[The following takes place in the Polish city of Lvov while under Nazi occupation in 1941, and is told from the perspective of Luncia Gamzer, an eight-year-old Polish-Jewish girl who was living in the city at the time with her family. Here, fearing for his daughter’s life if she were to stay in the Jewish ghetto, Luncia’s father Isaac attempts to smuggle her out to live with a sympathetic Christian family at peril of the family’s lives. Being considered a “useful Jew,” Isaac possessed a pass that allowed him to leave the ghetto during the day for work purposes. He is here attempting to smuggle his daughter out by having her hug his body under an oversized coat.]
[…] they soon reached the gate between the ghetto and the outside. They had to wait while another man ahead of them fumbled in his coat pocket looking for the pass that would allow him to leave.
”Hurry up!” shouted the impatient German guard.
”It’s here somewhere. I know it is.”
”You don’t have a pass, do you?” snarled the guard. “You’re trying to sneak out of the ghetto, trying to fool me.”
”No, really, I have –“ The man never finished his sentence. The guard shot him.
Hearing the loud bang, Luncia jerked. Her father wrapped his arms tight around his coat to keep her still, but her whole body trembled uncontrollably. He’s going to shoot us all, I know it. Oh, I wish we had never tried this.
The guard rifled through the man’s pocket and pulled out the pass. “He had a pass after all,” he said to Isaac and Mark, who were still stunned from witnessing the senseless murder. “Too bad. The man had no luck.” He motioned to the men. “Next.”
Source:
Zullo, Allan, and Mara Bovsun. “What Will Happen to Me Now That the Nazis Are Here? Luncia Gamzer’s Story.” Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust. Scholastic, 2004. 16-7. Print.
Jesus... this was published by Scholastic?