Tribute to Liliane Klein-Lieber, who died on July 8, 2020

Portrait of Liliane Klein Lieber, 1990s.

Credits: Evvy Eisen, Shoah Memorial

Liliane Klein-Lieber

Born on June 2, 1924 in Strasbourg, Liliane Lieber joined the Éclaireurs Israélites de France in 1931 and took the totem name of "Luciole obligeante".

On September 3, 1939, Liliane and her parents left Strasbourg and settled in Vichy. Liliane attended the school of Cusset. In November 1941, Liliane and her mother, Germaine, are forced to leave and join Grenoble, where resides the family. His father, Ernest, has managed to emigrate to the United States and will try unsuccessfully to bring his wife and daughter.

In August 1942, during the raids in the southern zone, Liliane was recruited by Robert Gamzon to participate in the "Sixth", the clandestine network of the EIF. She becomes a social worker for the Grenoble region, hiding teenagers in danger, providing them with fake papers, maintaining contact between them and escorting some towards the Swiss border at Annemasse. In the autumn of 1942, she went to the camp of Rivesaltes to conduct a child rescue operation initiated by Andrée Salomon.

Photo: On the right Luciole, young Jewish resistance fighter at the heart of the rescue of children in the Grenoble region in 1942.

Credits: Memorial of the Shoah/coll. Lilane Klein Lieber

In the spring of 1944, she and her mother move to Switzerland. At the Liberation, she returns to France and finds the teenagers, for many of whom she was in charge of and who have become orphans, to continue accompanying them.

She marries in December 1944 with Théo Klein, met in the Resistance, with whom she has three sons before the couple separates.

Since the Second World War, Liliane Klein-Lieber has not stopped campaigning. In 1965, she participated in the founding of the Women’s Cooperation, of which she was president for fifteen years until 2003, and in the creation of the National Volunteer Center. She represents female scouting at UNESCO and also sits on the National Council of French Women. She chairs the Association of hidden children, created in 1991, in the 2000s. She is also an active member of the Jewish Resistance Elders in France.

Photo: Liliane Klein Lieber, president of the Hidden Children’s association in 2003, during a symposium organized by the Shoah Memorial for the release of the book "Words of Stars"

Credits: Shoah Memorial

Liliane Klein-Lieber is a Knight of the Legion of Honor and holder of the Cross of the Volunteer Fighter of the Resistance.

The Shoah Memorial pays tribute to the memory of an exceptional woman, humanist and committed on a daily basis, a figure of the female cause, of the memory of the Holocaust and of the Resistance. The Shoah Memorial, whose teams have had the honor of rubbing shoulders with her for decades, presents its most sincere condolences to her sons and loved ones.

On the occasion of Yom HaShoah, Liliane Klein-Lieber participated in a meeting at the Memorial on April 12, 2018: