Profile | In Gratitude

There are facts in life that have to be repeated over and over again for those born later so that they incorporate them into their world view.
 

• As a young woman during the First World War, my mother Hannchen Lieben, née Grünbaum, was a volunteer nurse in a German military hospital, where she cared for wounded soldiers.
   
  As a thank you, she was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
   
• My father, Prof. Dr. Eugen Lieben, taught German to generations of pupils in our home town of Prague. He was also murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
   
  A few weeks later, their son Rudolf – my brother – died in the Kaufering concentration camp complex in Upper Bavaria.
   
• My father’s older brother, Dr. Salomon Lieben, ran a field hospital during the First World War, where he treated Austrian and German wounded.
   
  As a thank you, he was murdered in a Nazi killing center near Salzburg in 1942. His widow and three children were murdered in concentration camps.
   
• My father’s younger brother was wounded in action near Isonzo in Italy during the First World War and spent months in a military hospital.
  
  As a thank you, he was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. His wife and two sons were also killed in concentration camps.