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While growing up in southwest Germany, Hanne Liebmann was unaware of the changes that were going on in Europe as the war began.
Liebmann, who was born in 1924, was only a few months old when her father passed away. She grew up in a middle-class family with her older brother. The family owned a photo studio and had members of the Nazi party standing out front on April 1, 1933, the day of the boycott of Jewish stores. Liebmann said that seeing them standing out front in their brown shirts quickly told her what was going on.
As Adolf Hitler’s reign continued, Liebmann saw continuing limitations placed on the Jews. In 1937, Liebmann’s brother went to the United States, eventually joining the army to fight in the war. He died during his service.
As Jews were being forced out of their apartments, Liebmann and her mother began sharing a home with her aunts and grandmother. On October 22, 1940, they were arrested, taken to a railroad station and placed on trains for deportation.
Although those on the train thought they would end up at a concentration camp in Germany, they were instead taken into France.
“It turned out that we were the only group of people taken west into France,” Liebmann said. “When we first crossed the border into France we sort of [felt] a little bit of relief that it wasn’t going to be a concentration camp in Germany or maybe Poland.”
Their final destination was the Gurs Concentration Camp. One day, Liebmann’s grandmother asked why they were there. At age 16, the only answer she could give was that it was because they were Jewish.
Through the work of the Red Cross, which was one of the social service networks able to operate in Gurs, Liebmann was able to leave on September 7, 1941, although her mother remained there. She was taken to Le Chambon.
“Chambon was heaven on earth,” Liebmann said.
The people of the village hid the Jews when roundups started. While there, Liebmann was hidden on several occasions when police came looking.
During the summer of 1942, Liebmann returned to Gurs to see her mother, who had been ill. She found out that deportations were starting and got permission to see her mother in the freight yard. Liebmann only saw her mother briefly that day.
“Then the doors were closed and locked from the outside and the trains moved away,” she said. “The last thing I saw of my mother was a little white handkerchief that fluttered out from the cracks. To say I was devastated was an understatement.”
Liebmann returned to Le Chambon, although she was determined to leave France. She remained until February of 1943, arriving in Switzerland on the 28th.
For a year and a half, Liebmann lived with relatives and also found work. She was married on April 14, 1945 and moved into a refugee home with her husband. Their daughter was born in March of 1946.
In 1948, the family came to the United States. Liebmann, who now lives in Fresh Meadows, said that during the war she saw two examples of what people are capable of. The first was the persecution in Germany. The second was the appreciation, respect and protection she found in Le Chambon.
“Both impress you so you make a choice of which you want to follow,” Liebmann said. “The example of Chambon was overpowering.”
