So I’ve been doing some research on my family history the last couple years, and I’ve learned a lot of interesting stuff. There is one bit of information that stands out to me among the rest, and I’m curious to know just how impossible this was/how rarely this happened.

I never knew my bio-dad growing up, so when I set out to research my family history (both his and my mom’s), I knew that was going to be a bit of an issue. Thankfully, I was able to find him and get in touch with him, and I learned that he and his family were Jewish. My grandfather was originally from Vienna, Austria and came to America on the Kindertransport when he was 13 years old. He was unfortunately the only one of his parents and 6 siblings to survive the Holocaust. My grandmother is an even more intriguing story, and is what I’m asking about here.

My father told me that she and both of her parents escaped an actual concentration camp...together. When she was only 9 years old. The three of them fled to America afterwards.

I’m not quite sure how accurate this story is, because it was told to me secondhand and I couldn’t find any information on her or her parents in the Holocaust survivors and victims database. Plus, she was apparently so traumatized by what she went through that she refused to ever speak of it.

If it is true, though...how rare was it for children to escape camps with both of their parents? I mean, I know that people actually managing to escape a camp on their own was rare enough, but a whole family escaping together? It sounds like an impossibility.