One
of the children of La Maison d'Izieu was
eleven-year-old Liliane Gerenstein. Lilliane and her
brother were sent to their deaths a few days after she
wrote this letter to God:
God?
How good You are, how kind and if one had to count the
number of goodnesses and kindnesses You have done, one
would never finish.
God? It is You who command. It is You who are justice,
it is You who reward the good and punish the evil.
God? It is thanks to You that I had a beautiful life
before, that I was spoiled, that I had lovely
things that others do not have.
God? After that, I ask You one thing only: Make
my parents come back, my poor parents protect them (even
more than You protect me) so that I can see them again
as soon as possible.
Make them come back again. Ah! I had such a good
mother and such a good father! I have such faith in
You and I thank You in advance.
The children's father, Chapse, miraculously survived
the Holocaust and emigrated to the United States.
Georges Halpern
Another
child of Izieu was eight-year-old Georges Halpern,
born Oct. 30, 1935 in Vienna. After the war a letter
to his parents was found - the little boy wrote:
Chere
Maman, I send you 10000000000 kisses your son who
loves you very much. There are big mountains and the
village is very pretty. There are a lot of farms and
we look for blackberries and raspberries and white
mulberries. I hug you with all my heart. Georgy.
Jacques and his brothers
Jacques
Benguigui was born on April 13, 1931, in Oran,
Algeria, but the family moved to Marseilles, France,
shortly before WW2. His mother was deported to
Auschwitz in Poland on July 31, 1943, and Jacques and
his two younger brothers, Richard, six years old,
and Jean-Claude, who was five, were sent to be
sheltered in the Children's home in Izieu.
While
in Izieu Jacques wrote a letter to his mother:
O
Maman, my dear Maman, I know how much you've suffered
on my account and on this happy occasion of Mother's
Day I send you from afar my best wishes from the
bottom of my little heart. So far from you, darling
Maman, I've done everything I could to make you happy:
when you've sent packages, I've shared them with the
children who have no parents. Maman, my dear Maman, I
leave you with hugs and kisses. Your son who adores
you. Jacques
After
the Nazi raid Klaus Barbie and Alois Brunner sent a
telex to Gestapo headquarters in Paris declaring that
the children's colony at Izieu had been removed and
arrangements made for the deportation of its
residents. The full text, which contains mistakes
about the children's ages and apparently counted three
of the oldest children among the adults arrested,
reads:
"This
morning, the Jewish children's home, Children's Colony,
at Izieu has been removed. 41 children in all, aged 3
to 13, have been captured. Beyond that, the arrest of
all the Jewish personnel has taken place, namely 10
individuals, among them 5 women. It was not possible
to secure any money or other valuables. Transportation
to Drancy will take place on 4/7/44. Signed Klaus
Barbie."