Crowds of
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Jews, surrounded by armed guards with dogs, were led out of the ghetto
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towards the railroad station some two kilometers from the center of town.
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During this forced march, those who could not keep up with the pace were
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beaten and bitten by the dogs. Those unable to go on, were shot on
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the spot. Squeezed into packed freight cars which were directed towards
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Belzec and, later on, towards Majdanek near the city of Lublin was the
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human cargo destined for destruction. In one of them was the family
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Hochberg. They made a desperate decision to push their daughter Ginia
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through the narrow bars of the tiny window, imploring her to save herself,
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crying out: "You have got to survive!" The German guard shot
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after and hit the escaping girl. She lost consciousness, but fortunately
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it was a flesh wound. After a while she came to in a pool of blood.
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Two villagers were in the process of stripping her clothes, thinking she
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was dead. Realizing she was alive did not prevent them from taking
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all her clothes. They were going to hand her over to the Police when
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a Polish railroad employee intervened, stating that the area was under
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the jurisdiction of the railway department and that he would take custody
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of the girl. He escorted the wounded, chilled girl into a booth,
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where he dressed her wound, gave her some food and clothing and released
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her. Ginia made her way to a church in a nearby village, where a
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compassionate priest helped the unfortunate girl. He gave her shelter
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until she recovered and provided her with a false birth and baptism certificate.
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Such documents were extremely valuable, and some Poles with the help of
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Catholic priests would make them available to a few Jews. Thus, they
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could try to survive the "final solution." It must be said, however,
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that there were also those who would blackmail individuals trying to get
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by on Aryan documents and would sometimes betray them to the Germans.
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