Sisters who survived the Holocaust die within days of each other in Alabama
Two sisters who survived the Holocaust as girls and later moved to the United States have died within days of each other in their adopted home of Alabama.
The Alabama Holocaust Education Center said Ruth Scheuer Siegler died Saturday at age 95. His sister, Ilse Scheuer Nathan, died 10 days earlier at the age of 98.
The women were born in Germany and were girls when Adolf Hitler came to power in the 1930s. After losing their parents and older brother in the Holocaust, but surviving the Nazi death camps themselves, the two women were inseparable, the center said in a statement.
“They were always together,” Ann Mollengarden, director of education for the Alabama Holocaust Education Center, told Al.com. “When Ilse died, I think Ruth was ready.”
In early 1944, the girls were selected as laborers at the Birkenau camp and separated from their mother, whom they never saw again, according to a biography of the women. They saw their father for the last time at the camp and their brother died in a camp in Germany.
“The girls worked carrying bricks from one end of the compound to the other for hours on end. Ilse also sewed gun covers and uniforms. Working near the crematoria, they saw the mountains of shoes. For the first time, they realized their fellow inmates were being killed and cremated,” the biography reads.
Each woman married other Holocaust survivors in 1949. Ruth and Walter Siegler moved to Birmingham in 1960 to be with Ilse and Walter Nathan, who were already living in the area.
The women, who taught lessons about the Holocaust, were both widowed and remained best friends to the end, living within walking distance of each other for years.
