Naomi Posinova was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on January 4, 1932. She was an only child, part of a large, extended family. Her father, Max, was a hat-maker who also owned a plastics factory. Her mother, Rachel, was a housewife.
Prague was a large, urban city, and was home to one of Europe's oldest and most revered Jewish communities. Jews contributed greatly to the economic progress of the city and played a key role in its rich cultural life.
After the German army occupied Prague in March 1939, various antisemitic measures were enacted. Jews were barred from their professions; their property was confiscated; they were prohibited from participating in religious, cultural or any other form of public activity. They could not attend public school, use public transportation, or the telephone. From October 1941 to March 1945, the Germans deported 46,067 Jews from Prague to the death camps.
In August 1942, Naomi and her parents were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Naomi's father worked there in a cap factory and her mother worked in a children's home. Though children over the age of ten were forced to work, Naomi was somehow able to continue her education. Conditions in the camp were horrible. There was terrible overcrowding, lack of adequate nutrition, and limited primitive sanitary facilities. Typhus carrying vermin infested the camp. There were daily "selections," and those chosen were deported to the death camps at Auschwitz and Treblinka.
In 1944, Naomi and her parents were "selected" for transport to Auschwitz. Soon after their arrival, Naomi and her mother were murdered in the gas chambers. Naomi was twelve years old.
