JACOB WASSERMAN - A NIGHTMARE COME TRUE

JACOB WASSERMAN - A NIGHTMARE COME TRUE 

Krakow, Poland

Jacob was the oldest of three brothers born to religious Jewish parents in the city of Krakow.

In March 1939, at the age of 13, Krakow had been occupied by the Germans on September 6; Jews were not allowed to walk on sidewalks, ride streetcars, or even own radios; citizens were afraid to even walk on the streets as Jews were often abducted and beaten.

In 1940, early one Saturday morning, Jews in the area were arrested. As they marched toward Proszowice, a Polish policeman (with two corpses at his side) pointed at Jacob and demanded to know why he had not greeted him with a "good morning". As he approached, he loaded his gun and pointed it at him. But as he passed by him, he struck him with the drum and shattered his nose and jaw. Jacob hid in the crowd and someone else was shot by the cop. Four days later Jacob and his father were deported to the Prokocim camp.

Jacob spent the rest of the war in labor camps. In 1947 he tried to emigrate illegally to Palestine, but the British stopped him in Cyprus. In 1948 he settled in Israel.

 

article taken from: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/es/id-card/jacob-wasserman

MAIN IDEA This article tells the survival story of a Jewish boy from Krakow named Jacob Wasserman who in 1939 at the age of 13 was forced to grow up in continuous mistreatment and injustice in labor camps when the Germans took Krakow during the Second World War and lived his nightmare for 9 years until the war ended in 1948.