• Irene, daughter of Herbert and Ita Guttman, was born in  Teplice-Sanov, Czechoslovakia.
• Her arrival was soon followed by the birth of a twin brother. 
• Her parents named her Renate and her brother was given the name, Rene. 

• In 1941 her father was taken away, imprisoned, and ultimately killed in Auschwitz.

• Approximately 6 months after Herbert had been taken away, Ita, Irene and Rene were sent to Theriesenstadt where they remained for about a year. 
• They were then sent to Auschwitz. 
• At this time, Czech families were kept in the Czech –Familien* Lager together as families, so Irene remained with her mother for about 5 months.

• Then there was a selection.  Rene and Irene were separated from their mother and from each other.  With the exception of Rene, Irene and some doctors and nurses everyone else was killed that very same day. Just these few were saved.

• Irene and Rene were separated from each other because they were twins of the opposite sex. They were about 5 or 6 years old at the time.

• In Rene’s place there was a 19 year old who tried to take care of the boys.  The girls were not lucky enough to have that kind of care.  The girls were on their own. 

• Mengele twins were kept alive for as long as they were useful.  Irene was under the impression that she was being taken care of very well because she was continuously getting sick and in pain. 

• At Liberation, a Polish resident of the town of Auschwitz, picked up Irene and took her home.   At this point she was very sick.   Without interest in her real name, she renamed her Irenka.  “Irenka” had grown attached to this lady when her life changed again, as members of a Jewish agency searching for Jewish children rescued her.  She was sent to a series of orphanages.   The last one was located outside of Paris.

• A small group of Americans came to this orphanage and selected Irene to return with them to America for purposes of fundraising.  They decided  not to send her back to the orphanage, as originally planned, and looked for people to adopt her instead.   Meyer and Dinah Slotkin , who had children of their own,  became her parents.  When she told them that she had a twin brother, they spared no expense to find him, and adopt him, as well.

• Irene grew up to become a biochemist.   She served as a researcher for the Albert Einstein, and Cornell Medical Schools. Her work experience includes teaching ( physics and biology), and caligraphy.  In her personal life, she became a wife, a mother, and a grandmother.

Jews in Czechoslovakia

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005688

The Holocaust in Slovakia

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007324

Auschwitz
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005189
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/layman.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/auschbirk.html

Mengele

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele

http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/search/index_search.html

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/ put Mengele in the search

Death March
http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206260.pdf

Theresienstadt

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005424

http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/viewer/wlc/map.php?RefId=THE78060

(from the Yad Vashem site)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/terezin.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp_Theresienstadt

http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives__Documen/Theresienstadt/theresienstadt.html

http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Visual___Artistic_Resources/Public_Holocaust_Memorials/Concentration_Camp_-_Terezin/concentration_camp_-_terezin.html