Danara reminisces the time when Elista was occupied by German soldiers: They announced on the radio that the Germans were advancing and that we should hide ourselves in trenches. My mother witnessed how the Germans had put Jews, young women with children, teenagers and old people, in a truck. One woman with a child was asking for water, but the German soldier refused to give. They were all shot dead and thrown into a pit on the outskirts of Elista. My parents dug a hole in the yard and buried all their books.