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A
little Jewish boy, Lolush Gerstner, rides his tricycle down a street in Krakow.
the third largest city in Poland with 60,000
Jewish citizens.
The Gerstner family's feelings of security collapsed, however, when the
Nazis stormed into the country and took control of Krakow, on September 6,
1939.
Extremely harsh anti-Jewish measures were immediately put into action. The
Nazis forced the Jews into the newly established ghetto and brutality
accelerated with confiscation of Jewish property, personal humiliations,
deprivations of every sort, forced labor, and deportation to the KZ camps.
The Nazis finally liquidated the Krakow ghetto March, 1943.
Lolush Gerstner was later killed in Auschwitz.
At Auschwitz children were often killed upon arrival. Near the end of the
war, in order to cut expenses and save gas, cost-accountant considerations
led to an order to place living children directly into the ovens or throw
them into open burning pits.
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