Hanna Dimitri
Hanna, 1939 Poland
Hanna Dimitri, born Brezinska, grew up in a Roma family in Poland. Hanna was eight years old when German troops marched into the country. Her family was living at a camp site. Like many other Roma in Poland at the time, they led an itinerant life, travelling the country in horse-drawn caravans. They lived in tents. Hanna’s father tried to move his family to safety further away from the front. His two youngest girls, Hanna and Anita, were too little for such a long journey. Their father decided to leave them with his sister, who lived in a house and was married to a Polish man. He promised to come back soon and pick them up.
Outside her aunt's house, Hanna's father and the rest of the family were met by Nazi German soldiers. Hanna and Anita saw how the soldiers forced her father, brothers and older sister to dig pits. Then Hanna saw how the soldiers shot their entire family. The pits became their graves. The soldiers then entered the house and shot Hanna's aunt and her husband.
After the soldiers murdered the rest of Hanna’s family, they took her and her little sister Anita with them as prisoners. The only thought running through Hannas head was that she had to hold Anita’s hand as tightly as she could, and not lose her.
