Irene Groll nee Kayem was born on the 10th of January 1933 to Adolf and Elisabeth in Steinbach am Glan, Germany. In November 1938 Adolf was arrested in the awake of Kristallnacht along with up to 30 000 Jewish men across Germany. Elisabeth decided to leave the town and moved with Irene to Ulmet, Germany to live with her mother. On the 22nd of October 1940 Irene and her family was deported and sent to Gurs Concentration Camp. While they were imprisoned in the camp Elisabeth sewed a cotton purse for Irene. Four months later they were moved to Rivesaltes. A few months later the Swiss Red Cross released Irene and a select group of children from the camp. She was moved to Palavas Les Flots. While she was on her way to Masgelier, her cousin Helene took her off the shuttle. They took her to live with them in Brive La Gaillarde, where she remained until after the war. Shortly, after the war she was reunited with her maternal grandparents Leon and Hilda Mayer in Drome, France. Unfortunately, her grandfather passed away before they could set sail for South Africa. Irene and her grandmother travelled by train through France and Spain to Portugal where they boarded the Cubango a cargo ship bound for Cape Town. On the 27th of August 1946 the ship docked in Cape Town. Irene and her grandmother went to live with her aunt Helene, uncle, Albert and two cousins in Vredehoek, Cape Town.
Shortly after Irene was released her parents were sent to Drancy Concentration Camp. In 1942 they were sent to Auschwitz where they perished. In 1949 Irene initiated a claim for restitution of her family’s assets and for their unlawful detention of her parents during the Holocaust. In 1956 she received restitution for her parents’ assets but was denied reparation for her parents’ unlawful detention.