Bertrand Herz and Yvette Lévy

Bertrand Herz © Shoah Memorial / Michel Isaac.

Bertrand Herz was 14 years old when he was arrested with his parents and sister on 5 July 1944 in Toulouse by the Gestapo. Deported to Buchenwald with his father, he was sent with him to an outside Kommando in Niederorschel to work on the assembly of Junkers aircraft. Released on 11 April 1945, he returned alone to Paris where he found his sister, who had been deported to Ravensbrück, but not his mother, who had died in that camp. He published Buchenwald’s Pull-over (2015).

Yvette Lévy © Shoah Memorial

Yvette Lévy was 16 years old in 1942. As a young girl scout, she is responsible for recovering the children whose parents were arrested during the roundup of the Vél’d'Hiv. They will then be placed in a reception house in Paris, rue Lamarck. But on the night of 21 to 22 July 1944, children from all the homes in the Paris region were arrested and transferred to Drancy. Yvette and the children were deported to Birkenau on 31 July 1944.