Inge Auerbacher is an 81-year-old storyteller and she loves hugs. Her personal story is one of survival, perseverance and healing from the Holocaust.
Eighth grade students from South Junior High listen to Auerbacher’s story. They’ve just finished reading “The Diary of Anne Frank” and have been studying the holocaust in class. They hear Auerbacher’s first-hand account as a survivor.
Auerbacher was born in 1934 in Kippenheim, Germany and for her second birthday, she was given a doll. In 1936, Germany was about to host the summer Olympics, and Adolf Hitler commissioned the Schildkrot Doll Company to create a blonde, blue-eyed, “Aryan-looking” doll to sell as souvenirs for the Olympics. Auerbacher’s doll was named Marlene. Marlene was her companion through the Holocaust.
Today, Auerbacher’s doll, Marlene, is one of the most treasured items on display at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
In 1938, Auerbacher’s father and grandfather were arrested and taken to Dachau, their possessions taken, and by May of 1939 her father and grandfather were released. However, they lost their textile business and were forced to sell their home and move in with her grandparents in a neighboring village.
At the age of 6, Auerbacher would walk miles to the train station every day and ride the train for an hour by herself to get to an all Jewish school. Jewish children could no longer attend public school with other German children.
“I have a hero. I call them heroes -people who weren’t bystanders. A woman that was on the train left a bag of rolls on the seat next to me when she got off the train,” says Auerbacher.
It was during these years, by German rule, her name was no longer Inge Auerbacher. She became known as XIII-1-408.
By 1942 German police took their money and remaining possessions and Auerbacher and her family were shipped to Theresienstadt concentration camp. They were greeted at the entrance with “Arbeit Macht Frei” [work makes free] written across the archway. Theresienstadt was used as a holding facility meant to house its inhabitants prior to being shipped to Auschwitz.
As students watch a documentary video on Auerbacher and her doll titled the “The Olympic Doll,” an extra quietness settles in the room. Footage and images of the Holocaust play across the screen.
Auerbacher describes Theresienstadt to the students, “It smelled like death and epidemics…Our playground was the garbage heap.”
Auerbacher explains that they had to be creative as children. They had to make up their own games like bunk races and who could imagine the most sumptuous meal. Their parents were put to work, the women either cutting mica or sewing/repairing Nazi German uniforms.
Auerbacher recalls how she contracted scarlet fever and was hospitalized for four months. She lived in constant fear of being separated from her parents or shipped to Auschwitz due to her illness.
In 1945, Russian forces advanced on Theresienstadt and liberated the camp.
“The barricades were left up [after the liberation] due to typhus. Many that were liberated didn’t survive [never left] due to disease,” says Auerbacher.
Students begin to break the silence.
“What was the hardest part about living in the concentration camp?” asks a student.
Auerbacher replies, “Fear, hunger and loss of freedom. Freedom isn’t free. I was in constant fear of being separated from my parents. I was lucky to be with my parents.”
Auerbacher tells the students that 15,000 children went through Theresien and approximately one percent survived.
Auerbacher shows the students the “Jude” star she was forced to wear as a child. She also shows them a photo of her best friend from Theresienstadt, Ruth. Ruth was killed at the age of 10 after being sent to Auschwitz. After searching 30 years for a photo of Ruth, a German journalist was able to assist in locating Ruth’s relatives. To this day, Auerbacher does not travel without her photo of Ruth.
The questions continue and another student asks, “What was a typical meal?”
Auerbacher explains, “Turnips or potato soup with a bread ration once a week. Food was one of the most important things.”
“Do you remember the first thing you ate when you got out of the camp?” asks another student.
“Noodle soup! It tasted heavenly,” replies Auerbacher.
Auerbacher’s family was one of the only in-tact families to survive the holocaust. Out of the 1,200 people liberated from Theresien, 13 survived. It was a miracle that a family was in-tact. They moved to the United States after liberation, soon thereafter Auerbacher contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized for two years.
She tells the students, “I never finished first grade. They took away eight years of my education. When I came to America I was like many of you in the audience, an immigrant. I didn’t know English. I had to learn.”
Missing eight years of education never stopped Auerbacher. She completed her doctoral degree in chemistry and became an author of six books. She travels the world telling her story and speaking out about tolerance and human rights.
She emphasizes, “Don’t be a bystander. If you see bullying tell your teacher or principal.”
She stresses to the students, “You are among the few that are left to speak to a survivor of the holocaust. I want you to be the ambassadors of this story. It won’t be long before there are none of us left. Share your love.”
Skye Otte says, before giving Auerbacher a hug, “It was really touching the way people reached out to help her. It was really moving because it was a terrifying experience.”
