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Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary, 1939-1944
Upon the Head of the Goat A Childhood in Hungary 19391944 Author:Aranka Siegal Nine-year-old Piri often visited her grandmother's farm in the Ukraine. But in 1939, war broke out along the border and Piri could not return home to Beregszasz, Hungary. When, over a year later, she did return, Piri found many things changed. Her stepfather had been called back into the army and her mother ran the household. Piri's frie... more »nds were distant, and eventually Piri was forbidden to attend public school. Food was available with ration coupons, bit it was hard to obtain, especially for Jews after a curfew was imposed on them. Then the police took her sister Lilli away and no one could find out what happened to her. Yet, in spite of all this, life went on in Piri's household even after the Germans took over Beregszasz. Jews now had to wear the star of David pinned to their clothes, and soon they were herded into a ghetto, and could take with them only what they could carry. Throughout, Piri's family was kept together by her mother's determination, and seemingly endless resourcefulness--until that final moment when they were boarded on trains destined for a "work camp" called Auschwitz.
Aranka Siegal vividly recalls her childhood in Hungary, how she and her family were able to survive for the five years from the first moment she heard Hitler's name to the day they were moved from the Beregszasz ghetto.« less