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On November 8, 1942 the Jews of Staszow were driven from their homes and delivered to death at the Belzec concentration camp.
I still have a vivid recollection of when my mother first told me about what happened that day. She was only seven years old when it happened. She was witnessing the unfolding tragedy from the safety of her room. All the Polish inhabitants of Staszow were forced by the Germans to stay indoors. The Jews were gathered by the Nazis in the market square. The cries of the victims, shouting of Germans, Ukrainians and Lithuanians and the gun fire made it impossible to ignore what was happening.
My mother told me of a German officer murdering an old Jew in front of his house. A little boy was killed by a German soldier when he was trying to hide in a horse-driven wagon full of hay. He was bayoneted and his blood was slowly sipping through the hay.
When, finally the frightened people finally moved away, all that was left were puddles of blood and members of the Jewish Police removing bodies and traces of blood.
Then suddenly more shouting and beating... Some soldiers found a Jewish family hiding somewhere. A young couple with three children. Two toddlers gripping mother's skirt and a baby in her arms. They are brought to a spot at the corner of Koscielna Street and Rynek (Market Square), near a water pump. Then they are left there without any supervision. Time flows slowly. The parents are petrified with fear, but the children become more relaxed. They are hungry and tired, they do not understand what is happening around them. After a few hours a few German soldiers come by. They take the whole family to the Main Square and kill them at point blank...
I wonder if anybody could identify this family?
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