During the German occupation of Poland, Auerbakh was interned in the Warsaw Ghetto. She overtly worked as the director of a soup kitchen and covertly as a member of the secret Oyneg Shabes group organized by Emanuel Ringelblum, which recruited historians, writers, rabbis, and social workers to chronicle daily life in the Ghetto. Auerbakh kept a diary in Polish and also wrote a vivid account titled "Two Years in the Ghetto", which described the pervasive hunger that she witnessed. She interviewed and transcribed the testimony of Jacob Krzepicki, an escapee from the Treblinka extermination camp, between December 28, 1942 and March 7, 1943.