The National Socialist terror struck the family in October 1938. While Abraham was granted a postponement, fifteen-year-old Sami was forced to leave for Poland. He joined a hachsharah in Czestochowa, but after the 1939 invasion, he fled toward Kovno; he is believed to have died in a building set on fire by Wehrmacht soldiers.
Sonja remembered walking with her father during Kristallnacht, seeing the horrifying destruction of Jewish stores. On September 13, 1939, Abraham was dragged from the apartment and marched toward Sachsenhausen. He died there on April 11, 1940, from severe injuries sustained during beatings.
Left impoverished, Beila moved Sonja and Martin into a one-room apartment at Lottum Straße 13. While Beila worked as a slave laborer at the Siemens factory, Sonja and Martin attended the Jewish Orphanage. Sonja recalled the terror of the air raids, grabbing Martin’s hand to rush to the building’s basement while the earth shook.
Sonja's Story 