Article
Rutka Laskier, born in 1929 in Gdansk, Poland
13-year-old Rutka and her family were forced to relocate to the Będzin Ghetto in 1942. In the summer of that same year, after selection for group 1a, she managed to escape from a group of Jews destined for transport to the labor camp and return to the ghetto.
“(. . . ) when I looked through the parkan I saw soldiers with rifles aimed at the square, in case someone attempted to escape (. . . ) At 15:00 Kuczynsky arrived and segregation began: 1 – meant return to the ghetto, 1a – meant forced labor, which was far worse than displacement, 2 – meant review process, and 3 – meant displacement or death. Mom with dad and my brothers were assigned 1, and I was assigned 1a. “
Rutka then managed to escape. . . “I jumped out of a small outbuilding, the first floor, though nothing happened to me, only my lips were bitten and bleeding (. . . )”.
From January to April 1943, 14-year-old Rutka kept a personal diary in which she documented her emotions and growing up in an atmosphere of organized destruction of her entire world.