"It was cold in the winter and the wind blew through the joints and the cracks, the rain trickled through the roof, although hanging umbrellas provided a little protection. We all layered our clothes on top of each other before wrapping ourselves in the blankets . […] And how did we sleep? First with just our blanket on the floor, then on straw, followed by a straw bag. I lay like that for a long time until I managed to buy two empty orange crates; a third was not available . They had the advantage that the rat infestation was less for me, the disadvantage that the area was too short and the space in between was a great inconvenience..."

Emmy Falck-Ettlinger was born in Lübeck (Germany) in 1882. She studied art in Berlin, and after her marriage moved to Karlsruhe in Baden-Würtemberg.

In October 1940, with the deportation of Jews from Baden and Pfalz, she was interned in Gurs. Emmy Ettlinger was made aware of the danger when her son-in-law, Ludwig Hemmerdinger, reported the destruction of the synagogue on Kronenstrasse on November 9, 1938. She also learned of the subsequent deportation to the Dachau concentration camp of over 400 Jewish men, including her son-in-law and Paul and Victor Homburger from her circle of friends. Soon concerts, theatres, or cinemas, or using public libraries were prohibited. Public bathing establishments had already been banned in Karlsruhe from July 1935. The city administration further declared that the cities gardens to be off-limits to Jews. Emmy Ettlinger was imprisoned on Riefstahlstrasse in January 1939 for an alleged foreign exchange offense committed by a couple who were her friends, and was transferred to the Illenau asylum. In 1939 She was forced to vacate her apartment at Schlieffenstr. 10, (now Seminarstraße), and relocate to the designated 'Judenhaus' at Haydnplatz 6. By the start of 1940, her ration cards were marked with a 'J', limiting her to shopping at stores designated for Jews.

On the morning of October 22, 1940, Gestapo officers visited all apartments in the 'Judenhaus' at Haydnplatz 6, instructing the 16 residents to be ready to leave within two hours. Passengers are allowed to carry up to 50 kg of luggage, along with a wool blanket and eating and drinking utensils. After three days, she arrived in Oloron, situated south of Pau on the northern edge of the Pyrenees. Transport from the train station to the Gurs camp was by open trucks for the last 18 km .

In 1941 Emmy suffered from breast cancer and was transferred to a special center founded by Abbé Alexandre Glasberg (1902–1981). In 1942 she was permitted to move to Switzerland, where she lived with her son. In 1950 she immigrated to Israel, joining her daughter who was a member of Kibbutz Bet ha-Shittah. She died in 1960.

Her drawings from Gurs portray emptiness and loneliness. She drew the cemetery at Gurs, where over a thousand inmates were buried, most of whom had been deported from Germany. She donated her works to the art collection of the Ghetto Fighters’ House.

stadtgeschichte.karlsruhe.de/stadtarchiv/blick-in-die-geschichte/ausgaben/blick-108/emmy-ettlinger