Introduction. It all started on September 1939 when Hitler took over Poland. At first to make it an easy start to the war, he closed all Jewish schools and he bombed all Jewish factories and all Jewish companies were closed down and destroyed. That was nothing compared to what Hitler did afterward!!

My Grandmother was about 24 years old when she flew to Israel for a visit with some friends of hers to see how it would be like if she decided to live there.

A few weeks later Hitler seriously took over Poland. After a few weeks he took all the people's passports so that no one could leave the country. My Grandmother had three brothers and two sisters. Her parents and her brohters and sisters had all stayed in Poland and couldn't get out because if they tried to sneak out of Poland with such a big family, they would've been caught . So they stayed in Poland.

My Grandmother was having a wonderful time in Israel until the day she heard about what was going on in Poland. She was really scared about what was going to happen to her family if they were caught so she wanted to go back and be with them. But her friends convinced her not to because she might get caught and then she would never see them again anyway. When she heard about what was going on there, she herself didn't want to go and be part of the war.

Another couple of weeks passed and my Grandmother was out with her friends when her best friend told her about her family. " I don't know how to say this to you..... but your mother and father had been taken to concentration camps....... aaand your brothers and sisters too,only some of them managed to get out of the camps," she was talking quickly so that she could get it over and done with. My Grandmother had tears in her eyes, little wet shiny tears that meant sadness was glowing inside her.

She didn't know what to say, she was quiet for a moment and then she broke down crying. She cried and cried, she didn't care if her friends thought she was a crybaby, she didn't care what they said about going back to her own country to try and save her family and get them out of the concentration camps, she didn't care about anything except the safety of her family and her!

After a few minutes of crying, she went back to where they were staying and cried some more there until she fell asleep.

The next day she could have almost died of sadness but this time when she heard the details of the news she kept the sadness inside her, without tears. She heard the news from her best friend again. But this time her friend was careful not to make her cry and she comforted her when she did almost cry.

All my Gramdmother's family died at the concentration camps they were taken to. Her parents died at the showers . They were forced to go in and take a shower with some other people (no children) but instead of water, gas came out and they all died.

"What happened to my brothers and sisters?" My grandmother asked, her voice was quiet and she didn't dare to look at her friend 's eyes and let her see her face.

"I don't know, they died too, I guess but I don't exactly know how." This was the saddest thing that ever happened to her. But later on she got over it.

What happened in the end:

My Grandmother moved to live in Israel where she met my Grandfather and they married and had four children (my father was the youngest) And my Grandmother has never been back to Poland ever since.