She was born in Czechoslovakia. When she was thirteen she was dragged into a concentration camp. She survived Auschwitz and several other concentration camps and in 1951 emigrated to the U.S. on a ship full of refugees. She graduated at a university and lectured at many leading universities, she is a professor and expert on the history of Jews since more than thirty years. She is the author of many scholarly publications (A Decade of Zionism in Hungary, Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust, The Jewish Woman in Christian Literature, Saving What Remains: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey to Reclaim Her Ancestry) and fiction, and many of her books received prestigious awards: Christopher prize, New York Public Library award for outstanding readership and popularity and her books have been translated into several languages​​. She lectures in the U.S., England and Israel on topics related to the Holocaust, Israel in the Central East, relationship of Judaism and Islam or women in Judaism. She lives in Israel.