Map by Daniel Gera

Wiener Neustadt, Austria

danigera1409 — 2025-01-24 14:50:40 UTC

Lilli Tauber grew up in Austria until the Anschluss in 1938, when her family faced escalating anti-Semitism. Their shop was "Aryanized," her father was arrested and taken to a facility where people were sorted for deportation to Dachau, one of Nazi Germany's first and longest-running concentration camps. While her father was eventually released, her uncle's fate was less fortunate. Lilli was expelled from school and attended classes held in a synagogue for Jewish children.

Jewish women and children in her neighborhood were forcibly detained in the synagogue, searched for valuables, and robbed. Three days later, most were sent by bus to Vienna. Lilli and three other children, however, were not released because they had contracted scarlet fever and were hospitalized in Wiener Neustadt.

Vienna, Austria

danigera1409 — 2025-01-25 10:27:25 UTC

At the end of December 1938, Lilli’s father picked her up after six weeks in the hospital in Wiener Neustadt, and they stayed with her Aunt and Uncle Gottfried in Vienna. By then, school was no longer a priority. Uncle Gottfried, who had connections with the B'nai Brith Lodge, a Jewish social organization, helped secure her a permit to escape on the Kindertransport.

Her parents took her to Vienna's western train station, where she boarded a Kindertransport train to England. Between 1938 and 1939, approximately 10,000 children were sent without their parents from Nazi Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to safety in Britain in what became known as the Kindertransport rescue movement.

Hackney, London, England, UK

danigera1409 — 2025-01-25 10:27:49 UTC

Lilli was sent to England via the Kindertransport in 1938, arriving in London without knowing a word of English. She and three other children from her transport were placed in a hostel housing other children from Germany. There, she began learning English and adjusting to her new life.

From that point on, she could only communicate with her parents through letters, which was very difficult for her. Five days after her arrival, World War II broke out.

Cockley Cley, Swaffham, Norfolk, UK

danigera1409 — 2025-01-25 10:28:30 UTC

England was also in a war now.

Lilli and the other children were sent into the countryside to Cockley Cley to Lady Roberts, a nice member of the landed gentry.

Lillis' parents and her could no longer send letters to each other directly.

Her cousin lived in Luxembourg which was still neutral and not in war

⁠they wrote letters for each other and sent them to the cousin in Luxemburg so he could send it on to Vienna or England.

⁠In the summer of 1940 her correspondence with her parents suddenly broke off because now Luxembourg was occupied by Germany.

Lilli was terribly afraid for her parents because she stopped hearing any news from them almost over night

London, England, UK

danigera1409 — 2025-01-25 10:29:03 UTC

In 1942, at the age of 15, Lilli moved to London where she lived in a hostel and began an apprenticeship as a tailor. She participated in discussions and trips with Young Austria, a left-wing organization for young emigrants. They encouraged returning to Austria after the war to help rebuild a democratic country. Throughout this time, Lilli held onto hope, believing that her parents were alive and that God was helping them. In winter 1945, she learned about Auschwitz, a notorious Nazi concentration and extermination camp in occupied Poland. It became infamous for the systematic murder of millions, primarily Jews, during the Holocaust.

then thought occurred to her that her parents may not be alive anymore

Vienna, Austria

danigera1409 — 2025-01-25 10:29:19 UTC

In 1946, at 19, Lilli returned to Vienna with the Young Austria organization. Her Aunt Bertha, whose marriage to a non-Jew had saved her life, met her at Vienna’s western train station and handed her a small black leather suitcase. Inside were letters and photos that revealed the difficult fate of her parents.

Aunt Bertha explained that life in Vienna had become increasingly difficult for Lilli's parents. Her father worked for an Aryanized clothing factory until February 26, 1941, when her parents were deported to a ghetto in Opole, Poland. The letters and photos described the ghetto's harsh conditions: overcrowding, confinement, and dependence on costly packages. People who helped others faced punishment, and the residents lived in fear, not knowing what lay ahead.

In one of her father's final letters, written before Rosh Hashanah in September 1941, he expressed a longing to reunite with his children. Of the 2,003 Viennese Jews in the ghetto, only 28 are known to have survived.

To this day, Lilli does not know in which extermination camp her parents were killed.

Prein an der Rax, Austria

danigera1409 — 2025-01-25 10:29:39 UTC

In 1946, Aunt Bertha took Lilli to Prein, where she reclaimed her grandparents' house and store after the Aryanizer had left. "Aryanization" refers to the transfer of Jewish-owned property to non-Jews in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, aimed at shifting Jewish economic enterprises to non-Jewish ownership.

Lilli worked in the store as a salesperson, known to customers as "Fräulein Lilli," and enjoyed her work. Although she spent a significant amount of time at Aunt Bertha's place in Prein and began to feel a sense of belonging, she couldn’t truly call Austria her home. For years, whenever she met someone’s gaze, she couldn’t help but wonder whether that person had contributed to her family’s persecution.

Vienna, Austria

2025-01-26 22:19:58 UTC

On Pentecost in 1953, Lilli met Max Tauber at Café Mozart in Vienna. His family had survived the war in Jerusalem, but Max returned to Austria because he didn’t like living in Palestine. By New Year’s Eve, the two were married.

A year later, their son Willie was born, followed by their second son, Hainzy, two and a half years later. Lilli and Max raised their children as proud Jews, sharing their life stories with them. It was only after becoming a mother herself that Lilli fully understood how brave her parents had been in sending her on the Kindertransport