1933-39: Itka was a young woman, unmarried and living with her parents when war between Germany and Poland broke out on September 1, 1939. German aircraft bombed Sokolow Podlaski's market and other civilian targets before victorious German troops entered the town on September 20. Three days later, the Germans set fire to the town's main synagogue and looted the Jewish community.

1940-42: Over the next two years, the Germans imposed restrictions on the Jews, eventually ordering them to wear an identifying Jewish star on their clothing. On September 28, 1941, the Germans set up a ghetto and Itka and her family were among the 4,000 Jews concentrated there. About a year later, on the most solemn holiday of the Jewish religion, the Day of Atonement, the Germans began to round up the people in the ghetto. Those who resisted or tried to hide were shot. Itka and her family were herded into a railroad boxcar.

On September 22, 1942, Itka and her family were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, where they perished. She was 25 when she died.

1933-39: The Wijnbergs owned and lived in a kosher hotel in the town of Zwolle. It was the only kosher hotel in the region, so many Jewish businessmen and cattle dealers stayed there. In addition to raising her family and working at the hotel, Alida served as president of the local Hadassah Zionist group. On the Sabbath she would go walking for hours with her husband and her daughter, Selma.

1940-42: Alida's husband died in 1941. She and her children continued to run the hotel until the Germans confiscated the property in 1942. The Wijnbergs were relocated to a shack with no bathroom, shower or hot water. Alida kept herself occupied by knitting. Alida's son Maurits and his wife went into hiding in early 1942, but came out when they heard that family members might be deported. Selma then decided to go into hiding. Alida prepared to go into hiding as well, but she was caught by the Gestapo and deported in October 1942.

On October 12, 1942, Alida arrived in Auschwitz, where she perished.

1933-39: My grandfather's third wife was an unsympathetic woman. After she came to our home, I wanted to be independent and learn a trade, but my grandfather opposed this. I immersed myself in activities of the Young Pioneers, a Zionist organization, where I met Yakov Biber, whom I married in 1939. Our plans for the future were destroyed that year in the fall when the Soviets occupied eastern Poland.

1940-44: By 1941 the Germans had occupied the region and, aided by the Ukrainian militia, began murdering the Jews. For several months Yakov and I and our 2-year-old son, Shalom, hid with the help of some local peasants. One Saturday afternoon, as we were hiding in the woods, we suddenly heard: "Run! Militia!" Bullets rained. Yakov picked up Shalom, grabbed me, and started to run. Shalom screamed and when Yakov tried to cover his mouth, he lost hold of me. As he turned to grab me again, a bullet hit Shalom, and our son fell.

Shalom was killed. For the next three years, Chava and Yakov remained in hiding. After the war, they started a new family. The Bibers emigrated to the United States in 1947.

1933-39: By 1939 six of Gisha's children were grown and had left home: her eldest daughters had married, and her four eldest sons had emigrated to America and Mexico. Only her youngest son and daughter still lived at home. Her husband had given up his business and was working for the Kagan Bakery. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. After being attacked for four weeks, Warsaw fell to the Germans on September 28.

1940-42: When the Warsaw ghetto was set up by the Germans in November 1940, the Bursztyn's apartment ended up within the closed-off ghetto. Shmuel continued working at the Kagan Bakery, which was also located within the ghetto. In April 1942 he was killed by the Germans. Fearing the German roundups, Gisha decided to hide in one of the ghetto's makeshift bunkers. During a massive roundup that began on July 22, 1942, Gisha was rousted from her bunker, marched several blocks to an assembly point, and herded onto a boxcar.

Gisha was deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, where she was gassed in July 1942. She was 65.

1933-39: In 1938 Taube and Itzik married. The couple lived in an apartment on 49 Zeromskiego Street in Radom, where Itzik opened a women's tailor shop. Max was born in July 1939. He had curly hair and blue eyes like his father. Two months after he was born, Germany invaded Poland. The Germans occupied Radom and evicted all the Jews from Zeromskiego Street. The Rosenblats had to leave everything, even Max's baby carriage.

1940-42: Radom's Jewish Council assigned the Rosenblats to a shack, which was enclosed in a Jewish ghetto in April 1941. Max slept in a homemade bed of straw. He had no toys and little food. In August 1942, when Max was 3, the Germans began rounding up and deporting all the Jews in Radom's two ghettos who could not work for them. Max's father tried to hide his family in his shop, but they were caught in a roundup and Max and his mother were taken away. They were marched to the railroad and herded into a boxcar.

In August 1942 Max and his mother were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, where they were gassed upon arrival. Max was 3 years old.

1933-39: In September 1939, as Simcha was arranging for his family to emigrate, Germany invaded Poland. Three weeks later the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland where Horochow was located. Refugees fleeing the Germans streamed through the town. Soviet rule did not change the Perlmutters' daily lives much. They remained in their home and Simcha continued to teach in Lvov.

1940-45: In 1941 Germany invaded the USSR and set up a ghetto in Horochow. In 1942, with rumors that the ghetto was about to be destroyed, Fruma and Shulamit fled. They had just hidden in the underbrush at the river's edge when they heard shots. They hid, submerged in the water, all night as machine guns blazed in the ghetto. By morning others were hiding in the brush and they heard a Ukrainian guard scream, "I see you there Jews; come out!" Most obeyed but Fruma and Shulamit hid in the water for several more days as the gunfire continued.

Fruma disappeared while her daughter lay, dozing, in the water. Shulamit, who survived the war, believes Fruma may have drowned in her sleep, been shot in the water or captured by the Germans.