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 14 September 1942, while Irene is at summer camp. She returns to Paris without finding family or 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 boarding houses or religious, until liberation. On several occasions, she herself helped 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 16 September 1942, without return.
In 2002, she became general secretary of the Association Enfants cachés, which she led with passion and dedication until 2008, when the association was dissolved. A tireless activist for memory, she never stopped testifying before schoolchildren at the Shoah Memorial, especially in Sarah’s Attic and also throughout France.
Irène at the Hélène Boucher High School in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, 1940 1st row, seated, 2nd right. © Shoah Memorial/coll. Irène Savignon
She passed away on December 19, 2022 at the age of 96.
The Shoah Memorial and all its staff extend their deepest condolences to his children, grandchildren and loved ones.
