Task 2
Life during the Holocaust
Moshe remembers that life changed immediately after the German occupation of Poland.
Restrictions on Jewish businesses forced his parents out of work. Moshe’s education stopped as
schools were taken over by the army and thus off limits for Jews. The family tried to live for each
day, selling household items to get food. Moshes father was restricted in what he could do. Jews
were not allowed to leave the town. Moshe was still a child and could go unnoticed so he was tasked
with getting extra rations of food. He scoured the countryside and went to his father’s old customers
to beg for food. Some took pity and helped. A few months after the outbreak of the war, Moshe and
his family were forced out of their home and herded into a ghetto1.
Conditions were overcrowded, there was hunger and diseases. Moshe got separated from his family
but managed to find his father. Together they were deported to a forced labour camp, Skarszisko,
where they worked in an ammunition's factory. Conditions were harsh but Moshe managed to find
food and stay healthy. After a lengthy stay he was deported to another camp, Czestochowa without
his father. From there he was again deported by train to Buchenwald in Germany, where living
conditions were awful. Moshe was briefly reunited with his father, who was very weak and died of
starvation. Moshe was alone now and was forced to go on another long journey, from Germany to
Czechoslovakia where he ended up in Theresienstadt concentration camp. Theresienstadt was finally
liberated by the Russians in 1945. Moshe was the sole survivor of his large family.
1
A cramped and restricted area of a city in which members of a minority group are forced to live.
Questions to consider before starting this task:
1. When was the Holocaust?
2. Where did the Holocaust take place?
A) Life during the Holocaust
Below is a list of some of the anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) laws introduced when Poland was occupied
by Germany. In pairs read the laws below. How did the laws affect Moshe and his family?
Mark each law with:
A ✡ if the law affected the rights of Jews to practice religion
A £ if the law affected the rights of Jews to earn a living
A � if the law affected the rights of Jews to communicate
A • if the law affected the identity of Jewish people.
Each law may affect more than one right.
1939
● Jews can be forced to do any labour. They can be picked up off the streets for manual hard labour,
like digging trenches, cleaning the streets and shovelling snow.
● Jews may not own radios or go to the cinema.
● Jews may not own a telephone
● Jewish teachers cannot teach in Polish schools
● Jews are not allowed to enter a post office
● All Jewish schools are closed
● All Jewish bank accounts are frozen. Jews can only have a limited amount of cash per week.
● Jews from the age of 12 must wear an armband with a blue Star of David.
● A curfew for Jews enforced from 9 PM to 5 AM.
1940
● All synagogues are closed
● Jews cannot travel by train without special permission
● Jews may not open bookshops and cannot buy German books
● Jews may not post letters abroad
● Jews may not enter public parks or sit on public benches
● Jews may not own bakeries
● Jewish doctors can only treat Jewish patients
● Jews are required to register ownership of all property, including furniture, clothing and jewellery.
● Many ghettos are established. Jews from all over Poland are forced and sealed inside. Curfew is
enforced from 7 PM to 7 AM
● Non Jews who knowingly help Jews can get the death penalty.
December 1941-Liberation 1945
● Death camps begin operations and Poland is the site of six major extermination camps. Jews from
all over Nazi occupied Europe and the ghettos are deported to large killing sites in Poland and
murdered.
B) Life during the Holocaust
How was it humanly possible? Who is responsible for the Holocaust? In Moshe Nurtman’s story
there are many people involved. All made different choices and will bear some kind of responsibility
for the outcome for Moshe and his family.
Look at the description of people who made decisions and choices during the Nazi era and the
Holocaust. Try and indicate whether they are:
A) Not responsible
B) Somewhat responsible
C) Responsible
D) Very responsible
1. Hitler and his ministers, for example, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler
2. A German who voluntarily joined Hitler’s special elite group, the SS.
3. A factory worker who helped produce chemicals/gas that was used to murder people in the
camps.
4. Paul Budin, chairman of the HASAG ammunition factory. HASAG used slave labourers, including
Moshe and his father who worked at the Skarszisko Kammienna and the Czestochova sites.
5. People who complied with the law excluding Jewish people from social and economic life.
6. A concentration camp guard.
7. A police man who refused to take part in rounding up Jews from their homes.
8. The train drivers that drove the train that took Moshe and his fellow inmates to Buchenwald and
then from Buchenwald to Theresienstadt.
9. All countries and their governments who limited Jewish immigration in the 1930’s.
10. People who were not interested in politics and went about their business as quietly as possible
during the occupation.
11. The policeman who helped round up Jewish people out of their homes.
12. The people who moved in to Moshe’s family home after they were forced to move into the
ghetto.
13. The people who took over Moshe’s family’s grocery shop after Jews were no longer allowed to
own a business.
14. A non Jewish doctor who refused to treat a Jewish patient.
15. A teacher who taught Nazi propaganda.
16. Children who had to join the Hitler Youth.
17. Farmers who knowingly gave food to Moshe.
18. People who watched Jews being bullied and rounded up for deportation
19. People who profited from buying and selling to Jews during the Holocaust.
Did you disagree on when it came to assigning responsibility? What were your arguments? Why do
you think you disagreed?
Who is responsible for the Holocaust? How much of the responsibility is based on what decisions
people made, either for themselves or for others?
C) Using the information about Life during the Holocaust, fill in the identity chart of Moshe using a
green felt tip pen.