How was life like during World War 2?

My next door neighbor lost her whole family in Auschwitz.She spent 4 years in the camp and was liberated by the Americans. She scd enough money together ( with help from the Red Cross) and took a boat to the US. She met her future husband on the same boat. They later married and started a catering business in Boston. Why a catering business? Because she said she never wanted to be hungry ever again. Oh, by the way, she wasn't Jewish. She was a Polish Political prisoner who spoke out against the Nazi Regime.