Margot Heuman (February 17, 1928 – May 11, 2022) was a German-born American Holocaust survivor. As a lesbian, she was the first queer Jewish woman known to have survived Nazi concentration camps.
She was born Margot Heumann in Hellenthal, Rhineland, Prussia, Germany, close to the border with Belgium. She lived above a general store that her parents Carl Heumann and Johanna Falkenstein Heumann owned and operated, with her grandfather living across the street. When Heumann was four years old, her family moved to Lippstadt, where she learned to swim in the Lippe. She had a younger sister named Lore Heumann.
When Heuman was ten years old, she and her younger sister were expelled from public school for being Jewish. In 1942, the Heumanns were sent to Theresienstadt Ghetto. In her youth home in the ghetto, Heuman met an Austrian girl named Ditha Neumann, and the two began a secret intimate relationship. In 1943 or 1944, both the Heumann family and Neumann were taken to Auschwitz. Heuman chose to participate in the selection for forced labor in order to stay with Neumann. As a result, she did not see her parents or sister again; they are believed to have been murdered at Auschwitz.
The group of women selected for forced labor were taken to Neuengamme concentration camp, where Heuman and Neumann who were 16 years old at the time, slept together in the barracks and engaged in sexual barter with men to obtain food. As part of the first female prisoners to arrive in Neuengamme, they were forced to build shelters for German civilians and clean up rubble.
In April 1945, the Schutzstaffel shut down Neuengamme and the Jewish women were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Heumann walked the 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Neuengamme to Bergen-Belsen in two days with no shoes. Margot got sick and nearly died in Bergen-Belsen. Within few short weeks, on April 15, 1945, Heuman was freed from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British soldiers. Still a child of 17, she was sent to Sweden to rehabilitate. She was taken in by a Swedish woman who helped her go to school and get better.
After spending two years in Sweden and attending school, she moved to the United States, where she had relatives in New York, and chose to stay because she was able to live openly as a lesbian. She began taking English classes and making a life for herself in America.
She worked for an advertising agency in New York City, and in the early 1950s was in a relationship with New Yorker editor Lu Burke.
In 1953, she broke up with Burke because she wanted to have children and knew she would need to marry a man to do so. She married a male colleague from another advertising agency and had two children, whom she did not raise religious because she no longer believed in God.
Eventually, she reentered her career in advertising after hiring a black housekeeper, while also having an affair with a married woman who lived next door.
In the 1970s, she left her husband who was addicted to gambling and began abusing her.
At the age of 88, she moved to Green Valley in the Arizona desert and finally "came out" to her family as a lesbian, which did not surprise them.
Three years later, at the age of 91, after years of therapy for treatment of Holocaust-induced trauma and severe depression, she was able to return to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in 2019, where she was interviewed by schoolchildren.
Although she openly discussed her queerness in several interviews for archives about the Holocaust, those archives kept it hidden, instead describing Neumann as her best friend. In an article about Heuman in Der Tagesspiegel, Anna Hájková wrote that it was "tragic that homophobic prejudice prevented a number of queer Jewish women who survived concentration camps from leaving testimonies of their lives", arguing that Heuman's story was even more important because of that fact.
Margot died on May 11, 2022, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 94.
She was born Margot Heumann in Hellenthal, Rhineland, Prussia, Germany, close to the border with Belgium. She lived above a general store that her parents Carl Heumann and Johanna Falkenstein Heumann owned and operated, with her grandfather living across the street. When Heumann was four years old, her family moved to Lippstadt, where she learned to swim in the Lippe. She had a younger sister named Lore Heumann.
When Heuman was ten years old, she and her younger sister were expelled from public school for being Jewish. In 1942, the Heumanns were sent to Theresienstadt Ghetto. In her youth home in the ghetto, Heuman met an Austrian girl named Ditha Neumann, and the two began a secret intimate relationship. In 1943 or 1944, both the Heumann family and Neumann were taken to Auschwitz. Heuman chose to participate in the selection for forced labor in order to stay with Neumann. As a result, she did not see her parents or sister again; they are believed to have been murdered at Auschwitz.
