Between Shades of Gray 1-100

Lina and her family lived in Lithuania during World War II. It was June 14, 1941 when her family, and others in her town were taken by the NKVD, of the Soviet soldiers. The Soviets took certain people that were on their list. They were taken because their father, who was not with them, worked at the university. Everyone was loaded into the back of trucks to be taken somewhere they did not know. They stopped at a hospital to wait for a woman to give birth, then take the woman and her newborn. A little later down the road, the NKVD were separating people into train cars. Jonas, Lina's brother was going to be separated from Lina and her mother, but her mother spoke Russian and gave the officer a pocket watch in exchange for Jonas. Their mother told them that they need to stay together no matter what happens. Everyone was packed into trains cars labeled "thieves and prostitutes," and traveled on those cars for days before stopping. The train stopped at a station to hook up with another train with cars full of men. Lina, Jonas, and Andrius, a seventeen-year-old on the same car, crept out to look for their fathers. They found Lina's father. He gave them some food and goodies and told them the NKVD were probably taking them to Siberia. After they got back to their car, Lina decided to draw pictures of their location on a handkerchief that she would pass down to hopefully get to their father. They spent more days on their train car before making another stop. Everyone was getting sold in groups to others. Lina's group was to last to sell. They were now taken by horse-drawn carriages. The next stop they made was at a bathhouse where everyone would bathe before going to with their adventure.