The eldest of the Jacob family, Madeleine, nicknamed Milou, was born in Paris. In 1924, her parents André and Yvonne moved to Nice with their children. During the Occupation, Milou worked to support the family while his sister Denise joined the Resistance. On 30 March 1944, Milou was arrested along with his mother Yvonne, sister Simone and brother Jean.
Deported to Auschwitz by convoy no. 71 on 13 April 1944, Milou, Simone and their mother were then transferred to the Brobeck camp, then taken on a death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945. After an eight-day train ride, without food or water, they arrive at Bergen-Belsen. Separated from Simone, Milou stayed with her mother, who died of typhus in March 1945. Having reached herself, Milou survives thanks to the liberation of the camp by British troops on 15 April 1945 and watches over Simone.
Back in Paris, the sisters discover the tragic fate of their family. In 1949, Madeleine married Pierre Jampolsky and gave birth to a son, Luc. On 14 August 1952, on the way back from a stay in Stuttgart at Simone and Antoine Veil’s house, Milou lost his life instantly in a car accident. Her son Luc, one year old, dies in hospital a few days later, in the arms of Simone.
Second daughter of the Jacob family, Denise was born in Paris and grew up in Nice. Like her brothers and sisters, she is a scout under the totem of Miarka. Under the Occupation, while she was a high school student, she relayed messages from Radio London, distributed leaflets and helped hide Jewish children.
In 1943, she fully committed to the Resistance. Put in contact with the Franc-Tireur movement, she became at 19 liaison officer in Lyon under the code name Miarka. After the arrest of her family in April 1944, she joined the United Movements of the Resistance in Haute-Savoie under the pseudonym "Annie". Arrested while transporting transmitters and funds for the Glières maquis, she was tortured by the Gestapo, then deported to Ravensbrück on 28 July 1944. Registered under a false name, his Jewish identity is not known.
Transferred to Mauthausen on 2 March 1945 in a "Night and Fog" convoy of deportees, she was liberated by the International Red Cross on 21 April 1945. In 1947, she married the resistant Alain Vernay, with whom she had three children. She then devoted her life to the transmission of the memory of the Resistance and deportation.
Benjamin of the Jacob family, Simone was born in Nice. Her childhood was happy, marked by a united brotherhood and a very strong bond with her mother Yvonne. As a teenager under the Occupation, she continued her education and her work as a scout, while persecution intensified. In November 1943, equipped with false papers in the name of "Jacquier", she left the high school to work at the municipal library. In March 1944, she passed her baccalaureate, which she did not learn the success until after the war.
On 30 March 1944, she was arrested by the Gestapo, leading to the arrest of her mother Yvonne, her brother Jean and her sister Madeleine. Interned in Drancy, the three women were deported to Auschwitz by convoy no. 71 on 13 April 1944. Aged 16, Simone is transferred with her mother and sister to the Brobeck labor camp, then undergoes the death march before being sent to Bergen-Belsen, where she is separated from his.
Liberated on 15 April 1945, she returned to Paris and learned of the disappearance of her father and brother and the deportation of her sister Denise. She then began studying law and at Sciences Po, married Antoine Veil in 1946 and became the mother of three sons. The accidental death of Madeleine, the only person with whom she shared the experience of deportation, is a new drama for her. Having become a magistrate, Simone Veil began a life of major societal struggles. Simone Veil embodied resilience and courage: marked by deportation, she turned her experience into a commitment to justice, memory and women’s rights.
The only son of the Jacob family, Jean was born in 1925 and grew up in Nice. As a teenager, he joined the Éclaireurs and interrupted his studies in 1941 to work, nurturing the project of becoming a photographer. In August 1942, he was employed as a photographer’s assistant at Emka Photo but the laboratory closed due to anti-Semitic laws. In March 1944, he was housed with his mother and sisters by friends.
On 30 March 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo with his sister Madeleine and their mother Yvonne, then interned in Drancy on 7 April. Jean was then present at the departure of his sisters and mother to Auschwitz-Birkenau. His father André, arrested in Nice, joined him there on 21 April 1944. Hoping to escape deportation, Jean and his father volunteer for the Organisation Todt. But they were deported on 15 May 1944 by convoy no. 73 to the Ninth Fort of Kaunas and the Patarei prison in Reval (Tallinn). Only 22 of the 878 deportees survived. Jean died in deportation in 1944.
Yvonne Célestine Marguerite Jacob, née Steinmetz, was born on 12 December 1900 in Paris to a non-practicing Jewish family. Bachelor and student in chemistry, she married André Jacob at 21 years old and gave up her studies. After the birth of his daughters Madeleine and Denise, the family moved to Nice. A son, Jean, was born in 1925, then Simone in 1927. Yvonne dedicates herself to her children and builds a home where culture and art play a central role. A modern and committed woman, she participates in community activities while striving to preserve as normal a family life as possible in the face of persecution. Arrested on 30 March 1944 with Madeleine and Jean, shortly after the arrest of Simone, she was interned in Drancy.
On 13 April 1944, she was deported with Madeleine and Simone to Auschwitz-Birkenau by convoy no. 71. All three were then transferred to the Brobeck labour camp. Yvonne survived the death march and arrived at Bergen-Belsen on 30 January 1945. Stricken with typhus, she died in March 1945, at 45 years old, in the arms of her daughter Madeleine.
Born in the 9th
With the arrival of World War II and the anti-Semitic laws of the Vichy regime, André gradually lost the right to practice his profession because of his Jewish origin. According to the internment records of the Drancy camp, he arrived at the camp on 21 April 1944, a few weeks after the arrest of his wife, daughters and son. He finds his son Jean there. Both were deported on 15 May 1944 by convoy no. 73, an exclusively male convoy that left from Drancy towards the camps in the Baltic countries (Lithuania and Estonia). André Jacob died in deportation at the age of 53.
