A little girl with a wise smile in a black and white photo, her wooden toy in her hands. Rose died at Auschwitz (Poland) in August 1944, a few days before the liberation of Paris. Sacrificed at the age of 6 in the extermination camps.
His destiny was retraced this Sunday morning in Louveciennes (Yvelines) by students attending 3rd grade at the La Jonchère high school in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, a neighboring town. For several months, the class carried out research around the biography of this little girl, under the direction of Deborah Caquethistory professor.
A work “all the more meaningful because it is anchored in local history”, believes the teacher. During the year, the students even found members of Rose’s family. Three of them attended the tribute.
The little girl was in convoy 77, the last one to leave Drancy
The event was organized as part of the National Day of Remembrance of the Deportation, in connection with the European project of the association Convoi 77, the last train to leave the Drancy campwith 1,306 people.
Born on March 12, 1939, little Rose Grynberg was part of the convoy. His father, Léon, deported in May 1941, returned from Auschwitz. Not his wife, nor Rose, their only daughter. On July 16, 1942, the little girl and her mother were rounded up at Vél d’Hiv, in Paris. Rose is then taken to an orphanage in Louveciennes managed by the General Union of Israelites of France (UGIF).
On July 22, with 33 other children and their five monitors, she boarded a bus on orders from the Gestapo. Eleven days later, from Drancy, convoy 77 headed for Poland. And death.
“On their little chest, the yellow star shines”
This Sunday’s ceremony was held in front of the plaque which pays tribute to the 39 victims of the Louveciennes roundup, on Place Ernest-Dreux. Three of them survived, including Denise Holstein, 17 years old at the time, who took 50 years to be able to bear witness to this, particularly in educational establishments. Bertha, 10 years old; Madeleine, 7 years old; Maurice, 11 years old; Charles, 9 years old; Eugénie, 6 years old… A dizzying list engraved in stone, at the foot of the orphanage targeted by the Gestapo.
Eighty years after the raid, four teenage girls from La Celle-Saint-Cloud selected by their teacher to carry out the class’ work come to the microphone. A few words about Rose’s biography. And then this poem written by his father, Léon, in 1951.
The students discovered this heartbreaking text in “Memories of Léon Grynberg, survivor of Auschwitz”, an autobiographical work published in 1998. “With the train, my little girl left/Alone, among so many other children, towards this cursed country/On their little chests, the yellow star shines/For the crematoria in the Nazi fog. »
A “warning”, upon returning from hell
This Sunday, Philippe Laurence, member of the Foundation for the Memory of the Deportation, whose father returned from the death camps, paid tribute to the 6 million Jews in Europe exterminated by the Nazi regime, to these children “victims , because Jews, final solutiona terrible understatement.”
He recalled the “need for vigilance, due to the risks that the international situation is causing at the moment “. And quoted his father, Robert, who had left this warning upon his return from hell: “I speak of it without hatred but I tell you: Beware, be vigilant. »
Henri, the adopted son of Léon Grynberg – upon his remarriage, Léon had adopted his wife’s two children – did not say anything else. “Unfortunately, history repeats itself,” he insisted on the sidelines of the ceremony. We need to tell this to young people. I always have trouble talking about the details, but I lived part of my life with this story. My adoptive father talked about it sometimes, not often, he who lived through the Death March at the end of the war. His Memoirs tell it better than me. »
