The nonagenarian had survived the horror of the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. For more than 30 years, she told what she experienced to middle and high school students on the Riviera.
The mayor of Antibes announced this Saturday, November 16, the death of Denise Holstein, one of the last Riviera survivors of the Shoah, at the age of 97. “A survivor of the death camps, this fragile woman with a strong character throughout her life, testifies and transmits the memory of the deportees,” remembers the mayor, Jean Leonetti, in a post published on X.
“We will keep the memory of her as a courageous woman who, to the limit of her strength, carried the values of the dignity of the human person,” greets Jean Leonetti.
Bear witness to your story so as not to forget the horror
Originally from Rouen, Denise Holstein was arrested at the age of 15, in January 1943, during the great Rouen roundup then deported in July 1944. The nonagenarian survived the Drancy camp then Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. His parents also died while being deported.
Denise dedicated part of her life to telling middle and high school students in Antibes about the horror of the concentration camps and bearing witness to her daily life there. She has also spoken a lot in the media, like last January, at the microphone of BFM Nice Côte d'Azur.
“My sentence was: they won’t get me. I had that in my head, they didn’t get me,” she explained. “They almost failed because I was dying more than once (…) I don’t know how I resisted,” she shared.
The president of the metropolis, Christian Estrosi, pays “tribute to his courage and his commitment” and sends his “most sincere condolences to his family and loved ones”.
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