You try to get information about your family in Cracow, but no one you have been able to contact in Holland seems to know what is going on in Poland. You pay so much attention to the news from Eastern Europe that you are unaware of the massing of German armies near the Dutch border. Suddenly, on May 10, 1940, the Germans invade Holland, and four days later the country surrenders. Now you find yourself trapped in occupied territory.
At first, the Nazi occupation doesn't seem too bad. There are anti- Jewish laws, but your life is not in danger. You even find a job as an apprentice in a diamond cutting shop.
In February 1941, Jews in south Amsterdam attack a German police patrol. In retaliation, the Nazis start to round up Jews and deport them to concentration camps. For eighteen months, you are safe. Then, when a Dutch collaborator denounces you, you are arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Westerbork, a transit camp where people are held for only a short time before being sent to camps farther east. Most Jews from Westerbork are sent directly to Auschwitz.
However, you learn that it is possible to volunteer to go to Bergen- Belsen with a group of Dutch Jews who have been recruited to teach diamond cutting to the Nazis. With the knowledge that you acquired in the diamond cutting shop and your natural talent, you consider this alternative.
If you risk deportation to Auschwitz, continue to page 107.
If you volunteer to teach at Bergen-Belsen, continue to page 108.