What are the Germans like when they first come to Sighet?

When the Germans soon move into Sighet they impose a series of increasingly oppressive measures on the Jews. Community leaders are arrested, valuables are confiscated, and all Jews are forced to wear yellow stars. Eventually, the Jews are confined to small ghettos, crowded together into narrow streets behind barbed-wire fences.

They were actually quite civil to the population. Some of them even boarded at places owned by the Jews. This apparently lulled the community into a sense of complacency.

All the things Jill mentioned happened but not until later. Take a look at chapter one and two and you can see this.

My novel states the following; your page numbers may not be the same....

Page 6, the Hungarian police expell the Jews from Sighet (Moishe Beadle, a foreigner is among those shipped out on the train)

Page 7, Moishe succeeded in returning to Sighet. He says that his reason for returning was to warn those that remained there. This was the end of 1942.

Page 9 (1944) A friend arrives from Budapest to celebrate the Passover, he tells everyone the German soldiers have arrived in Budapest; there are anti-Semetic acts taking place, Facists are attacking Jewish stores and synagogues.

3 days later the Germans arrive in Sighet. People are reassured for a few days; the Germans move into private homes (including Jewish homes), they're polite but distant.

Page 10, Remember, the warning came from Budapest by a friend who is visiting to celebrate the Passover. On the 7th day (just a few days later, just enough time for the Germans to station themselves), the Germans arrest the Jewish leaders, prohibit Jews from leaving their residences (penalty for breaking the edict was death); then the Hungarian police confiscate all gold, jewelry, and valuables, and they are given the yellow stars to wear..... more edicts are passed daily.

Thus, I guess I don't count those very few days that the Germans spent peacefully moving in as civil. They were manipulative. This is a very short period of time (a matter of days), and the German plan to lure the citizenry into complacency was definitely a success. Aslan is correct in the initial and short lived behavior of the soldiers, but it was nothing more than the calm before the storm