Signs of Survival

Renee and Herta were Jewish sisters growing up in 1940s Czechoslovakia when the Holocaust came to their door. Herta and both their parents were deaf, and Renee felt an extra level of responsibility for her family, to warn them about the sounds of German soldiers approaching outside in the street. When Renee and Herta were taken to a concentration camp, the sisters had to rely on each other even more for safety, communicating in sign language and enduring starvation and illness. Sadly their parents did not survive the war, and Renee and Herta made their way to America to start new lives.

This poignant true account is a testament to the strength of sisterhood and the importance of telling our own stories.