Hanne and Max Liebmann

  On October 22, 1940, 6,504 Jews from the Baden, Palatinate, and Saar regions of Germany—including Hanne and Max—were arrested, as part of Operation Bürckel, and deported to Gurs, a French-run concentration camp in the “free zone.” 
  In Gurs, latrines were collective, heat was nonexistent in winter, the ground was muddy, and food was scarce. Disease and starvation were rampant. Yet, in this oppressive environment, Hanne and Max met as she worked in an office with Max’s mother. 
  The OEuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) “transferred” Hanne and Max from Gurs. Hanne immediately went to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, but Max went to Taluyers, near Lyon, where he was denied false papers. Max then fled to Le Chambon, hid for three weeks, and was given papers stating he was an Alsatian “Charles Lang.” He then escaped to Switzerland. 
  Hanne remained in Le Chambon for almost a year before going to Switzerland with fake papers saying she was a Parisian named “Anne-Marie Husser.” At the Swiss border, French customs demanded her papers and asked only one question: “Are you Jewish?” She replied spewing Nazi propaganda saying, “I have nothing to do with that dirty race.” She was let through. 
  Hanne and Max married on April 14, 1945, and have one daughter, one grandson and two great-granddaughters. They recently celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary.