Lilly Isaacs diaries and photographs

Lilly Isaacs (born Livia Klein, 1920-2012) was born in Berehove, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) to Herman Klein and Bertha Klein (b. 1893). Lilly had a brother, Gabriel (later Gene, born c. 1929), and a sister, Olga (b. 1922). They lived in Berehove where Herman owned a hardware store. Lilly attended school in Prague, but returned home in 1939 after Germany annexed the Sudetenland because of concerns for her safety. In 1944, Lilly and her family were sent to the Berehove ghetto. They did not attempt to leave because they wanted to stay together, but in 1944 they were sent to Auschwitz and were immediately separated. Lilly was sent to Sömmerda, a labor camp outside of Buchenwald, where she was forced to work in a munitions factory until liberation in 1945. While in Sömmerda, Lilly kept a diary she made out of supplies from the factory. After liberation, she returned home and was reunited with her mother, sister, and brother. Herman was killed at Auschwitz. Gabriel decided to leave Berehove, but Bertha and Olga decided to stay. Lilly married George Isaacs (born Gyorgy Iczkovitz in Berehove, Czechoslovakia) in 1945. George survived the war in various forced labor camps in Hungary. Lilly and George lived in DP camps in Austria until they immigrated to the United States. They had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Debby.