Spots of Light - Women in the Holocaust

Womanhood

Margot Fink

"I had a chance to make myself a comb using some leftover wire. I also made two rollers. If they’d caught me, I’d have been severely punished."

Margot was born in 1925 in Cologne. She and her younger brother, Max (Adolf), were sent in 1938 to their uncles in the Netherlands. Her parents were deported to Zbaszyn, on the Polish border; her sister was sent to England in the Kindertransport; and her older brother left for Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) upon obtaining a 'certificate' (immigration permit). Margot and Max went into hiding, along with other relatives, in the home of their uncles in Amsterdam. In 1943, the entire family was captured. Margot was placed in a group that worked in a factory of the Philips company. In June 1944, her group was sent to Auschwitz and on to Reichenbach camp, where they worked for Telefunken. In February 1945, the camp’s women were taken on a death march toward Czechoslovakia. Liberated on 1 May 1945, in Denmark, they were transferred to Sweden. Margot returned to the Netherlands to reunite with her uncle and his young daughter, who had survived; there she learned that her parents, younger brother, and aunt had been murdered.

One year later, Margot immigrated to the Land of Israel.

Margot, after the war Margot, after the war
Comb that Margot made in Reichenbach CampComb that Margot made in Reichenbach Camp