Denise Holstein, from Rouen, one of the last French survivors of Auschwitz, has died

Born February 6, 1927 in Rouen, Denise Holstein died Saturday November 16, 2024 at the age of 97. A life marked by the Second World War and his deportation to the Auschwitz camp. A traumatic youth that took her more than 40 years to put into words.

Schooling in Rouen

Denise Holstein was born into a wealthy Jewish family. His father, a dentist, had been appointed lieutenant at the Rouen hospital. Young Denise then studied at the Corneille and Jeanne-d'Arc high school in Rouen before fleeing to her grandparents in Vierzon in 1940, in the face of the German advance.

She will return to her hometown shortly after and find her parents there. His father having obtained the right to work. Before everyone is rounded up. Except his little brother who was sent to the free zone.

Denise and her parents were arrested in January 1943 during a raid in Rouen. The family was transferred to Drancy before heading to the Auschwitz camp. First her parents, whom she never saw again, in 1943, then in her turn, in 1944.

Books and school trips

Released in April 1945 after experiencing hell, Denise Holstein said nothing about it. She rebuilt her life, got married and had three children. But his meeting in 1990 with Serge Klarsfeld, lawyer and defender of the cause of Jewish deportees in France, changed everything. She now wishes to testify.

She spreads her words in schools and publishes her first novel “I will never forget you, my children of Auschwitz”. A second will appear a few years later, under the name “The Manuscript of Cayeux-sur-Mer, July August 1945, Rouen – Drancy – Louveciennes – Birkeneau – Bergen-Belsen”. And will accompany middle school students on a school trip to the Auschwitz camp.