NYPL, Letters To Sala

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Introduction Sala’s Europe, 1939-1945 Prewar Jewish Life and Deportation Nazi Slave Labor Camps The Judenrat Geppersdorf Nazi Postal System Ala Gertner Sala's Labor Camps Jewish Holidays Harry Haubenstock Schatzlar Liberation In America

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Sala Garncarz
Diary begun October 28, 1940, the day of deportation, through November 8, 1940, in Polish, Sosnowitz, Poland
NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division, Sala Garncarz Kischner Collection

Sala never suspected that the required six weeks in a German labor camp would stretch into almost five years of slavery. She began this diary as she was leaving Sosnowitz, and it covers her first weeks in the Geppersdorf labor camp. She writes, “If you could have looked deep in my heart, you would have seen how desperate I was; still, I tried to keep a smile on my face as best I could, though my eyes were filled with tears.”