Although Dr. Heilbrunn was a survivor of the Holocaust, she never spoke about her experience. Instead, she chose to chronicle the trials and tribulations of Jews in Radomsko, Poland, the village in which she and her family had lived, in her book ‘Children of Dust and Heaven.’

After being liberated by the Soviets in 1944, she returned to Poland, where she completed her high school education and entered medical school. In 1949, half way through her studies, she decided to move to Israel with her family. There she completed her medical training and service in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). In the 1950s she visited her sister Leonie in Cape Town, South Africa, where she met her husband. She lived in Cape Town until passing away in 2014.