The Rattners

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Facebook:

Hilda and Isadore Rattner met through the Deaf community in Vienna and got married in 1926. However, the marriage didn’t last. They separated shortly after the birth of their second daughter, Lilly, in 1932.

In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria and Lilly was forced to leave her Deaf school. She remembered, “Everything changed overnight, drastically. There were all these rules, regulations, and edicts. … Jewish children no longer had permission to attend schools.”

As deaf Jews, the Rattners faced added obstacles when trying to flee Nazi Europe. Hilda was lucky. A relative in the United States agreed to help her and her two daughters immigrate. Isadore remained behind.

When Hilda and the girls arrived in New York in 1940, they were detained on Ellis Island. The family was classified as "defective" under US immigration law because they were deaf. They were held on Ellis Island for five months and only released after paying a $2,500 bond proving they could support themselves.

After the war, a family friend, a fellow deaf Jewish survivor, reached out to Hilda. He speculated that, because Isadore signed, he had been murdered in the gas chambers.

Lilly reflected, “My father was sent to the gas chamber because he was in a group of deaf people who were signing and gesturing. … It breaks my heart when I think about it.”

Records show that the Nazis deported Isadore Rattner to the Maly Trostenets killing site on August 31, 1942, and murdered him there on September 4.

Lilly later devoted herself to educating people about the Holocaust. "I think it is important to preserve our history," said Lilly. "And it is important that people know that it really did happen."