March 21, 1943
My name is Solomon Radasky. I was born on May 17, 1910. My life has been pretty hard. I live in Warsaw, Poland. Now, the Nazis have overrun the city, forcing us to stay here in the ghetto. I used to live with my mom, my dad, my 3 sisters, and my 2 brothers. Sadly, they were all killed. My mother and older sister were killed at the end of January. My father was killed in April. He was trying to smuggle food into the ghetto. In July, my 2 brothers and 2 other sisters were killed. Now, I just wait and hope that i can live through this. I make jackets for the Germans. I don't like to help the enemy, but what other choice do i have? If i don't, ill either be killed or eventually starve to death. This journal was given to me by my youngest sister, Leah, for my birthday. That was before she was killed. It's the only thing i have to remember her and the rest of my family by.
Diary Entry 2
August 6, 1943
The last 5 months have been crazy. On May 1, I was …show more content…
We were standing at appell and a man in the back of the line was smoking a cigarette. It didn't have any tobacco or anything in it. It was a piece of paper and he lit it on fire just to feel like he was smoking something. One of the guards saw the smoke and pulled about a dozen of us over. He asked us who was smoking, and when nobody said anything, he started to beat us. He beat me until i started to bleed. He asked, "Who wants to go up first on the bench?" He picked 3 of us to go first. When we stepped on a bench and put the noose around our neck, the guard would kick the bench and we would all start choking until we died. I had to go up first with two other guys. He was about to kick the bench, but a soldier had come to him and told him he needed 750 inmates to move to another camp. We were all waiting, and the soldier came back to the gallows. The soldier took off the rope that had been around my neck and then started to attack us until we got back in the