Tribute to Irène Savignon, born Valachs

Portrait of Irène Savignon, 2013. © Shoah Memorial/photo Michel Isaac

Irène Valachs was born on December 5, 1926, in Riga, Latvia. She arrived in France in 1930 with her parents Judelis and Leja.

Irène is an only child. Her world of pampered children collapses when her parents are arrested and interned in Drancy on September 14, 1942, while Irene is in summer camp. She returns to Paris without finding neither family nor friends. She then testifies to her wandering for several weeks in the streets of Paris, then helped by a few people, she was alternately housed in family or religious houses, until the liberation. On several occasions, she herself will help families to hide in particular in the region of Charente.

She will not find her parents deported by convoy 33 from Drancy to Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 16, 1942, without return.

In 2002, she became general secretary of the Association Hidden Children, which she leads with passion and dedication, until 2008, date of the dissolution of the association. A tireless activist for memory, she has never stopped testifying in front of schoolchildren at the Shoah Memorial, particularly in Sarah’s Attic and also everywhere in France.

Irène at the Lycée Hélène Boucher in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, 1940 1st row, seated, 2nd right. © Memorial of the Shoah/coll. Irène Savignon

She passed away on December 19, 2022 at the age of 96.

The Shoah Memorial and all its teams extend their most sincere condolences to his children, grandchildren and loved ones.

Listen to his testimony again