The Story of Liesel Katz 1917-1964
Liesel Katz’s diary was locked and not opened for decades. When finally translated, it revealed history side by side a remarkable teenage account of Nazi persecution. It is a window into the horrors of hatred of the Jews leading up to the Holocaust. Liesel’s narrative, read by a teenager in Joan’s presentation, conveys the immediacy of events allowing audiences to encounter the antisemitic hate on a young victim encouraged by a shameful regime.
Liesel was born in in 1917 in Grevenbroich, in the Rhine area of Germany. She had an older brother, Walter, and her family were horse and cattle dealers.
Additional facts researched by a German historian revealed detailed information relating to Liesel’s parents documented by the Nazis. When war broke out they became refugees and fled their home town through Belgium to France, where they were imprisoned and ultimately deported to be murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942.
Liesel finally emigrated to Palestine in 1938 and made a new life for herself with the opportunities that unfolded. Despite having been forced to leave school early, she was a skilled needlewoman and set up a small business hand knitting garments in Tel Aviv. She died in London in 1964.
Presented by Joan Noble
Joan trained as a teacher originally and later spent 15 years in the gluten-free business becoming a company director who devised recipes, demonstrated nationally and introduced innovative specialist products.
When she retired she enjoyed working with Jewish Care Holocaust survivors including arranging their audio testimonies. Latterly she indulges in mixed media art including family history collages. She is occupied with community work and being a grandmother.
Joan presents her mother Liesel’s story based around her 1933 teenage diary written in German, and the fate of her parents. Joan knew she had no grandparents, but other than that, her family history was unknown.
Watch an excerpt from the story of Liesel Katz
