My friend Zula and I love to visit Planty Park. Our families go to the restaurant near the statue of the famous artist Artur Grottger. The adults get to talk while we play with our yo-yos and skipping ropes.

 

After dinner I stand near the pianist to watch him play. I tell him how I love operetta so he plays The Merry Widow for me. But the warmth of his smile doesn’t match the look in his cold blue eyes.

 

Mum tells me he’s blind. She says he was beaten so badly by Nazis that he lost his sight. Mum says that’s why we come here, to hear him play and to leave him a generous tip.

 

It upsets me to think he will never again be able to see this beautiful world. Why would the Nazis do such a terrible thing?

 

German soldiers are marching into Krakow.

Now we have to wear a white armband with a blue Star of David so everyone knows we are Jewish. When I put my armband on I feel like a branded animal. I always think of myself as more Polish than Jewish.

Dad’s worried because we’re being forced to leave our apartment and go to the Ghetto. That’s the poorest area of the city where the Germans say the Jews have to live. Dad tries to talk to his non-Jewish friends for help. Everything is changing so fast… I’m scared.