Lotta was born in Prague on November 28, 1909. She was raised as “Lotta Hitschmann” by two loving Jewish parents, Max Hitschmann and Else Theiner.

With the rise of the Nazis and the Munich Pact of September 1938, Lotta, an outspoken critic of the Nazis, began her perilous four year journey as a refugee. She first found a point of refugee in Brussels, where her life as “Lotta Hitschmanova” began in 1939.

Here is what Clyde Sanger has written in his biography of Lotta (page 20):

It was about this time that she began exclusively using the Slavic version of her surname – Hitschmanova, rather than Hitschmann – in a patriotic move to show her distaste of things German.

To this day, Lotta’s now-famous last name is unique around the world, like her uniform.

Just google “Hitschmanova” and see what you get – she is apparently the only person to have ever carried that name and that spelling!

David Rain