Trudi Birger (1927–2002)

Trudi Birger was born to a wealthy German Jewish family in Frankfurt. Her privileged childhood ended abruptly when she was seven years old, with the rise to power of the Nazi regime. She and her family fled Germany for Lithuania, where they were later forced into the Kovno ghetto before being sent to the Stutthof death camp. Trudi and her mother managed to survive. After World War II, Trudi married Zev Birger, later director of the Jerusalem International Book Fair, with whom she had three sons, and emigrated to Israel. She became a microbiologist and did volunteer work with needy children. In 1980, she founded the Dental Volunteers for Israel, to provide dental care and promote oral health among children -- a special interest of hers from her ordeal during the Holocaust. She published her autobiography, I Dreamed for Years of Chocolate, also known as A Daughter’s Gift of Love (1992).