Kalman Linkimer worked as a teacher in the port town of Liepāja, which was occupied by German troops in July 1941. Like all Jewish residents, he was subject to persecution. Kalman Linkimer survived the mass shootings in the fall and winter of 1941 and was put into a ghetto along with the few surviving Jews in July 1942.
He had to perform forced labor from the spring of 1943. At the end of April 1944, he and two other Jews escaped from Paplaka labor camp. The German Security Service and Latvian auxiliary police issued a search warrant for them. Kalman Linkimer found out that several Jews had found shelter with Robert Seduls, and asked Seduls for help. Seduls took in the three escapees and hid them in a basement. Eight Jewish people were already living there.
In hiding, Kalman Linkimer wrote a diary detailing the persecution of Jews in Liepāja, life in the cramped basement, and the constant fear of discovery. He survived with the others in the hiding place.