Thread by @ABMFusa

28 April 1930 | Jona Laks was born in Lodz, Poland

In 1944, Jona, her twin sister Miriam, and their elder sister Chana were deported to #Auschwitz. Both of their parents died in the War.

Jona survived. Today is her 92nd birthday. Please join us in wishing her a wonderful day!

Jona was 9 years old when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Jews were to identify themselves with a yellow badge and could not be on the street after 5pm. They were not allowed to attend school. Signs in all social places read, "Jews and dogs are not permitted to enter."

Jona's mother died of a heart attack shortly after the German invasion, and Jona and the rest of her family entered the Lodz Ghetto. In January 1942, the "final solution," the elimination of all Jews, was put forth. Thus began the liquidation of the ghetto.

Jona's father feared that she and her twin sister Miriam were too frail to survive and proceeded to put the girls in a cupboard. He pushed it against the wall and covered the cabinet with bottles before he went down to selection. His actions saved his daughters' lives.

Jona's father and three sisters were deported to the #Chelmno extermination camp in 1942. In 1944, Jona, Miriam, and their older sister Chana were deported to Auschwitz.

Due to starvation, the girls were underdeveloped for their age, which led Chana to believe that they wouldn't survive selection. She pushed Miriam to the back row and pinched her cheeks to look healthier, and she put her wooden shoes under Jona's feet so she would appear taller.

Chana's efforts were in vain. Jona was ordered to the left, which meant imminent death. She was forced to run to the crematorium and undress; she could see the fire out the chimney and almost feel the burnt flesh. She understood that she was being sent to her death.

To save Jona, Chana told Dr. Mengele that Jona and Miriam were twins and had never been separated. She begged for them to remain together. But Chana was unaware of what this revelation would mean for her sisters.

When Dr. Mengele heard this, he ordered the officers to bring Jona back. At the hands of Mengele, the sadistic "Angel of Death," the twins endured painful experiments every other day of the week for their remaining time at #Birkenau.

Chana was deported to a forced labor camp in Germany, leaving her sisters behind. As Allied forces advanced in 1945, prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau were taken on a death march. The once-white snow was stained red with the blood of those who could not keep up.

Because the Germans did not want any prisoners in Allied hands, they tried to get each one out of the region. Soldiers took Jona and Miriam to the #Ravensbruck concentration camp, which was overcrowded, and to #Malchow, a camp near Leipzig.

Before leaving Auschwitz, prisoners rummaged through storage rooms in the camp to find anything they could carry with them. She and Miriam were small and weak and decided not to take anything. But Miriam did manage to take a small bottle of medicine.

Malchow was so new that no medical equipment was available to treat the sick. When the twins arrived, Jona was so ill that she was thrown onto a pile of dead bodies. Miriam alerted the prisoners that Jona was speaking. Jona was removed from the pile and placed in a separate room.

Miriam would visit her sister every day but was sent away each time. The prisoners told Miriam that Jona was dying and there was no medicine to help her. Miriam then remembered the bottle she had taken when departing Auschwitz. It saved Jona's life.

In 1948, Jona settled in Israel and married a fellow survivor. They had three children.

Jona promised herself that if she survived Auschwitz, she would tell her story. She later founded and served as the chairwoman of the Organization of the Mengele Twins.

In January 2020, Jona visited @AuschwitzMuseum with the ABMF delegation to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation.

Please join us in wishing her a very happy birthday!

Read more about Jona's story of survival here: preserveauschwitz.org/survivor/jona-…