Born in Bergen-Belsen: A Survivor’s Story of Survival, Silence and Memory

In March 1945, as Allied forces closed in and Nazi control crumbled, Lola Kantorowicz gave birth in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Her daughter, Ilana Kantorowicz Shalem, was born on March 19 — thirty days before British troops liberated the camp — and is now sharing her and her mother’s story publicly for the first time.

Holocaust survivor Ilana Shalem-Kantorowics, born in the Nazi Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, holds a photo of her with her mother Lola taken in the camp in 1946, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Birth Amid Chaos

Lola Rosenblum Kantorowicz concealed her pregnancy throughout years of forced labor, deportation to Auschwitz, and a death march that ended at Bergen-Belsen. Conditions in the camp that March were catastrophic: widespread disease, starvation and mountains of corpses, according to Yad Vashem archivist Sima Velkovich.

Photos of Holocaust survivor Ilana Shalem-Kantorowics born in the Nazi Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with her with mother Lola in the camp in 1946, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

“If they discovered she was pregnant, they would have killed her,” Ilana said. “She hid her pregnancy from everyone, including her friends, because she didn’t want the extra attention or anyone to give her their food.”

Immediate Aftermath

Mother and daughter remained in Bergen-Belsen for about a month until liberation. Afterward they spent roughly two years in a displaced persons (DP) camp before moving to Israel, where Lola’s in-laws had settled before the war. Records preserved by Yad Vashem and the Bergen-Belsen museum document Ilana’s birth, even noting the hour of delivery.

A Photo of the birth certificate of Holocaust survivor Ilana Shalem-Kantorowics, born in the Nazi Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1946 , is on display in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Love, Loss and the Burden of Silence

Ilana’s parents met as teenagers in the Tomaszow ghetto. Hersz (Zvi) Abraham Kantorowicz was later killed on a death march in the war’s final days; Lola never remarried or had other children. For decades, the trauma of the Holocaust was rarely spoken about in Israel, and Lola often met disbelief when she described giving birth in a concentration camp. Ilana began asking questions in the 1960s, a time when survivors frequently preferred silence.

Why This Story Matters

Now 81, Ilana is among the youngest living Holocaust survivors. As the number of firsthand witnesses dwindles, her testimony — and the official documentation held by institutions such as Yad Vashem — become more urgent. According to the Claims Conference, about 196,600 Holocaust survivors remain worldwide (about half live in Israel), the median survivor age is 87, and nearly 25,000 survivors died last year.

Ilana remembers being cared for by many women in the DP camp: “I was everyone’s child,” she said. Photographs from those years show a smiling infant surrounded by adults who called her “a new seed,” a small sign of life after devastation. Ilana’s decision to share her story publicly is part of a broader effort to preserve memory and to confront rising antisemitism and historical denial.

Key Facts: Ilana Kantorowicz Shalem — born March 19, 1945, at Bergen-Belsen; mother Lola survived Auschwitz, a death march and extreme starvation; the family spent one month in Bergen-Belsen, two years in a DP camp, and later emigrated to Israel. Documentation of the birth is held by Yad Vashem.