By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CRESCENT SPRINGS - Mary Conradi survived three Nazi concentration camps and eventually found refuge in Northern Kentucky.

No matter how difficult her life became after that, the numbers tattooed on her arm reminded her that things could be worse.

Mrs. Conradi was always grateful that she lived here and gave back to her community by tutoring students in conversational German and by conducting eye screenings for the Covington-Kenton County Lions Club.

She died Sundayof complications of diabetes at the hospice at St. Elizabeth Medical Center North. The Crescent Springs resident was 67.

She came to live with a foster family in 1951 when she was 14. As a student at Villa Madonna Academy, she wrote an essay that detailed her experiences in Nazi Germany.

She was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1937 to a father who was Romani and a mother who was half Romani and half German. The Romani were commonly called Gypsies at the time.

In 1942 the Nazis hauled her father away to Auschwitz - a death camp in Oswiecim, Poland. Soon after, her mother was killed during an air raid on Cologne. Mrs. Conradi and her younger sister and brother were taken by the Gestapo to Auschwitz.

She recalled being hungry in the camp and undergoing medical experiments that involved injections that caused inflammation in her chest. When breast cancer later developed, she suspected its origin was the experiments.

As the Russians advanced, the children were packed into a boxcar and taken to Buchenwald, another camp in Weimar, Germany, according to her daughter, Elaine Conradi of Latonia. "They weren't there very long, but the conditions were worse and the Russians were advancing," so they were soon shipped to Ravensbruck, a camp north of Berlin, where conditions were the worst of all.

There, aunts of the children procured their release and they were put in the custody of their maternal grandmother. They had spent 22 months in the camps.

"There were social workers in Germany during reconstruction that were offering some a chance to come to America," her daughter said. Mrs. Conradi and her sister pleaded with their grandmother, who relented, although "she kept the brother behind because he was too young."

The sisters came to Crescent Springs to live with a family called Franzen.

"She came here just for the opportunity; a new life," her daughter said.

When she grew up, she married Richard Conradi.

Her sister, Vera, died in 1960 while giving birth to twins. One twin also died. Mrs. Conradi adopted the other and raised her along with her own five children.

Her husband died in 1982 at age 47, leaving Mrs. Conradi with a mountain of medical bills.

"She wouldn't even declare bankruptcy," her daughter said. "She had to go to work and with meager wages managed to pay off the bills." Mrs. Conradi became a cleaning woman at the physical plant at Northern Kentucky University.

She was a member of St. Joseph Church in Crescent Springs.

In addition to her daughter Elaine, survivors include three other daughters, Terry Roush of Groton, Conn., Anita Curley of Cincinnati and Paula Leuggers of Independence; two sons, Rick Conradi of Melbourne and Scott Conradi of Florence; a brother, Harry Wollersheim, who lives near Cologne, Germany; 11 grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

Mass of Christian burial is 11 a.m. today at St. Joseph Church in Crescent Springs. Interment is at St. John Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

Memorials: American Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 2680, North Canton, OH 44720.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com