Hana Sternlicht was born in Prague in 1930 and grew up in Holice, an only child surrounded by her loving family. In 1942, during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Hana and her family were exiled to Terezin before being sent to Auschwitz, where Hana lost both of her parents. At fourteen, Hana was sent to German forced labor camps, where she worked until American forces liberated her in May of 1945. After her emancipation, Hana joined the Zionist movement and immigrated to Israel in 1949, where she married and had two children