, and keep our hands in the air. They looked us over from top to bottom and told us they needed volunteer workmen. They wanted someone to work voluntarily, but if they had to, they would choose and take by force. Among us there was a dead stillness. Everyone was so scared that they broke into a sweat, trembling. Nobody said a word or volunteered. When they saw that no one was volunteering, they pulled out my father. He begged them, crying, telling them how my mother died in the first days of the war and without him I would be alone. All this begging didn't help. They took him with a jerk and pulled him away, not even letting him say goodby to me or the rest ofthe family. Where they were taking him no one knew. I saw him only one more time, in the concentration camp at Dachau. But that is a chapter for later. Suddenly I was alone, even with the rest ofthe family around me. I felt so empty and miserable. Uncle Abraham and Aunt Ettel had always loved me like a son, and as soon as the Germans took my father away they took me under their wings as if I was their own; butthey didn't know how to console me. The rest ofthe uncles and aunts also tried, but all this care and sympathy couldn't make up for a mother and father. When I had had both parents, I had taken them for granted; but, as they say, when you don't have it, it is then that you really appreciate what you had. ...

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