Hans THUNA (1895-?), Else HERZOG (1891-1944), Erich THUNA (1924-2012), Erika THUNA (1924-2013)

Originally from Vienna, Austria, the Thuna family escaped to Luxembourg following the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938. During their two-year stay in Luxembourg, they were supported by the Jewish ESRA Committee and resided in the Hotel Select. Despite efforts to obtain entry visas for countries in South America, they remained in Luxembourg until the invasion of German troops in May 1940, from where they embarked on a disrupted transport to Lisbon in November 1940, which eventually took them to France. In 1942, Hans Thuna was deported to Auschwitz via Drancy. Else Thuna and her daughter Erika Thuna were also deported to Auschwitz in 1944, while the son Erich Thuna managed to escape to the Dominican Republic. Only Erika Thuna survived Auschwitz and, like her brother, emigrated to the USA after the war, where she died in 2013 and her brother in 2012.