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Gerda made a promise to a friend -- and kept it continued from p.3 Gerda soon learned her Rabbi and her teacher were among the 30,000 Jewish men arrested and sent to concentration camps during Kristallnacht. "It was the end of my Jewish education," she said. "This was also the beginning of the end of the Jewish people in all of Europe." Worse was to come with the start of the Second World War on Sept. 1, 1939. The German Army conquered much of Poland within a few weeks. Shortly thereafter, the Nazis came and took Gerda's father away. "My mother was running around, getting him another sweater, another scarf. She doesn't know where they are going to take him or when he will return," said Gerda. "As they dragged him out, he turned to me and said, `Take care of your mother until I return.'" A few months later, in March, Gerda and her mother and sister were ordered out of their home and permitted to take almost nothing with them. Gerda took her schoolbooks and her teddy bear. They were put on trucks with other Jewish families and taken to a town Gerda's sister Hana was taken first and then Gerda herself. "My mother stood there alone and she can't do anything as they are dragging her child out," said Gerda. The young woman was taken to a nearby holding camp where she was immediately warned to beware of the commandant who was notorious for shooting prisoners with little or no provocation. One day Gerda was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor of a corridor when she suddenly found herself staring at black jackboots of the commandant as he stood over her. "I don't know if I should continue washing the floor or stop or whatever," she said. "Then I hear him say, `You're a good worker,' and he walks away." While some may have counted their blessings Gerda, deciding she had little left to lose, entered this man's office the following day and demanded to be sent to the same camp as her sister. She said the commandant was so surprised he almost fell off his chair. Amazingly the German said he would see what he could do and sent Gerda away. Not long after she was sent to Czechoslovakia where, after a bit more persistence, she was reunited with her sister at Ober-Altstadt concentration camp. "When you are alone you have nobody to live for. It was easier to die than to live, but if you had a sister or a cousin or a friend you had to live for each other," she said. "The little piece of bread they gave us in the morning had to last for the whole day and when your sister or your friend was weak and fainting you shared the bread and saved them." The importance of having someone to live for became especially clear to Gerda when her friend Pepi learned her whole family had been killed at Auschwitz. Pepi took Gerda aside and made her promise that when the war is over she would tell people about what had happened in the concentration camp. The next morning Pepi threw herself off a nearby escarpment. "I kept my promise," said Gerda. The inmates in the camp not only had to contend with starvation and disease, but also abuse from the German guards. see Her on p.13 9 | Friday November 10, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insidehalton.com People listened as Holocaust survivor Gerda Frieberg spoke about her personal experiences surviving slave labour and concentration camps during the Second World War in an event co-hosted by the Al Falah Mosque and Shaarei-Beth El Congregation at the mosque. | Riziero Vertolli/Metroland square where they were left for the cold winter night. The group soon learned that they had been brought to a Ghetto, near Krakow. The area was segregated from the rest of society and was used by the Nazis to concentrate Jews from the surrounding area. Food was tightly rationed, but Gerda would work where she could to earn some extra food for her family. In 1941, the Germans began emptying the Ghetto and sending the residents to concentration camps. Discover your next opportunity with Amazon Now hiring in Brampton · Powered equipment training · Full-time opportunities Auction: 2:00 p.m. | Viewing: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. High value diamond Jewelry & Swiss Made Watches. All importation duties and taxes have been paid. Supplemented with other fine jewellery; rings, solitaires, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rubies, sapphires etc. COLLECTION OF RARE SWISS MADE WATCHES. PATEK · CARTIER · ROLEX · OMEGA · CHOPARD · BREITLING · BREGUET · IWC Sunday, November 12th, 2017 Apply now amazon.com/torontojobs 2525 Wyecroft Road | For directions please call 905.847.1000 Amazon is an Equal Opportunity-Affirmative Action Employer - Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran / Gender Identity / Sexual Orientation Holiday Inn Oakville (QEW & Bronte) All sales are final. No refund exchange or layaway. Payments: Visa, Mastercard, Debit, Cash and Certified Cheques. Some reserves apply. Subject to additions, deletions, errors and omissions. 15% buyers premium & applicable taxes to be added. info@galleryinternational.ca