Testimony of Chaia Shvartzman Kaplan, born in Alytus, Lithuania in 1926, regarding her ‎experiences in the Slobodka Ghetto, Stutthof camp, and the death march

Testimony of Chaia Shvartzman Kaplan, born in Alytus, Lithuania in 1926, regarding her ‎experiences in the Slobodka Ghetto, Stutthof camp, and the death march Family move to Kazlu Rhuda in 1930; her childhood in a Zionist traditional home; studies at a ‎Lithuanian school; antisemitism; joining Hashomer Hatzair; entry of the Russians in 1939; ‎nationalization of her father’s bakery; death of her mother from illness; German occupation in ‎June 1941; wearing the yellow badge; escape with her family to Kaunas; arrest by the Lithuanians ‎and deportation to the Seventh Fort; release of the women and children and their deportation to ‎the Slobodka Ghetto in August 1941; forced labor building an airfield; the Great Aktion; liquidation ‎of the small ghetto and massacre of its residents in the Seventh Fort; observation of the Children’s ‎Aktion through cracks in the wall of her ghetto hiding place; liquidation of the ghetto in August ‎‎1944; transfer of the remaining residents by train to Danzig; selection of the males and transport ‎of the women to Stuffhof; the murder of her 14-year-old sister; transfer to a work camp; receiving ‎a coat from a girl who couldn’t work; death march on 19 January 1945; typhus; liberation by the ‎Red Army near Chinow; going to Kaunas to search for surviving family; arrival in Vilna in November ‎‎1945; move to Szczecin, Poland; rehabilitation after the war; aliya to Israel in 1960; absorption.‎