Tribute to Julia Wallach, survivor of the Shoah

Credit: Jean-Marc Lebaz / Shoah Memorial.

Julia Wallach, née Kac, a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, died on Wednesday 23 September at the age of 101.

Julia Kac was born on June 14, 1925 in Paris. Her parents, Joseph Kac and Marjem (Marie) née Supe, originally from Poland, were married at the town hall of the 4th^e Paris district in July 1924. They both work in textiles. The family lives on rue Henri Chevreau, in the 20th arrondissement.^e arrondissement in the district of Ménilmontant then from 1935 at 20 Rue de Nemours in the 11^e arrondissement.

Warned of an imminent danger in mid-July 1942, the family took refuge in Bry-sur-Marne, but Julia and her mother returned to spend the night of 15 to 16 July 1942 in Paris to pay the rent.

Marie is arrested on the morning of July 16, Julia of French nationality is left free.

The father and the daughter will go to Drancy to see Marie from a building facing the camp. They will manage to exchange a greeting with her. Marie was deported in convoy 20 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp on 31 August 1942.

Julia was arrested with Joseph on 24 April 1943 on complaint, they were interned at the Drancy camp for two months. They were deported by convoy 55 from the Drancy camp on 23 June 1943 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. She had just turned 18. Her number is 46645. Upon arrival, she searches for her mother and quickly learns that she has been murdered. His father will not survive the deportation either. She was assigned to the Lyrickommando, then to the kitchen kommando and finally to a factory within the perimeter of the Auschwitz-I camp.

Julia was evacuated on 18 January 1945 and joined the Ravensbrück camp, then various external camps. She escaped during another evacuation on 24 April 1945 and returned to Paris on 26 May 1945.

In 1946, she married Marcel Wallach, deported by convoy 69 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp on 7 March 1944. Together, they had two children.

Julia will take several decades to testify. In 2021, she published Dieu était en vacances, co-written with Pauline Guéna at Grasset editions.

Her granddaughter, the actress and director Frankie Wallach, portrays her in Kneidler in 2017 and especially in Too much love in 2021, a sensitive work dedicated to transmission within a family marked by the Shoah.

The Shoah Memorial salutes the memory of Julia Wallach and offers its condolences to her family and loved ones.