Shortly after the birth of her daughter in 1952 Rachel Dror and her husband took a walk in downtown Haifa, intending to enjoy a night out. They were approached by a woman: "You're Hugo Lewin's daughter", she stated (correctly). The strange woman recognised Rachel from a photograph that Hugo Lewin had kept in his pocket, and insisted on showing as many people as he could, while being taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The woman was able to tell Rachel what had happened to her parents. Hugo and Erna Lewin escaped to Italy in 1940, which at that time was politically allied to Germany. There they were able to hide in Italy between March 1940 and February 1944. By 1944 Italy was no longer militarily engaged as a German ally, and the Germany army, having asserted military control over the country, was fighting a grim rear-guard action in the context of civil war and an Anglo-American offensive from the south. It was in this confused context that Hugo and Erna Lewin were found by a German soldier who placed them on a train back to Germany. Their journey ended at the Auschwitz death camp. Here their train was met by the camp doctor Josef Mengele who identified and separated out those deemed fit for work from those whom he thought unfit. Erna Lewin was already clearly in poor health and she was sent with the unfit prisoners while Hugo was sent in the other direction with those destined for manual work. He, however, refused to be separated from his wife, with the result that both Hugo and Erna Lewin were murdered very soon after their arrival at the camp.