My papa had fixed clocks.
I still remember when the tall blond men arrived. I was playing with my toy car.
The blond men grabbed me and mama, then went back for papa. We were dragged onto the street, and I fell over and cut my knee.
"A plaster for my son, please," Mama asked the soldier men, but they laughed and hit her.
Papa called them "beasts" and they kicked him on the floor and when he got up, his nose was all bloody and horrible.
The soldier men marched us through the streets with lots of other of our friends.
There was Mr Adler, who owned the corner shop. But his shop wasn't doing well, mama said, because German people weren't going to his shop and Jewish people were disappearing.
Like magic, I said to mama, but she looked sad and said it was an ugly magic. I laughed a little because she looked so serious.
As we walked through the streets, German people screamed at us and yelled at us. Mama stroked my hair.
Lovely raven hair she called it. Papa insisted I cut it but mama never let me have it done.
I felt a harsh splat on the side of my head. At first I thought it was bleeding, but it was only a tomato. Someone must have dropped it.
"Mama, look-" I said, pointing to my red-orange face.
"Hush Schmuel, hush," she said holding my hand.
We got to a big van and the blonde soldiers (but there were more of them now) ushered us in, like at the cinema. Only we hadn't been allowed in the cinema for a while.
It was uncomfortable and smelly, and I couldn't sit down because there where so many of us.
There were other children, only they where either babies or girls. I didn't know which seemed more icky.
I had to stand for days and days, but I was nice and cosy in my jacket and a few times, someone tried to steal it from me!
We all had our clothes on until we got to this big camp. We had been standing for so long and I almost collapsed when I got out of the van. But the big men were there and I didn't want to look girly.
The camp had tall wire fences and plain brick buildings. We pushed and shoved into a big room with bunks and stripy pajamas. We had to hand in our nice clothes and put on pajamas. How silly! It was the middle of the day.
We did as we were told though and then we got sent outside.
A big, dark haired man had a razor.
We formed a big queue and we were all given haircuts.
It was fun, and I watched my hair fall all around me like snowflakes.
My head felt a lot cooler under my hat once I didn't have any more hair.
Then we were "assessed". The girls got sent to do easy work and us boys where looked at carefully.
Anyone younger than 5 was sent away for a shower, and anyone really old or hurt was too. How lucky of them!
We had to start building things out of wood.
We did this for weeks, but sometimes I ran to the corner with my wheelbarrow full of wood to sit down and play.
The guards didn't see, which made me feel super sneaky.
One day, it was reaaaaally hot and when I came outside, I saw a little bow with hair that looked like mine used too, sitting on the other side of the fence…