Portrait of Henri Borlant posing in the sanatorium, Black Forest (Bavaria). Germany, 1945. © Shoah Memorial/coll. Henri Borlant
Henri Borlant was born on June 5, 1927 in Paris. His parents, who came from Russia, were naturalized French before he was born. He has eight brothers and sisters. The family was evacuated in 1939 to Maine-et-Loire at Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay.
Henri is enrolled in a Catholic school and he is baptized. Henri Borlant is arrested on July 15, 1942, during the Great Western Roundup, then
deported with his father Aron, his brother Bernard, and his sister Denise on July 20, 1942 in convoy no. 8 to
Separated from his relatives who did not survive, Henri was assigned to the Auschwitz-I camp and notably went on to be assigned to a masonry commando.
On 28 October 1944, he was evacuated. After several weeks in the Orianenburg-Sachsenhausen camp, he was taken to Ohrdruf, an annex camp of
With two prisoners of war, he was hidden in an attic until the arrival of the Americans. He then brought a group of scouts to the camp of
In the 1990s, he began to testify and collect testimonies within the association Témoignage pour mémoire. He sits on the Foundation for the Memory of the Deportation and on the pedagogical commission of the Shoah Memorial.
Charles Naparstek, Philippe Wodka, Jean Lemberger, Charly Zlotnik and Henri Borlant posing in front of a convalescent home in Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées). France, 1945. © Shoah Memorial/coll. Henri Borlant
Henri Borlant published with the Éditions du Seuil in 2011
The Shoah Memorial offers its sincere condolences to his wife Hella, their daughters and all of his family. The Shoah Memorial salutes the memory of a figure in the memory of the Shoah in France, deeply humble and committed.
Testimony of Henri Borlant, deported from France, survivor (2014)
