Charlotte 's father was briefly interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in November 1938 , after Kristallnacht , and the Salomon family decided to leave Germany . Charlotte was sent to the South of France to live with her grandparents , already settled in Villefranche-sur-Mer near Nice . They lived in a cottage in the grounds of a luxurious villa '' L'Ermitage '' ( now demolished ) owned by a wealthy American , Ottilie Moore , who went on to shelter a number of Jewish children . Charlotte left L'Ermitage with her grandparents to live in an apartment in Nice , where her grandmother attempted to hang herself in the bathroom . Charlotte 's grandfather then revealed the truth to Charlotte about her mother 's suicide , as well as the suicides of her aunt Charlotte , her great grandmother , her great uncle , and her grandmother 's nephew . Shortly after the outbreak of war in September 1939 , Charlotte 's grandmother succeeded in taking her own life
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Charlotte Salomon