Two sisters who survived the Holocaust died in Alabama 11 days apart
By Melissa Alonso and Devon M. Sayers, CNN
Two sisters who survived the Holocaust, and fulfilled their fathers dream to make it to America, died days apart from each other in Alabama, according to the Alabama Holocaust Education Center.
Ruth Scheuer Siegler, 95, died on September 3 and her sister, Ilse Scheuer Nathan, 98, died 10 days before on August 23, AHEC said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
The sisters immigrated to the United States after the war, eventually settling down in Birmingham. The sisters remained close friends and together shared their experience with people across the state.
“Ilse was one of the first Holocaust survivors in Birmingham to share her story of survival with students,” AHEC said in the post announcing her death.
“Ruth was blessed and cursed with the ability to remember almost everything, including the horrors of her wartime experiences and the losses of those dearest to her,” the center said. “Ruth began sharing her personal testimony as early as 1951, despite the pain that resurfaced with each telling. She frequently spoke to students, touching the lives of thousands,” the center added.
The Jewish sisters were born in Germany and lived there with their parents until 1939. Ilse and Ruth, along with their mother, Helene, joined their father, Jakob who fled to Holland after Kristallnacht.
In January 1944, Jakob was arrested for not removing his cap in front of a German officer, the family decided to stay together and were all sent to a concentration camp for the father’s crime. Eventually ending up in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The last time they saw their father, he gave them an address for a cousin in America. Their father, mother and brother died in the camp before liberation.
After their liberation by the Russians, the sisters eventually made their way back to Holland. “Remembering their father’s wish to have them move to America, the sisters contacted family members,” AHEC said. The women immigrated to the U.S. in July 1946.
Both women were widowed before their deaths. Ruth had three children and Ilse had two.
Ruth went on to write a memoir of here experiences, with the dedication “to my children and grandchildren, so that the suffering I endured, along with millions of others, will never be forgotten.”
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