Nevertheless - In the Image of God

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David Murlakow was born in Meran, Italy, in 1924, and his family moved to Borislaw, Poland, when he was two. At that time, Borislaw had about 30,000 residents, including around 15,000 Jews. His father operated a factory in a prominent oil-producing region. David enjoyed a happy childhood with his siblings and their German neighbors, fostering close friendships and spending summers together. However, this peaceful existence was shattered when the Red Army invaded eastern Poland, imposing a harsh regime that restricted freedoms and threatened severe punishments, including deportation to Siberia. The transition to Soviet control was particularly challenging for David and his peers, as all classes were conducted in Russian. Despite these difficulties, he managed to complete high school. The situation worsened with the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, as the so-called Reich Germans were ordered to return to the Reich, causing personal pain for David, especially regarding his friend Trudi. What followed was unimaginable: Jews faced systematic murder, deportation, and brutal oppression. In Borislaw, Jews were forced to wear white armbands with a Star of David, confined to cramped living conditions, and stripped of their belongings, while men were subjected to hard labor building roads and bridges.