Victor Perahia, president of the Union of Auschwitz Deportees, died on Sunday, September 29, 2024, in Saint-Mandé.
Victor Perahia was born on April 4, 1933 in Paris. He is the son of Robert Perahia, of Turkish origin, and Jeanne, née Passy. He had a younger brother, Albert. His parents were fairground merchants. The family settled in Saint-Nazaire in Loire-Atlantique before the war. His father was a volunteer in the French army, then taken prisoner in 1940. He was released in 1941 and placed under house arrest.
His brother goes to hide in Paris with his maternal grandparents, Salomon and Sarah. Victor and his parents were arrested on 15 July 1942 in Saint-Nazaire. They were transferred to the Grand Séminaire d'Angers. The family was separated on the 17th. His father was deported on the 20th in convoy no. 8 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where he was murdered. Victor, aged 9, and Jeanne were then interned at the camp de la Lande and transferred on 5 September 1942 to the camp of Drancy.
Through a subterfuge, his mother pretends to be a prisoner of war wife. They were deported by the convoy that left the Drancy camp on 2 May 1944 for the Bergen-Belsen camp. His mother struggles to protect her son as best she can. Victor and Jeanne are evacuated at the end of March 1945 in a convoy to Theresienstadt. The convoy stopped on 23 April 1945 near Tröbitz and they were liberated by the Soviets.
His grandfather Salomon is deported by convoy n
Victor and his mother were repatriated to France on June 29, 1945. Victor is 12 years old. He was hospitalized at the Salpêtrière until September 1945 and then in a sanatorium.
For forty years, he cannot testify. He breaks the silence and goes to schools, especially in western France, and to the Shoah Memorial. Administrator of the Amicale de Bergen-Belsen and the Union of Auschwitz Deportees, Victor Perahia successively became the secretary general of the UDA then its president in 2023.
Victor Perahia published his testimony in 2000,
Victor Perahia is knight of the Legion of Honor and knight of the National Order of Merit.
The Shoah Memorial presents to his wife Rose, his children and grandchildren, its most sincere condolences. He salutes the memory of a great activist for the memory of the Shoah, at once humble and radiant with humanism.
