In the spring of 1944, the Germans retreated from Russia via Transylvania. After that, Jewish people did not go out on the streets, unless they had to. All commerce ceased. There were laws against Jews. They couldn't go on trains; they couldn't own property. One night in April 1944, a good friend of my father told us that he had made arrangements to be hidden by a Romanian farmer. My father refused to join him, believing that we should remain with the rest of the Jewish community, that there was safety in numbers. At 6 a.m. the next morning, we heard footsteps and a knock on the door and were told to assemble outside. We were marched to the courtyard of the synagogue, along with six to seven thousand other people. From the courtyard we were marched to a nearby farm, where a ghetto was set up. The ghetto held about ten thousand people, including some people who had been brought in from the neighbouring towns. It was chaos for the first two weeks. Only a few people had any shelter at all; the rest of us were drenched by rain. Sanitary conditions were terrible. There were no services, no doctors or police. Then we got organized. We demanded food from the authorities, and a kitchen was established, where you stood in line for a plate of soup. By the time we got settled, after four weeks, it was time to move us.