Laura Hillman (born Hannelore Wolff; October 16, 1923 – June 4, 2020) was a German-born American survivor of Holocaust concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau.
[1] In 2005, she published i will plant you a lilac tree – a memoir of a Schindler's list survivor, a young adult book about her experiences during the Holocaust.
Laura Hillman was born Hannelore Wolff in Aurich, Ostfriesland, Germany to a large Jewish family on October 16, 1923.
The couple emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City on January 4, 1947, and ultimately settling in Los Alamitos, California, where Hannelore Hillman changed her first name to "Laura".
The title came from a promise which her husband made to her during their time in the concentration camps, to plant her lilac trees like the ones which existed in her childhood home in Aurich.