Becky Behar (F / Turkey, Italy, 1929-2009), Holocaust survivor
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Becky Behar (F / Turkey, Italy, 1929-2009), Holocaust survivor.
- Youngest survivor of the Lake Maggiore Massacres.
- KEYWORDS -- <Lake Maggiore Massacres> <Refugees> <Switzerland>
- MEMOIRS -- La strage dimenticata (2003)
Biography
Rachel "Becky" Behar was born January 8, 1929 in Liegi, Belgium to a Jewish-Turkish family. Her parents were the owners of the Hotel Meina, where several Jews were arrested and murdered by members of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in the Lake Maggiore Massacres in Sept 1943. Becky and her family survived only because they had Turkish passports and the Turkish consul, Niebil Hertog, personally intervened in their defense. The family then fled to safety in Switzerland.
After the war Becky returned to Milan. She married Pier Paolo Ottolenghi. She was deeply engaged in keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust.
Becky died in Milan on January 16, 2009.