Hanna’s first eight years were secure and happy
but then her mother died of pulmonary tuberculosis and the war broke out.

In the autumn of 1939 Hanna’s family was executed by German soldiers. Only Hanna and her younger sister were allowed to live. They were taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Hanna’s five-year-old little sister Anita was executed in Auschwitz. Hanna had the prisoner number Z-4517 tattooed on her arm. She was moved to various camps in the course of six years. When she was 14 she was put to work at an arms factory in Hamburg.

Hanna was rescued by the Swedish Red Cross’s White Buses and came to a home for girls in Katrineholm.

One spring day in 1947 a Roma family brought its funfair to Katrineholm. Hanna met Georg Dimitri and they married in Stockholm.

Georg got work in Malmberget and they settled down there. Hanna and Georg had four children. They lived in a tent and a bus but finally got a home.

In 1975 Hanna and Georg moved to Stockholm, where they lived the rest of their life

Source: Berith Kalander (1996). Min mor fånge Z-4517. Gällivare: Gällivare kommuns Folkbibliotek.