During World War II, Breder was among the nearly 1,000 teenage girls and unmarried young women deported on the first official transport of Jews to Auschwitz.

In Auschwitz, Breder worked as part of the Kanada Kommando, responsible for collecting the stolen belongings of prisoners, mostly Jews who had been murdered in the gas chambers on arrival.

Her father, a leather merchant and a Hebrew teacher, owned a store in Stropkov and the family lived on the main street of the town.

Following her mother's death during childbirth in 1926, the siblings were raised by their grandparents and maternal aunt, except for Linda and her twin brother, who stayed with their father.

Breder remembered that before the war, Jews from Poland would stay in her father's house as refugees trying to move further towards south and eventually Palestine.

At night on 24 March 1942, the Hlinka Guard arrived at Breder's house, informing her that they were gathering young single girls for transportation to Germany to work and support their families left behind.

Consequently, Breder was loaded onto a truck with only a few belongings and transported close to the Slovak-Polish border in the city of Poprad, where there was a transit camp.

Upon arrival, Breder witnessed a murder for the first time when SS guards killed the Jewish doctor who had been assigned to her transport.

During the trial, Breder described how Weiss wanted to place cans, especially on the heads and shoulders of young boys, to use them as targets for shooting.

Breder also recounted how the women working in Kanada attempted to help a thirsty young boy who was on his way to the gas chamber by throwing water to him over the electric fence.

In 2005, her words were quoted by Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in the opening statement delivered on the 60th commemoration of Auschwitz's liberation.