Laura Hillman facts for kids

Laura Hillman (born Hannelore Wolff on October 16, 1923) was an American writer. She was born in Germany. She is known for surviving the Holocaust, a terrible time when many Jewish people were persecuted. She was helped by a man named Oskar Schindler. He saved many Jewish people from concentration camps. Laura wrote a book about her experiences. It is called i will plant you a lilac tree – a memoir of a Schindler's list survivor. She also shared her story by giving talks. She passed away on June 4, 2020.

Laura Hillman's Early Life and Survival

Laura Hillman was born Hannelore Wolff in Aurich, Germany, on October 16, 1923. She came from a large Jewish family. As a teenager, she went to a Jewish boarding school near Berlin. When she heard that her mother and brothers were going to be sent away, she asked the Nazi authorities if she could go with them. She knew she would be sent away eventually. Her request was allowed. However, she was separated from her family soon after arriving in Poland.

Sadly, many members of Laura's family died during the Holocaust. This included her parents, Martin and Karoline Wolff, and her brothers, Wolfgang and Selly Wolff. Selly died after being hurt in a camp called Budzyń. Laura's two sisters, Rosel and Hildegard, survived the war. They were living outside Europe, one in England and the other in Palestine.

Laura was held in more than seven different labor and concentration camps during the Holocaust. These were terrible prison camps where people were forced to work.

Meeting Bernhard and Finding Safety

Laura met a Polish Jewish man named Bernhard "Dick" Hillman. His whole family had also died during the war. They met at the fourth camp where Laura was sent, called Budzyń. Later, they were both sent to the Płaszów concentration camp. There, they managed to get on the famous "Schindler's list." This was a list of Jewish workers who were saved from being sent to death camps. These camps were places where people were killed. This happened after Płaszów camp was closed.

Laura and the other women on Schindler's list were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They spent a very difficult few weeks there. But Oskar Schindler managed to convince Nazi officials to send them to a safer place. This was his own camp, called Brünnlitz. Laura and Dick stayed there for the rest of the war. Soldiers freed them on May 9, 1945.

A New Life and Sharing Her Story

Laura and Dick were married by an army chaplain in Erding, Germany, on October 22, 1945. They moved to the United States. They arrived in New York City on January 4, 1947. They eventually settled in Los Alamitos, California. There, Hannelore changed her first name to "Laura." They had one son in 1954.

Laura's husband, Dick, passed away in 1986 from heart problems. In 2005, Laura published her book about her experiences during the Holocaust. It is titled i will plant you a lilac tree – a memoir of a Schindler's list survivor. The title came from a promise Dick made to her in the camps. He promised to plant her lilac trees, like the ones at her childhood home in Aurich.

Laura Hillman died on June 4, 2020, in Rossmoor, California. She was 96 years old.

Her Book

• i will plant you a lilac tree – a memoir of a Schindler's list survivor. Atheneum Books for Young Readers: NY, London, Toronto & Sydney: 2005. ISBN: 0-689-86980-0