Akzia Essay

Akzia: After the Germans invaded Lvov and made several changes, rumors spread throughout the town of an akzia, which is Polish for the deportation and killing of a group of people. The first akzia in Lvov was for children, which made Aurelia too upset and anxious to do anything. Her dad had already started to build a hiding place for her in a wardrobe. One morning, she woke up to outside shrieks signaling the akzia; Aurelia’s first reaction was to hide. When the Nazis came to search the house, Aurelia’s dad, Isaac, told them that she was already taken, but that did not stop them from searching. They were very close to finding her, but lucky did not. Later on, there were a couple more akzia; there was one for the elderly, and two akzia

It was surrounded by a tall fence and guarded by Nazi troops; no one could leave the ghetto until given Nazi approval. Since it was a very small place, Aurelia and her parents only took what they really needed: three folding cots, a small table, and some clothing, no toys. In addition, hunger was a major problem because they had to share the new place with others. When Aurelia arrived at the ghetto, she wondered if she will ever see her old house, friends, or her old life again. On the bright side, Germans were not allowed to take away any Jews if it was not a day of akzia; however, Germans strolled around the ghetto to “sightsee.” When there was an akzia, the family and neighbors would hide under the

To begin, Aurelia began her continuous hiding adventure with her parents in their basement cubicle when the Germans started to bomb the town; it lasted about a couple days. This was probably Aurelia’s most pleasurable experience in hiding because she had her parents to give her comfort, and distract her with stories. Another incident with hiding from the Germans was when several akzia invaded homes for children and Jews, yet this was just the tip of the iceberg. Aurelia’s hiding experiences started to get intense when she was hiding under the porch of her house in the ghetto. She began to understand the difficulties and challenges that came with hiding, and started to get scared. Her major hiding occurrence was when she was separated from her parents for about two years, and had to deal with constant boredom, loneliness, hunger, and discomfort. She was often treated like a pet with the Szczygiel family: only fed and given a place to sleep, rarely noticed, and most of the time ignored. Due to many of the problems with the kids in the Szczygiel family, Aurelia had to be careful of who she interacted with, and avoiding any visitors. She eventually moved from sitting on the bed all day, to cramming herself in a chest for the whole day. Finally, when she was reunited with her parents, Aurelia continued to hide herself from being found, yet it was easier since