Alicia Applemen's Jurman Report

Maggie Zahn
Mrs. Jeatran
Language Arts
April, 2013
Alicia Applemen-Jurman A little girl of only nine years old would come to see how hard her life would be. The changes the Holocaust brought came rapidly. The first changes come after Hitler broke the pact with Russia in 1941. The first change was Buczacz was taken over by Russia. The next big change was the government started bringing down religious icons. The communist party then started removing enemies of the Soviet Union. The Jurman Family was considered bourgeois. They were considered bourgeois because Alicia’s uncle was a doctor. Alicia and her family were not prepared for the horrible road that would come next. Without survivors like Alicia Appleman-Jurman, we would not have the first hand awareness of the Holocaust they have today. Once the Holocaust started, more changes seemed to come to the Jewish religion. The changes started affecting everything in peoples’ lives from the clothing they wore to the time they had to be home. The changes became stricter and started to develop into laws. The laws said that all Jewish people had to wear the Star of David on their clothing. Another was that all Jewish people had a curfew and if someone was out after curfew, they were put in prison or could be put to death. In addition to The Star of David that Jews had to wear, a new decree was enforced where all Jewish men had to register with the Nazis. Alicia’s father had to go to register with the Nazi soldiers. When the Jewish men went to register the Nazi soldiers would kill them. Alicia’s father was one of the hundreds of men that was killed while registering. The Nazi party let Jewish boys go to a boarding school called Leningrad. Alicia’s older brother, Moshe, went to this school. He escaped from the school and came home to tell everyone what Leningrad really was. It was a horrible school where the Nazi soldiers made them do extremely horrible labors with no rest and barely any food. Once the police found about Moshe’s escape, they soon found him. Moshe was imprisoned and three days later he was killed. Moshe was the second member of Alicia’s family that had died. This was heartbreaking to the Jurman family, and a atrocious time for Alicia. Near the time when Moshe was captured and killed, the Nazis had started putting people in ghettos. Ghettos were created to contain Jewish people from the cities and surrounding areas. The ghettos were an awful place, they were full of diseases. The remaining Jurman family members were taken to this torturous place, while there they would glimpse a sight of the other Jewish people being tossed aside like a piece of trash. If the Jewish would try to escape from these places, they would be shot and killed for disobeying. When Alicia and her brother Herzl were in the ghettos, Alicia’s brother was found in a police roundup, and was taken to the fader. Herzl was the third member of Alicia’s family to die. The ghetto had ruled; if these rules were broken, then there would be harsh punishment. Alicia never disobeyed these rules; however, there were others that did. One rule was that at all times the Star of David was to be worn on any Jew; anyone not wearing it was to be killed on the spot. The second rule was that no one would ever leave the ghetto once entered. The Nazis had ruled against worshipping, they prevented them from their worship by killing any Jew that entered the synagogue. Alicia always followed the rules even if they were to break her heart. Within the ghettos, not a single child was allowed to go to school. Alicia despised this rule because she wanted to have an education. Before the Jurman family was put in the ghettos, her favorite thing to do was to go to school. The school that Alicia attended before they were captured was near the edge of the ghettos. Once, when Alicia ran past the school, she noticed that if she sat on the tree, she could listen and watch the lessons through the window. Alicia would go and sit in the tree as often as she could, however, one day the teacher of the classroom noticed Alicia, but did not say anything to her, as she noticed how much Alicia longed to attend school. Alicia never made any noise when she was in the tree till one afternoon; she fell and made a huge noise. The teacher then asked Alicia to stay away because other people might notice her presence. Alicia was in tears because of what the teacher had said, and like everything else, it was taken away from her grasp. After she had lost listening to the school lessons, she began to attempt escaping every time she thought she could get away. Even though she tried her hardest, she was captured every time she tried to escape. Alicia was visiting a family that she previously knew before entering the ghettos, during the visit, both she and the family were forced onto a boxcar train. No matter how they begged and pleaded with the soldiers to let Alicia go, the soldiers would not concede. Once the train had started to its destination, the adults on the train deliberated as to whether they would save the lives of Alicia and many other children on the train. The adults on the train suspected the train was not going to the ghettos, but instead, a much crueler destination. The adults made a final decision, to throw the children out of the train and Alicia was one of those children. After Alicia was thrown from the train, she was free until she heard that her older brother Zachery died. Zachery was betrayed by his friend, and the soldiers chose to use him as an example, so that other Jewish escapees would fear death enough so that they wouldn’t attempt to escape. Zachery was hanged in front of the police building for all to see. Alicia went to go see Zachery, and she began to sob underneath his lifeless body. While she was underneath his body, a Ukrainian man put a gun to her head and forced her back to the ghetto. Alicia was taken out to be shot in a shooting round. She stayed in the back and was able to escape into the woods when she found the chance. When the Holocaust first started, Alicia and her mother made a pact that no matter what if they are to be separated; they would meet each other in Buczacs. While Alicia was hiding in the woods, she was going to Buczacs to see her mother, as her mother was about to leave for Buczacs, Alicia’s only sibling left, Bruno, was nowhere to be found. Bruno couldn’t be found because the Nazi soldiers took him. The Nazis randomly take young boys to labor camps, and this is called a random action. He was transported to Barki Wielkie, a labor camp, where he was then forced to do hard labor. One of the boys tried to escape and as a result every tenth boy was taken and was killed. Bruno was one of the boys who were killed. Alicia’s mother eventually left without him to meet Alicia. When she left the ghetto and escaped, she met Alicia and ended up convincing an old man who had epilepsy to let them stay with him. Alicia would go out into the woods every day to provide food and other items to help them survive. When Alicia went out one day, she found another family and she asked the older man if they could stay with him. Alicia and her mother were finally able to be liberated, they came out of hiding. They thought this was finally their happy ending that all would be well for them. Sadly, it was not the end of this tragedy. The Holocaust began again and the landlord told the old man told the soldiers where Alicia and her mother were hiding. The Nazis came and shot Alicia’s mother right in front of her. Alicia now had no family members left in the whole world, she was all alone. The soldiers were about to kill Alicia as well, but they were out of bullets, so Alicia survived another day. They ended up taking her to prison though to be killed the next day. As Alicia and the group of Jewish people with her were taken outside to be shot by the Nazis, Alicia was waiting for a chance to escape at the back of the life. When her moment to escape came, she ran as fast as she could and hid in the woods until all of Poland was liberated. She had survived this horrible journey and now she was going to tell the world how she felt and what she experienced. Alicia had a great impact on others; she always tried to save the lives of others. She had rescued many people, and could not save many others. After the war she helped the Jewish had ended, she helped the Jewish people rebuilt their communities. Alicia had also helped the orphans take refuge after the Holocaust ended. Alicia worked with an underground organization that helped smuggle Jews across borders into safer places. Her life impacted many people. She touched the hearts of a great number of people as they read her published book, Alicia: My Story. This inspired many people with her story, and she also won many awards for this book. Without survivors like Alicia Appleman-Jurman, the world would not have the first hand awareness of the Holocaust it does today.