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, born Passy. He has a younger brother Albert. His parents are fairground merchants. The family settled before the war in Saint-Nazaire in Loire-Atlantique. His father is a volunteer in the French army and then taken prisoner in 1940. Released in 1941, he is under house arrest.
Her brother goes to hide in Paris with his maternal grandparents, Salomon and Sarah. Victor and his parents are arrested on July 15, 1942 in Saint-Nazaire. They are transferred to the Major Seminary of Angers. The family is separated on the 17th. His father was deported on the 20th in convoy No. 8 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp where he was assassinated. Victor, aged 9, and Jeanne are then interned at the camp of La Lande then transferred on September 5, 1942 to the camp of Drancy.
Thanks to a subterfuge, his mother pretends to be the wife of a prisoner of war. They were deported by the convoy from the camp of Drancy on May 2, 1944 to the camp of Bergen-Belsen. His mother struggles to protect her son as best as possible. Victor and Jeanne are evacuated at the end of March 1945 in a convoy towards Theresienstadt. The convoy stopped on April 23, 1945 near Tröbitz and they were liberated by the Soviets.
His grandfather Salomon is deported by the convoy no 77 dated July 31, 1944, when he was assassinated.
Victor and his mother are repatriated on June 29, 1945 in France. Victor is 12 years old. He was hospitalized at the Salpêtrière until September 1945 then in a sanatorium.
For forty years, he cannot testify. He breaks the silence and goes to schools, notably in the West of France, and to the Shoah Memorial. Administrator of the Amicale de Bergen-Belsen and the Union of Auschwitz Deportees, Victor Perahia successively becomes the secretary general of the UDA then its president in 2023.
Victor Perahia published his testimony in 2000, My stolen childhood, Editions Families and friends deported from convoy no. 8, with the support of the Foundation for the memory of the Shoah.
Victor Perahia is knight of the Legion of Honor and knight of the National Order of Merit.
The Shoah Memorial presents its most sincere condolences to his wife Rose, his children and grandchildren. He salutes the memory of a great activist for the memory of the Shoah, both humble and with radiant humanism.
