Édith D., the young teacher, had already witnessed other Judenaktion. On this day, her school wasn’t closed and she hadn’t been warned that another massacre would take place right next to her schoolyard. So she watched and let the children see what she called the process of an execution: the ditches dug, the guards, the undressing of the Jews, of women and children, their placement at the edge of the ditches, the shots, the deaths. She didn’t decide to bring the children inside until the Jews started to scream. It was as though the cries broke through the “process” for her and her students.
