Rene Salt
Ghetto, Auschwitz & Bergen-Belsen Survivor

Rene Salt was forced with her parents and sister to live in a ghetto in Zdunska-Vola Poland. One night the Gestapo came and forced the whole ghetto into fields. As they started to grab and separate the children, mayhem broke out. Mothers were crying out "Oh mighty G-d where are you, help us." Rene's mother hid her on one side and her younger sister on the other side under her coat. The Germans uncovered her sister and gave her mother a beating. Rene's sister was sent with hundreds of other children to Treblinka concentration camp and gassed.

From Auschwitz, Rene and her mother were sent to Hamburg Harburg, Popenbittel and finally to Bergen-Belsen. Rene's mother died on 27 April 1945, 12 days after the liberation of the camp. Her mother was buried in one of the first mass graves.

50 years on Rene went with her husband to visit the grave. The grave was no longer there. In its place is a NATO training school.

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