Bitton-Jackson lived in Samorja, Hungary, when the Germans invaded in 1944. The segregation of Jews began at that time, and they were prohibited from entering theaters, restaurants, and grocery stores. Two months into the German occupation, she was, along with all the Jews in that area, moved to a ghetto that consisted of a synagogue and roughly 20 surrounding houses. Partway through their stay there, all men between the ages of 18 and 45, her father included, were sent to a forced labor camp in Komárom, some fifty miles from the ghetto. Two weeks after her father was taken, Bitton-Jackson, her aunt, mother, and brother were removed from the ghetto and taken, over a journey of four days, to Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp in Poland. She and her mother stayed there for ten days. In June 1944, Bitton-Jackson and her mother were transferred, along with 500 other women, to Camp Plaszow, the most notorious forced labor camp in Poland. There, their work consisted of leveling off a hilltop in preparation for construction. If they did not work, or work properly, or violated any rule, they would be beaten by their Kapo, or his assistants. After two months stay at Plaszow, they returned to Auschwitz.

In August 1944, Bitton-Jackson and her mother are taken from Auschwitz to a factory in Augsburg. In Augsburg, she was put to work in an assembly line in the factory, where they produced a

...precision instrument that is supposed to control the distance and direction of the bomb ejected by a fighter plane...

They stayed until April 1945.

After the war she and her brother and mother returned to ?amorín, believing that her father would be waiting for them, only to discover that he was dead. Her brother then moved to New York on a visa from a school scholarship. Bitton-Jackson had the opportunity to go with her brother but chose to stay in Czechoslovakia with her mother. The two stayed in ?amorín until 1951, when they finally got visas to go to America.

They traveled to America on a refugee boat, and Ms. Jackson, as she was then an adult, continued her education. She eventually enrolled in New York University, and got a degree there. Dr. Bitton Jackson has a Ph.D. in Hebrew Culture and Jewish History obtained at New York University. She has been a professor of history at City University of New York for 37 years, and has won numerous awards, including the 1998 Christopher Award for her book, I Have Lived a Thousand Years. ?

In 1977, Prof. Bitton moved to Israel, where she has been living ever since. She continued teaching at CUNY for years thereafter, and still makes periodic trips to the U.S. for speaking engagements. In April 2009, Prof. Bitton-Jackson was invited to speak in Omaha, Nebraska, for Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Durham Museum, with videolinks to Pleasanton and at Millard West High School. She also spoke to members of the Strategic Air Command at Offutt AFB.