Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

In 1942, Hedy Hirsch was fifteen when she and her mother fled for Hungary, after father was sent to AuschwitzConcentration Camp, and was never heard from again.
They escaped to Nitra, and from there they tried to reach the Hungarian border, but were arrested by Slovakian guards.
They escaped and crossed the border, where Hedy and her mother were reunited with her older sister, Edith, who joined them, traveling to Budapest using forged papers
They hid for two years in Budapest, sleeping each night in a different abandoned building or cemetery.

In 1944, Hedy and her mother were arrested while trying to cross back into Slovakia, and were transported on a train to Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Hedy Engel and her mother were were sent to Lager C.

In October, Hedy Engel, age 17 years, was selected for transport to a labor camp in Altenberg.
She asked the woman in charge of the block include her mother on the list, and the two were sent to work in an arms factory, where they worked 12 hours a day.
They remained there until April, 1945.

Hedy Engel, and her mother, along with the factory workers were sent on a death march, without food, from Altenberg to Waldenberg.

On the night of April 12, 1945,, they reached Waldenberg, where they were liberated by the Americans.

Hedy Engel and her mother settled in Jerusalem.