Carl Heumann

Carl was born to Jewish parents living in a German village near the Belgian border. He fought in World War I and received the Iron Cross, a German military honor. He married Johanna Falkenstein and they settled down in a house across the street from his father's cattle farm. Carl ran a small general store on the first floor of their home. The couple had two daughters, Margot (born in 1928) and Lore (born in 1931).

11933-39: After the Nazis came to power in Germany, life became increasingly difficult for German Jews like the Heumann family. Carl struggled to find work. In the late 1930s Carl moved his family to the city of Bielefeld, where he worked for a Jewish relief organization.

1940-1944: After World War II began in September 1939, life became increasingly difficult for the Heumanns and other German Jews. Beginning in September 1941, German Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David badge on their clothes, marking them as Jewish. 

In June 1943, the Heumanns were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto near Prague. They remained there until May 1944, when German authorities deported Carl and his family to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, they were initially housed in the “Czech family camp” (section BIIb) of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Prisoners in the section had some privileges, such as wearing civilian clothes instead of camp uniforms. But, they still suffered from starvation and lacked proper shelter or sanitation. Carl did not survive the Holocaust, though his exact fate is unknown. Of the immediate family, only Margot survived. She last saw her father when they said goodbye at Auschwitz.