Gabrielle REIN

Gabrielle Rein, née Hirtz, was born at 5.30 a.m. on October 25, 1899 in Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, in the Haut Rhin department of France. Her parents were Benjamin (also known as Adolphe) Hirtz, who was Jewish and worked as negotiator or broker, and Joséphine Lang. She grew up in Mulhouse, also in the Haut-Rhin department, and lived there until the turmoil of the Second World War turned her life upside down.

Until July 1940, Gabrielle, her husband Heinrich, and their son Marc, lived at 16 rue Illzach in Mulhouse. This was a period when much of Europe was being buffeted by the winds of war, and large numbers of Jews were already feeling the initial effects of the Nazi oppression. The family thus fled Mulhouse to seek refuge in Chambéry, in the Savoie department.

Gabrielle’s life took a traumatic turn when she was arrested in Chambéry and transferred to the Saint Paul prison in Lyon, in the Rhône department. She was transferred to Drancy on July 24, 1944, where she suddenly had to face the harsh reality of life in an internment camp. Then, on July 31, 1944, she was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where the horror reached new heights. Her time at Auschwitz was both brief and tragic. She was later declared to have died just a few days after she arrived, on August 5, 1944. She thus joined the countless ranks of victims who lost their lives in the gas chambers amidst the mass executions and the merciless cruelty of the Nazis.