Ruth Elias was 17 when the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939. After three years of hiding on a farm, the family was denounced and deported in to the Theresienstadt camp in April 1942. During the winter of 1943, Ruth found out she was pregnant – she then learned that she would be part of a convoy to Auschwitz. During a selection in June 1944 – when she was 8 months pregnant – she managed to be part of 1000 women sent to clear rubble at a refinery that had been bombed in Hamburg.