Lore Heumann

The younger of two girls, Lore was born to Jewish parents in a village close to the Belgian border. The Heumanns lived above their general store. Across the street lived Lore's grandfather, who kept horses and cows in his large barn. When Lore was a year old, her family moved to the city of Lippstadt. The Lippe River flowed beyond the large garden in back of their house.

1933-39: When Lore was 6, her family moved to the nearby city of Bielefeld, where she entered public school. A year later, she and her older sister, Margot, were expelled from school. One day they were suddenly kicked out of class. Not understanding why, they stood outside, crying. Then they walked home. After this, their parents sent them to a Jewish school where they had teachers who also had been kicked out of the schools by the Nazis.

1940-44: A few months after Lore turned 11, she was deported with her family to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. When the Heumanns arrived at the station, they were met by Lore's thin and sickly-looking grandmother, who had been deported there some six months earlier. She told them that Lore's grandfather had died a few weeks earlier from starvation. In the ghetto Lore attended the classes clandestinely organized by Jewish teachers, but she found it hard to concentrate because she was almost always hungry.

Thirteen-year-old Lore was deported with her family to Auschwitz in May 1944. She and her parents are believed to have perished there. Her sister, Margot, survived the war.