The group of women selected for forced labor were taken to Neuengamme concentration camp, where Heuman and Neumann who were 16 years old at the time, slept together in the barracks and engaged in sexual barter with men to obtain food. As part of the first female prisoners to arrive in Neuengamme, they were forced to build shelters for German civilians and clean up rubble.
In April 1945, the Schutzstaffel shut down Neuengamme and the Jewish women were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Heumann walked the 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Neuengamme to Bergen-Belsen in two days with no shoes. Margot got sick and nearly died in Bergen-Belsen. Within few short weeks, on April 15, 1945, Heuman was freed from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British soldiers. Still a child of 17, she was sent to Sweden to rehabilitate. She was taken in by a Swedish woman who helped her go to school and get better.
After spending two years in Sweden and attending school, she moved to the United States, where she had relatives in New York, and chose to stay because she was able to live openly as a lesbian. She began taking English classes and making a life for herself in America.
She worked for an advertising agency in New York City, and in the early 1950s was in a relationship with New Yorker editor Lu Burke.
In 1953, she broke up with Burke because she wanted to have children and knew she would need to marry a man to do so. She married a male colleague from another advertising agency and had two children, whom she did not raise religious because she no longer believed in God.
Eventually, she reentered her career in advertising after hiring a black housekeeper, while also having an affair with a married woman who lived next door.
In the 1970s, she left her husband who was addicted to gambling and began abusing her.
At the age of 88, she moved to Green Valley in the Arizona desert and finally "came out" to her family as a lesbian, which did not surprise them.
Three years later, at the age of 91, after years of therapy for treatment of Holocaust-induced trauma and severe depression, she was able to return to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in 2019, where she was interviewed by schoolchildren.
Although she openly discussed her queerness in several interviews for archives about the Holocaust, those archives kept it hidden, instead describing Neumann as her best friend. In an article about Heuman in Der Tagesspiegel, Anna Hájková wrote that it was "tragic that homophobic prejudice prevented a number of queer Jewish women who survived concentration camps from leaving testimonies of their lives", arguing that Heuman's story was even more important because of that fact.
Margot died on May 11, 2022, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 94.
Margot Heuman (February 17, 1928 – May 11, 2022) was a German-born American Holocaust survivor. As a lesbian, she was the first queer Jewish woman known to have survived Nazi concentration camps.
She was born Margot Heumann in Hellenthal, Rhineland, Prussia, Germany, close to the border with Belgium. She lived above a general store that her parents Carl Heumann and Johanna Falkenstein Heumann owned and operated, with her grandfather living across the street. When Heumann was four years old, her family moved to Lippstadt, where she learned to swim in the Lippe. She had a younger sister named Lore Heumann.
When Heuman was ten years old, she and her younger sister were expelled from public school for being Jewish. In 1942, the Heumanns were sent to Theresienstadt Ghetto. In her youth home in the ghetto, Heuman met an Austrian girl named Ditha Neumann, and the two began a secret intimate relationship. In 1943 or 1944, both the Heumann family and Neumann were taken to Auschwitz. Heuman chose to participate in the selection for forced labor in order to stay with Neumann. As a result, she did not see her parents or sister again; they are believed to have been murdered at Auschwitz.
The group of women selected for forced labor were taken to Neuengamme concentration camp, where Heuman and Neumann who were 16 years old at the time, slept together in the barracks and engaged in sexual barter with men to obtain food. As part of the first female prisoners to arrive in Neuengamme, they were forced to build shelters for German civilians and clean up rubble.
In April 1945, the Schutzstaffel shut down Neuengamme and the Jewish women were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Heumann walked the 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Neuengamme to Bergen-Belsen in two days with no shoes. Margot got sick and nearly died in Bergen-Belsen. Within few short weeks, on April 15, 1945, Heuman was freed from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British soldiers. Still a child of 17, she was sent to Sweden to rehabilitate. She was taken in by a Swedish woman who helped her go to school and get better.
After spending two years in Sweden and attending school, she moved to the United States, where she had relatives in New York, and chose to stay because she was able to live openly as a lesbian. She began taking English classes and making a life for herself in America.
She worked for an advertising agency in New York City, and in the early 1950s was in a relationship with New Yorker editor Lu Burke.
