Before the War
Before the war started, Ada resided in a town called Baranowiche, now known as Bialarusse, until she was five and a half. The town was highly industrial in those days, because it had within it a railroad. There was a large Jewish population in Baranowicze, and many businesses. Ada’s grandfather was one of the more wealthy Jewish citizens in the town, and owned the local sawmill. The sawmill had its own train come in to carry lumber, and brought in lots of money for the family. The town was partly owned by the Russians, and partly owned by the Polish. The ruling power in the town often switched from the Russians to the Polish, one gaining power over another from time to time. Ada lived with her sister, mother, father, and grandparents. Her sister had already started school, but had to leave because when the Russians took over, because there was anti-semitism and communism that began to spread around the town. Being part of the bourgeoisie, Ada’s family was not welcomed into the schools because of the communistic beliefs that were spreading.

     
Ada participated on the town gymnastics team

Start of World War II  
When the war had just begun, the Germans invaded Poland from the West, and the Russians invaded from the East, and took over Baranowiche. The soldiers confiscated my grandmother’s building, and Ada’s family was given forty-eight hours to leave their home. The family had been robbed of their money, and could not go to a bank to take any out, so her sister took a photo album, and her mother took her belongings that they could sell for money such as jewelry and fur coats. They expected to be able to come back. The family moved across the street to their aunt’s house, but their grandfather and grandmother moved to Palestine instead. The grandfather gave his company up to Ada’s father and aunt, who were siblings. Ada’s father, my great-grandfather, decided that he had nothing left, and was afraid to get drafted by the Russian army. He wanted to move away, but no-one wanted to go because no-one was aware of how bad the war was going to get. Finally, my great-grandmother agreed to move, so they took my grandma and her sister and had to make a decision on where to go.
    It was November of 1939, and the family knew that they could not go West, because the Germans had already taken over most of Europe. They decided to cross the border to Lithuania as illegal immigrants. My grandma remembers, "One of the Polish peasants carried me, and we put our belongings in a push cart in the middle of the night”. The Lithuanian soldiers came at the family with bayonets, and my grandmother’s sister got down on her knees, and begged for their lives. The soldiers took Ada and her mother separately from her sister and her father, and they did not see each other for two days. Ada does not remember how they got back together, but the family ended up spending a year and a half in Lithuania. My grandmother went to kindergarten where she learned to tell time and knit, although she was unaware of how long they were there for.