Back in 1942, a Slovakian girl named Helena Citronova and majority of her immediate family were loaded onto the train to Auschwitz; within hours of arrival she was the only one still alive (children, their mothers, the elderly, and the infirm were sent directly to the gas chamber after getting off the train). Helena was then assigned to work, sorting through the baggage left behind by executed prisoners before sending the loot back to Berlin.

Franz Wunsch was the SS officer assigned to Helena’s work detail, and one day slipped her a note saying he’d fallen in love with her…which she promptly DESTROYED.

“When he came into the barracks where I was working, he threw me a note. I destroyed it right there and then, but I did see the word ‘love’—'I fell in love with you.’

“I thought I’d rather be dead than be involved with an SS man. For a long time afterwards there was just hatred. I couldn’t even look at him.”

Some time later, however, Helena found out that her elder sister Rozinka (her only remaining family) was on an inbound train to the concentration camp. She approached Franz, since Rozinka would have been travelling with her two infant children and therefore slated for immediate death. Franz told her that there was nothing he could do for the children, but falsified documents to assign Rozinka to his work detail and literally RAN across Auschwitz, screaming lies the entire time, and was able to pull her out of the gas chambers just before the doors shut behind her, and the sisters were reunited.

Eventually Auschwitz was liberated & Helena, Rozinka, and Franz all survived the war; and while Helena and Franz didn’t stay together, Helena did speak on his behalf during the Nuremberg Trials, saving his life in return.

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