Color drawing of a bust of a general created by a Jewish refugee boy in a children's home

Hans Ament was the son of Max Ament, born June 28, 1895, in Sanok, Poland, and Ernestina Reisz Ament, born September 29, 1902, in Budapest. The family left Austria for Belgium in 1939, planning to emigrate to America. A U.S. visa was issued to Hans on March 22, 1940, in Antwerp, but before he was able to leave, the Germans invaded Belgium and his family was forced to flee instead to France. Max Ament was deported on March 4, 1943, in convoy number fifty from Drancy, and was murdered at either Sobibor or Maidanek. On March 23, 1943, Ernestina Ament entered the sanatorium L'Esperance in Hauteville, several dozen kilometers from the home at Izieu, suffering from tuberculosis; she died on August 7, 1944. Hans Ament was deported on May 30, 1944, in convoy number seventy-five. His brother, Alfred, older by six years, was smuggled by OSE into Switzerland. He lives today in the United States.