Today we want to tell you the story of Luiza Grüner.
She was born in Berlin and attended a Jewish school there. Due to the worsening situation for Jews in Germany, she and her family moved to Poland, first to Jarosław, then to Kraków.
Our proganist was six years old when the war broke out. After their short stay in Jarosław, all Jews were ordered to leave the town, at which point, together with her mother who was hiding their Jewish origins, they went to Kraków.
In Kraków, they were placed in the ghetto, where Luizas mother worked in the “Optima” factory. Thanks to the resourcefulness of her mother, who found Luiza a hiding place and left the ghetto for a short time herself, they managed to survive two deportation operations in the ghetto to the Bełżec death camp.
They then received documents proving that they were foreigners and, after many more hardships, were sent to the Bergen -Belsen camp.
From so far to so close.
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Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute (AŻIH) ref. 301/837