Gertrud Draber attended an elite bridal school in Schwanenwerder and was selected to marry an Schutzstaffel (SS) officer. "I wanted to be a perfect housewife. And I wanted to do something different with my life, not just be a working girl in an office... None of us had a clue about running a household. So we were taught everything that was necessary to be a woman; house-keeping, being a mother, and being a good wife... My main aim as a woman was above all, and as soon as possible... to become a mother. That was my main ambition." (1)

Draber later worked at the Siemens factory in Berlin, which still employed Jewish women. One morning she arrived at work and witnessed a terrible scene: "It was early in the morning before eight o'clock, before we started our shifts. People were flooding by, on their way to their offices. And I saw not one, at least two lorries had turned up and they were open, with no covers. Many women were there being herded towards the open trucks and pushed up - hauled - on to them. These women were wearing the Jewish Star."

Draber heard the women screaming for their children. "I have to get back to my children!" "I have to fetch my children!" "I have to go home to my children!" The women were forced to get in the trucks that were to take them to a concentration camp: "They were packed like sardines on to these lorries, and they were crying and yelling and fighting it and they were in such pain and sorrow. But nobody in charge took any notice of them. For me, for all of us, it was horrific. We were so sad and disbelieving, you couldn't believe it could happen, that it was real.... That's how it was. And we had to walk on. Once you've seen it, you can't forget something like that. It burned itself into my mind."