the synagogue, was appointed as head of a new organization, the Judenrat, or Jewish Council, and was ordered to deliver the names of all the young Jewish people living in Tylicz. Within the first week of the Nazi invasion, Jews were forced to wear armbands at all times, with the star of David embroidered on them in blue. They could no longer buy food from Gentiles, hire Gentiles to work for them, or cross the Polish border (they were still allowed to trade goods with Gentiles). Any Jew or Gentile disobeying German law, it was proclaimed, would be considered a traitor and punished by death
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Danka and Rena, along with other young Jewish men and women, were assigned to clean the army quarters, polish shoes, scrub floors, and do anything else the Germans ordered them to do. For years a poor Gentile woman had come to the Kornreichs' house every Sabbath morning to light the fire and reheat the meal Mama had prepared the day before. Under these new regulations she was no longer allowed into their house or to do any work for the Kornreichs. She cried when she came to say good-bye, and the Kornreichs, along with the other Jews in Tylicz, in order not to break Orthodox law, refused to light a fire on the Sabbath. Papa and the other Jewish farmers, unable to hire anyone to help, resorted to working overtime to harvest their crops. Danka and Rena worked from first light to late in the night, dividing their chores between the Germans and their own farm
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Since there was no law against trading services for goods, Zosia's sewing was used to trade for butter, cheese, and flour. There were still Gentile farmers who would do business with their Jewish neighbors because Tylicz was a close-knit community and the Germans were not respected, they were only feared
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The Kornreichs hadn't heard anything from Zosia's husband, Nathan, since the start of the German occupation, when he had joined the Polish army along with the rest of the able-bodied men in the country. Then, in October, a card came in the mail with a Russian postmark. Zosia handed it to Mama, folded her hands in front of her
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