Hanni Lévy, who survived Holocaust in Berlin, dies aged 95

Lévy, whose story was told in the 2017 movie ‘The Invisibles,’ was hidden by non-Jews honored by Israel after the war; Merkel mourns ‘an impressive woman’

By AP and ToI Staff 24 October 2019, 1:26 pm 0 Edit

Holocaust survivor Hanni Levy at an extraordinary party convention in Hanover, Germany, January 1, 2018. (Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP)

BERLIN — Hanni Lévy, who survived the Holocaust hiding out in Berlin, has died. She was 95.

Claus Raefle, a German movie director who knew Lévy, said Wednesday that Lévy’s family informed him she had died overnight at her home in Paris. Her death was first reported by Jewish weekly Juedische Allgemeine.

Raefle’s 2017 film “The Invisibles” tells the story of four Jews, including Lévy, trying to avoid deportation in the capital of Nazi Germany.

Born Hanni Weißenberg (Weissenberg) in 1924, Lévy later recounted how she colored her hair blond and assumed the name Hannelore Winkler to evade suspicion. With the Nazis searching for her, Lévy managed to find shelter with non-Jewish Berliners whom Israel honored after the war as Righteous Among the Nations.

According to Jewish Museums Berlin web page about her, Lévy was taken to work in forced labor at a textile factory when she was 16. She managed to escape, went underground, and hid from the Gestapo surviving on supplies brought to her by non-Jewish friends.

About 1,700 Jews survived the Holocaust in Berlin.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the German leader was mourning Lévy, an “impressive woman” whom she met last year.

“The story of her life moved many people,” Seibert tweeted.