Denise Holstein, one of the last French survivors of Auschwitz, died at the age of 97

She found the courage to recount her experience of the Shoah, first in a book, then through numerous awareness-raising activities aimed at young people. Denise Holstein, one of the last French survivors of Auschwitz, died on Saturday November 16, 2024, in Antibes, where she lived. She was 97 years old and had been deported, with other children from Jewish families, on July 31, 1944, reminding us of “West France”.

Denise Holstein was born in Rouen in 1927, into a wealthy family with Jewish roots, but which was not practicing. His father, of Lithuanian origin, was a dentist and was mobilized at the Rouen hospital during the war while his mother worked as an ambulance driver. Both were nevertheless arrested in January 1943 and interned in the Drancy camp, before being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they died.

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The young high school student was then sent to a home, where she took other Jewish children separated from their parents under her wing. Before being deported herself “by cattle car” on July 31, 1944. Deemed “young and in good shape”, Denise Holstein was sent to forced labor in the camp, which saved her from execution, traces France 3 Côte d’Azur.

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After a few months, she was transferred to Bergen-Belsen, an extermination camp which was liberated by the Allies in April 1945. “My motto was 'They won't get me',” Denise Hostein confided to our colleagues in January 2024.

A woman “of courage and resistance”

On her return, Denise Hostein hid this experience for a long time, before, encouraged by Serge Klarsfeld, giving herself the mission of raising awareness among young people about the Shoah and participating in the work of remembrance. A mission that she honored for more than 30 years, showing the youngest the number tattooed on her arm or her deportation card. The survivor even agreed, on several occasions, to accompany young people to Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of memory trips.

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A fight that she led to the end because, she told France 3 Côte d'Azur at the start of the year, “We have to know the truth. There are still people who say it didn't exist. We have to fight so that people understand everything we tell them, that it is true. I don't have much strength left, but the little I have, I will speak until the end,” she promised.

In a press release from the Élysée, Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron “greet this woman of courage and resilience” and send “their heartfelt condolences to her family, her loved ones, her comrades in the work of memory, to all those who were touched by his message and his teaching. Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol greeted “a great lady from Rouen”, while Jean Leonetti, mayor of Antibes, paid tribute to “this fragile woman with a strong character”. “We will remember her as a courageous woman who, to the limit of her strength, upheld the values ​​of the dignity of the human person. Our friendly thoughts go to his daughter, his family and his loved ones,” he wrote on X.