At 18 years old on May 7th, 1942, Hilde started her internment at Theresienstadt Ghetto in the Czech republic. Although the date is not exactly known, it was around this time that Hilda was separated from her parents. Hilde never saw her parents alive again after May 7th, 1941. It wasn’t until being liberated that Hilda found out what had happened to her parents Robert and Frieda Geisenheimer. While living in a Russian displacement camp, Hilda had finally learned of her mother’s tragic passing. It was at least 30 years after the Holocaust until Hilda finally learned of her father Robert Geisinhammer passing away in a concentration camp. Hilda moved to the United States in 1947. She bounced around between LA, San Francisco and Eugene Oregon until 1956. What brought Hilda to Eugene in the first place was her only surviving family, her aunt and uncle Trude and Ludwig Kaufman.

 The Kaufmans had settled in Eugene in 1938 after visiting America. They owned a huge department store in downtown Cologne until Ludwig Kaufman visited family in Tennessee and decided he never wanted to go back to Germany. Using Money from their previous department store venture they used their experience to launch a U.S.-based Kaufman Brothers department store. After coming back to Eugene to settle down in 1956, Hilda became the buyer and leader of Kaufman Brothers department stores. Hilda and the Kaufman brand were long running components in Eugene’s history. The Kaufman department stores held locations in the River Valley Mall, off of Kincaid avenue across the street from the Duck Store, Springfield and next to Ken Kesey Square on Willamette street, downtown. Before Hilda’s passing, and after her aunt and uncle’s passing, she became the manager and owner of the Kaufman Brothers department store, before retiring and selling off the assets. In November of 2017, Hilda passed and was buried in Rest Haven Memorial park in Eugene, Oregon.