Kitty Hart-Moxon - Ghettos

Ghettos

The conditions for Jews living in Lublin deteriorated after the invasion. Eventually, all the Jews in Lublin were moved into a single area of the city, creating the Lublin Ghetto. In the winter of 1940-41, the family attempted to escape to Russia. They made it to the border, but found that it had closed 24 hours previously. They attempted to cross the frozen river by sleigh, but were sighted when they were about three-quarters of the way across and shot at. Forced to return to the Polish side of the river, they abandoned their escape attempt and returned towards Lublin.

The family returned to the vicarage of Father Krasowski, where her father bribed some officials and obtained false documents for her and her mother. With these passports, birth certificates and identity cards, the two were smuggled onto a train of Polish workers bound for Germany. The family split up to increase their chance of survival. Hart-Moxon went with her mother to I.G. Farben in Bitterfeld and commenced working at a rubber factory.

On 13 March 1943, Hart-Moxon and 12 other Jews at the factory, including her mother, were betrayed and were taken to Gestapo headquarters. The family members were interrogated, and charged at trial three days later with "endangering the security of Third Reich" and "illegally Germany with forged papers". They were told that they would be executed and placed in front of a firing squad. After the squad conducted a mock execution, the victims were told that their sentences had been commuted to hard labor.