Today I want to find out how Clara Kramer's childhood came to an end after the Second World War started.
On the 1st of September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Within only weeks, under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, eastern Poland, including Żółkiew, came under Soviet control. For nearly two years, Clara lived under Soviet occupation. The reason for the pact was that two countries had temporarily agreed not to attack each another. They both had their own reasons for avoiding war with each other.
Germany wanted to invade Poland without risking a war on two fronts. In the First World War, Germany had been forced to fight both east and west at the same time, and Hitler wanted to avoid that mistake. The agreement ensured the Soviet Union would keep out of the invasion of western Poland.
The Soviet Union wanted more time to strengthen its military after years of purges and it also wanted to regain territories it had lost after the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921). The agreement gave it the opportunity to occupy eastern Poland and create a buffer zone between itself and Germany.
But neither side trusted the other. The pact was a temporary arrangement based on mutual convenience, not friendship. That became clear in June 1941, when Germany broke the agreement by invading the Soviet Union.
Life under the Soviets was very different. Many businesses and private property were taken over by the state, political organisations were closed down and some local people were arrested or deported. Although life became worse, Jewish families were not singled out simply because they were Jewish in the way they would be later.
Everything changed in June 1941 when German forces invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Żółkiew. Almost immediately, Jewish families had to face harsh restrictions and ever growing persecution. They were ordered to register with the authorities, wear the Star of David, and many had their homes, businesses and possessions taken away. They were also banned from a lot of public places and faced strict curfews. They were essentially cut off from much of normal life.
Many Jewish men and women, including teenagers, were forced into hard labour. They were made to do things like repair roads, clean buildings, dig ditches. This was often with very little food or protection. Beatings, humiliation and random acts of violence were common, and families lived in constant fear.
These events are well documented through surviving German occupation records, wartime photographs, eyewitness testimonies and the diary that Clara herself kept after the war. Her memoir, Clara's War, also recalls how quickly life disappeared and how fear gradually became part of her existence.
For Clara and her family, the life they had known before the war was gone forever. Tragically even darker days were still to come.
Image info;
Zolkiee Synagogue
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