Personal Journeys: The Survivor (Part 2)

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Ilse Eichner Reiner's Holocaust experience resonates with a new generation.

Ilse Eichner Reiner, with her husband, Charlie Reiner, said “sparks were flying everywhere” in New York during their courtship. They married in 1950, and their love affair lasted five decades until Charlie’s death in 2001 of cancer.

At her Sandy Springs home, Ilse still has the government ID she received after she returned home to Vsetin after the war.

Ilse tours World War II sites in Prague during a visit with her daughter, Elaine, in 1990. It was her first time back after moving to the United States in 1946.

Ilse’s self-published book includes poignant letters from her mother, written in the Ravensbruck concentration camp.

In 1990, Ilse (second from left) visited the Lukas sisters, including Eva Zarska (from left), Lydia Adamkova, Vera Novosadova and Marie Starobova. Ilse’s daughter, Elaine Reiner, sits on the floor.

Ilse with her daughter, Elaine, who lives in Sandy Springs, and her son, Richard, who lives in Los Angeles. For years, Ilse protected her children from the dark memories of her youth, but eventually she began to share her past, both bad and good.

“My mother and father couldn’t stand people lacking integrity,” says Ilse and Charlie’s son, Richard. “They felt like the strongest thing in life was your character – respecting other people, to be fair and kind and be a good human being.”

Ilse, (right), with Jaroslava Sevcikova, a teacher in Vsetin who introduced students to Ilse’s book about her experiences.

In September 2011, Ilse returned to Vsetin to receive an honorary citizenship award from Mayor Iveta Taborska.

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Ilse Eichner Reiner, with her husband, Charlie Reiner, said “sparks were flying everywhere” in New York during their courtship. They married in 1950, and their love affair lasted five decades until Charlie’s death in 2001 of cancer.

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