Hanne Hirsch Liebmann (1924–2026) grew up in Karlsruhe, Germany. She was raised by her mother, Ella, who was widowed in 1925. In January 1933, when Hanne was 8 years old, the Nazis came to power in Germany. Nazis targeted the family's photo studio during the April 1933 anti-Jewish boycott. In November 1938, Hanne experienced the violence and terror of Kristallnacht. Then, in October 1940, the Nazi regime deported Hanne and her family to France, where they were imprisoned in the Gurs internment camp. In Gurs, Hanne met Max Liebmann, who had also been deported from Germany. In September 1941, the Children's Aid Society (OSE) rescued Hanne and placed her in a children's home in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. In 1943, Hanne obtained false papers and crossed into Switzerland. There, she reunited with Max. They married and had a daughter. In 1948, the family immigrated to the United States. Hanne's mother was deported from France to Auschwitz in 1942. She did not survive the Holocaust.
Gurs was a camp full of mud. It was clay. When it rained, you sank into the clay up to your knees. The first persons we lost or one woman we lost really choked to death in the mud. She went at night to the latrine. She fell. She could not extricate herself and she died. So our experiences were horrendous. It is not...I would not say Gurs was Auschwitz, but it was what they called the little Hell before the big one, meaning Auschwitz. Our food was minimal. France was short on food, it is true. Uh...the French felt called upon to steal much of the money that was allocated to feed us so instead of the little, there was even less. There were people in the camp who stole...were in a position to steal and did, of this little food. So it was really a very difficult, difficult survival.
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