Hocherman was forcibly taken from her home in Poland to Gabersdorf, a forced-labor camp, where she endured extreme hardship for four and a half years. Her mother was in Auschwitz, and Hocherman faced severe labor conditions and threats of sexual violence. Upon liberation, the danger persisted for her and her peers. Hocherman later became involved in militant actions against British troops in Palestine, revealing her experiences shaped her response to trauma and persecution, highlighting untold narratives of the Holocaust that persist today.
At Gabersdorf, Hocherman endured 12-hour work days with no breaks, in silence, under threat of severe beatings. At night, she slept in lice- and bedbug-infested barracks with 41 other girls.
After Gabersdorf was finally liberated, the ever-present threat of rape remained - even from their liberators. "We knew what it is to be a Jew," one survivor says, "but we didn't feel it on our bodies until Hitler came."
Hocherman's wartime experience turned her militant. Fox learns that her mother was involved in many clandestine Haganah actions against British troops in Palestine, including blowing up trains.
Hocherman remained at Gabersdorf with hundreds of other teenage girls for four and a half years while her mother languished in Auschwitz.
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