Kurt Lion, born in Ihringen am Kaiserstuhl, attended the forced school and was deported to Gurs at the age of 14. While imprisoned in the Rivesaltes camp, he endured the loss of his father. Nine and a half months later, he said a final goodbye to his mother, who was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. In 1942, Kurt managed to escape from a French internment camp. Although he was discovered and re-arrested, he escaped once again and, at just 16, joined the French partisans.

During his time with the Résistance, Kurt Lion protected and saved Walter Bloch, a former schoolmate from Freiburg, who survived by hiding in the forest.

As the war neared its end, Kurt Lion’s unit advanced into Alsace, passing through the liberated Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. The horrors he witnessed there haunted him for the rest of his life, remaining incomprehensible and impossible to fully reconcile.

Kurt Lion passed away in 2011 in New Jersey, where he lived with his wife. Together, they had three children and one grandchild.