Born in Argenteuil in 1936 to Polish Jewish parents, Hélène Waysbord was hidden at the age of 6 in Evron in Mayenne in the fall of 1942 after the arrest of her father Jacques and her mother Fajga, deported and murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
Associate of classical letters, teacher, then in the 80s, in charge of major works at the presidency of the Republic, she becomes scientific delegate of the National Library of France. Inspector General of National Education, she led in 2008 at the request of the Minister of National Education a working group on Shoah teaching in primary school. She chaired the Maison d’Izieu from 2004 to 2016, then honorary president.
A writer, Hélène Waysbord-Loing examines her family history and pays tribute to Alexandre Halaunbrenner, a figure of the association of the Sons and Daughters of the Jewish deportees of France.
Hélène Waysborg deposited the letters written by her parents from the Beaune-la-Rolande and Drancy camps at the Shoah Memorial in 2013.
In the speech of Emmanuel Macron awarding him the medal of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor at the Elysée on November 29, 2019, the President of the Republic emphasizes how much “You carried with pedagogy and sensitivity the memory of the Holocaust, you committed yourself to these essential projects. You have written with talent to transmit and build and you have constantly celebrated literature, art, memory giving meaning, a flame to this life that should have stopped so many times (…).”
The Shoah Memorial extends its deepest condolences to her husband Bernard Loing and her entire family.
Photo: Hélène Wajsbord, 2015. © Jean-Marc Lebaz/ Shoah Memorial
