Tribute to Bertrand Herz, who died on May 20, 2021

Bertrand Herz, witness day at the Shoah Memorial, 2007
Mandatory credit: Shoah Memorial

Bertrand Herz was born in Paris on April 24, 1930, from an Israelite family originally from Metz, settled in Le Vésinet in the Paris region. Faced with the intensification of persecutions in the summer of 1942, his parents, Willy and Louise, decide with their three children to move to the southern zone and eventually join Toulouse.

After the Allied landing in North Africa and the invasion of the southern zone by German troops, the Herz family is arrested on July 5, 1944 by the Gestapo. The father, the mother, Bertrand, and his older sister are interned at the Caffarelli barracks in Toulouse. Only his brother escapes arrest.

On July 30, 1944, they were deported to the concentration camp of Buchenwald for men and Ravensbrück for women. The journey lasts six days for the first ones, seven for the seconds. On August 6, 1944, Bertrand Herz is registered at Buchenwald. He remains with his father at Block 61 of the "Little Camp" until December 14. They are then sent to the Niederorschel Kommando where they work in the Junkers factories assembling aircraft wings.

Bertrand’s father, Willy Herz, dies on January 27, 1945. The detainees of Niederorschel are evacuated on 1^er April towards Buchenwald, which they reach on April 10, the day before the liberation of this camp.

At the end of April, Bertrand Herz is back in Paris where he meets his sister and older brother. His mother, Louise Herz, did not survive the deportation and died in Ravensbrück on 29 December 1944.

Bertrand Herz resumed his studies and graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in 1953.

From 1953 to 1960, he worked at the National Navy Commissariat where he was Reserve Commander. IT specialist since 1958, he joined the Thomson group where he spent his entire career. From 1985 to 1994, he was an associate professor at the Institut Technologique de l'Université Paris-V, where he taught computer systems design.

Bertrand Herz joined the ranks of the French Association Buchenwald Dora et Kommandos in 1994. He became its secretary general from 1997 to 2000, then one of the Vice-Presidents since 2000.  In 2002, he became president of the International Buchenwald Dora Committee, a position he held until 2016. He then becomes Honorary President of the International Committee.

Bertrand Herz published his testimony Le pull-over de Buchenwald in 2015 at Éditions Tallandier, translated into German in 2016.

Bertrand Herz was named Knight of the National Order of Merit in September 2006 and Knight of the Legion of Honour in April 2011. In October 2009, the city of Weimar awarded him the title of honorary citizen and he received the order of merit from the Land of Thuringia in April 2010.

Bertrand Herz has testified on numerous occasions at the Shoah Memorial and in many schools. A committed, rigorous and humanist witness, he was an artisan of the dialogue between the memories of the deportation and a figure of Franco-German memory work.

We extend our most sincere condolences to his children Olivier, Florence and Véronique, to all his family and loved ones.

Testimony of Bertrand Herz, deported from France, survivor (2004):