Holocaust survivor sisters die days apart in Alabama: ‘They were always together’

The sisters were forced into work at the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp

Two nonagenarian sisters who survived the Holocaust have died within days of one another in Alabama, their adopted home.

The Alabama Holocaust Education Center said on Tuesday that Ruth Scheuer Siegler, 95, died on Saturday after her sister, Ilse Scheuer Nathan, died 10 days earlier at age 98.

The two sisters were born in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and were eventually forced to work at the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration camp as children, the Associated Press reported.

When the war ended, both Ruth and Isle weighed about 80lbs each after they endured brutality, hunger and forced marches at the hands of Nazi Germany, AL.com reported. The camp was liberated in 1945 by the Soviet army.

Following the war, Ruth and Isle arrived in the United States to meet relatives in Nebraska before settling in Birmingham, Alabama, where they had helped contribute to a Holocaust photography exhibition at the state’s Holocaust Education Center in the city in 2007, the report said.

“They were always together,” said Ann Mollengarden, education director for the Alabama Holocaust Education Center, to the Alabama news website. “When Ilse died, I think Ruth was ready.”

The education centre added on Facebook that “Ruth was blessed and cursed with the ability to remember almost everything, including the horrors of her wartime experiences and the losses of those dearest to her.

“When she came to America, she wanted to live as ‘normal’ a life as possible – marrying and raising her children – creating a family that was everything to her,” the tribute added. “Her generous spirit endeared her to many lifelong friends who became her Birmingham family and remained loyal to the very end”.

The two sisters’ father was believed to have died at Auschwitz, where approximately 1.1m people died during the Holocaust, according to the Auschwitz memorial and museum. The siblings never saw their mother or brother again.

Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination site organised by Nazi Germany in its mission to exterminate Europe’s Jews – six million of whom were murdered.