Liselotte Nanette Hammel was born January 1, 1919, in Baden-Baden. She was one of two children of the cattle dealer Simon Hammel (born Dec 25, 1867) and his wife Mina, née Bloch (born July 12, 1883). Together with her parents and her sister Gertrud, born March 16, 1909, she lived in Renchen until March 30, 1928. Then the family moved to Offenburg, where they first lived at Herrmannstrasse 20 and from 1931 at Sofienstrasse 3. Liselotte went to the secondary school for girls in Offenburg, which closed in 1930.
Gertrud attended commercial school in Achern and later worked as a secretary in her father’s business. Simon Hammel was a respected cattle dealer whose business was doing well until it slowly came to a standstill from 1933 onwards due to the National Socialist racial programms.
In 1938, Gertrud, Liselotte’s sister, emigrated with her husband Paul Löwenthal to Brooklyn, New York. However, she was never happy there, as she could not speak English well and had to do tedious factory work to earn her money.
On September 9, 1939, Liselotte, who had worked as an employee and housekeeper in Offenburg, moved to Munich, where she lived in Clarissa Heimann’s apartment at Martiusstrasse 8, and worked as a secretary.
Only three months after arriving in Munich, she gave birth to her daughter Judis on January 2, 1940. At that time, her father was in Munich supporting her. The father of the child was the merchant Rudolf Kahn, who was not married to Liselotte. Just one week after her birth, Judis was sent to a children’s home run by the IKG (Jewish Community of Munich) at Antonienstrasse 7. The reasons for the separation of mother and child are unknown.
From May 21,1940 Liselotte lived with a family called Bloch at Stievestrasse 6, who were forced to house other Jewish citizens, the same inhumane housing scheme that was enforced on Haimann and Perutz at Martiusstrasse 8. From May 20, 1940, Liselotte was then in the hospital of the Jewish Community in Hermann-Schmid-Strasse 5-9.
Liselotte’s parents were both deported during the large mass deportation of the Jews of Baden and Saarpfalz October 22,1940 and taken to the French internment camp Gurs. Simon Hammel died there December 16, 1940, while Mina Hammel was deported to Rivesaltes March 15, 1942. From there, she managed to escape, lived illegally in France until she finally emigrated to New York July 6,1946 to live with her daughter Gertrud. Mina suffered from Parkinson’s disease and died March 22, 1959.
November 1, 1940, Liselotte moved to Seestrasse 64 in Stuttgart. Her daughter was brought to her in Stuttgart November 12, 1941. Both were taken to the Ghetto Izbica in Poland April 26, 1942. Liselotte was twenty-three at that time and her daughter Judis was two years old. In that camp a total of about 14,000 Jews were held captive. Izbica was used as a transit station for the extermination camps of Belzec and Sobibor. On December 31, 1945, Liselotte and Judis were declared dead.