Charlotte, the daughter of Marsha and Harry Jaffe, was a thirteen year-old schoolgirl when the Germans invaded Lithuania and occupied her village, Ersvilkas. Her father was a farmer. Charlotte's family lived in an area which was a center of Jewish life and creativity between the two world wars. She had a younger brother and sister.
When the Germans invaded Lithuania in June 1941, they set into motion a plan to annihilate all the Jews of the country. They generally had the cooperation of the non-Jewish population as well.
In July and August 1941, special mobile German killing squads, called Einsatzgruppen, entered each village and rounded up its Jewish residents. They were transported to a site outside the village, forced to undress, and machine-gunned while standing in front of large, previously dug pits. No one survived. By the end of the year, most Jews living in the provinces were slaughtered.
Non-Jewish residents reported that Charlotte and her family, along with the entire Jewish population of the village, were forced into wagons and driven out of town. They were never heard from again.
Charlotte was thirteen years old when she was murdered.
