Just as they had done in other countries, the Nazis searched the country for political enemies and for people of Jewish belief. Although they were not orthodox Jews and had not been practising their faith, Catherine Dupont's family was arrested and deported to a concentration camp. They spent 9 days crowded with 40 other people in a freight car without food and without sanitary facilities. After 9 days, the train stopped, the doors were opened, and SS-men screamed German orders at their prisoners. "Aussteigen. Sofort. Dalli, dalli!" (Get out. Hurry up.). The people that had died on the way to the camp Birkenau were dragged out of the freight car by a special work troup consisting of prisoners.

Catherine and her parents had to file in a line at the camp's ramp. At the head of the line, a doctor stood, waving his hand either left or right,
indicating where the people had to go. Healthy looking people, able to work, were directed to the left, the others to the right. Catherine's parents were directed to the left. Then the doctor took a moment to consider her. "How old are you, girl?" Catherine had
watched him waving small children to the right along with the elderly. "17", she said, trying to sound firm. The doctor looked surprised but then finally waved her to the left. Her lying had saved her life in that moment, Catherine later found out. Yet staying alive in the death camp
Auschwitz-Birkenau was very hard. She was separated from her parents and had to work as hard as everybody else.

In 1943, Catherine was on the verge of losing hope. How could she endure this hell any longer?