We Sang in Hushed Voices

Helena Jockel was born in Mukacevo, Hungary in 1919. Before the war she worked as an elemntary school teacher. When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, Helena wanted to save “her” children, who were really just her students. Instead, she watched all of them be taken to the gas chambers in Auschwitz. After the war, Helena married her brother-in-law, Emil Jockel. They lived in Czechoslovakia where Helena remained a teacher, and remained proud about her Jewish identity. Helena and Emil moved to Canada in 1988 to join the rest of their families. Helena died in 2016 in Canada.