In 1953, she broke up with Burke because she wanted to have children and knew she would need to marry a man to do so. She married a male colleague from another advertising agency and had two children, whom she did not raise religious because she no longer believed in God.
Eventually, she reentered her career in advertising after hiring a black housekeeper, while also having an affair with a married woman who lived next door.
In the 1970s, she left her husband who was addicted to gambling and began abusing her.
At the age of 88, she moved to Green Valley in the Arizona desert and finally "came out" to her family as a lesbian, which did not surprise them.
Three years later, at the age of 91, after years of therapy for treatment of Holocaust-induced trauma and severe depression, she was able to return to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in 2019, where she was interviewed by schoolchildren.
Although she openly discussed her queerness in several interviews for archives about the Holocaust, those archives kept it hidden, instead describing Neumann as her best friend. In an article about Heuman in Der Tagesspiegel, Anna Hájková wrote that it was "tragic that homophobic prejudice prevented a number of queer Jewish women who survived concentration camps from leaving testimonies of their lives", arguing that Heuman's story was even more important because of that fact.
Margot died on May 11, 2022, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 94.
She was born Margot Heumann in Hellenthal, Rhineland, Prussia, Germany, close to the border with Belgium. She lived above a general store that her parents Carl Heumann and Johanna Falkenstein Heumann owned and operated, with her grandfather living across the street. When Heumann was four years old, her family moved to Lippstadt, where she learned to swim in the Lippe. She had a younger sister named Lore Heumann.
When Heuman was ten years old, she and her younger sister were expelled from public school for being Jewish. In 1942, the Heumanns were sent to Theresienstadt Ghetto. In her youth home in the ghetto, Heuman met an Austrian girl named Ditha Neumann, and the two began a secret intimate relationship. In 1943 or 1944, both the Heumann family and Neumann were taken to Auschwitz. Heuman chose to participate in the selection for forced labor in order to stay with Neumann. As a result, she did not see her parents or sister again; they are believed to have been murdered at Auschwitz.
The group of women selected for forced labor were taken to Neuengamme concentration camp, where Heuman and Neumann who were 16 years old at the time, slept together in the barracks and engaged in sexual barter with men to obtain food. As part of the first female prisoners to arrive in Neuengamme, they were forced to build shelters for German civilians and clean up rubble.
In April 1945, the Schutzstaffel shut down Neuengamme and the Jewish women were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Heumann walked the 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Neuengamme to Bergen-Belsen in two days with no shoes. Margot got sick and nearly died in Bergen-Belsen. Within few short weeks, on April 15, 1945, Heuman was freed from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British soldiers. Still a child of 17, she was sent to Sweden to rehabilitate. She was taken in by a Swedish woman who helped her go to school and get better.
After spending two years in Sweden and attending school, she moved to the United States, where she had relatives in New York, and chose to stay because she was able to live openly as a lesbian. She began taking English classes and making a life for herself in America.
She worked for an advertising agency in New York City, and in the early 1950s was in a relationship with New Yorker editor Lu Burke.
In 1953, she broke up with Burke because she wanted to have children and knew she would need to marry a man to do so. She married a male colleague from another advertising agency and had two children, whom she did not raise religious because she no longer believed in God.
Eventually, she reentered her career in advertising after hiring a black housekeeper, while also having an affair with a married woman who lived next door.
In the 1970s, she left her husband who was addicted to gambling and began abusing her.
At the age of 88, she moved to Green Valley in the Arizona desert and finally "came out" to her family as a lesbian, which did not surprise them.
Three years later, at the age of 91, after years of therapy for treatment of Holocaust-induced trauma and severe depression, she was able to return to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in 2019, where she was interviewed by schoolchildren.
Although she openly discussed her queerness in several interviews for archives about the Holocaust, those archives kept it hidden, instead describing Neumann as her best friend. In an article about Heuman in Der Tagesspiegel, Anna Hájková wrote that it was "tragic that homophobic prejudice prevented a number of queer Jewish women who survived concentration camps from leaving testimonies of their lives", arguing that Heuman's story was even more important because of that fact.
Margot died on May 11, 2022, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 94.
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