Hanna Levy grew up in a Jewish family in Neuwied. She moved to a Hakhshara camp in 1941; emigration to Palestine was no longer possible, however. The young residents were deported to Auschwitz in April 1943. On April 17, 1945, Levy, her former group leader Anna Borinski, and three or four other women escaped from a death march in Naundorf, Saxony. The following day, Walter Holschke found the absolutely exhausted women. He informed his father Alfred, who managed an estate in Naundorf and hid the Jewish women in a barn. His daughter Ursula nursed them back to health with porridge.
After a few days, Alfred Holschke was denounced by a neighbor. Fearing a search, he sent the women into the fields with others. Thankfully, no one looked for them there. The region was liberated by the Western Allies on April 26, 1945. In Palestine, Hanna Levy married the Auschwitz survivor Leo Engel. At her suggestion, the Holschke family were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1998. The year after that, Walter and Ursula Holschke accepted the honor in the presence of Hanna Engel.