Maurice Gerenstein (M / France, 1931-1944), Holocaust victim
Maurice Gerenstein (M / France, 1931-1944), Holocaust victim
Liliane Gerenstein (F / France, 1933-1944), Holocaust victim
- KEYWORDS : <Hidden Children> <Izieu> <Drancy> <Auschwitz>
Biography
French Children of the Holocaust
Liliane Gerenstein was born in 1933 to musician Alexandre Chapse-Gerenstein and his wife Chendlia Entine. Alexandre and Chendlia, both from Odessa, immigrated to France and settled in Paris. Liliane's brother Maurice was born in 1931. In November 1943, Alexandre and Chendlia were deported on Convoy 62 from Drancy to Auschwitz.
It is not known exactly when Liliane came to live in the children's home in Izieu. On the morning of the raid , her brother arrived there too as his boarding school had closed for Easter. Leon Reifman, one of the staff, brought him to the home together with his friend, Max-Marcel Balsam, whose brother Jean-Paul was also living there. All four children were arrested in the raid, and deported from Drancy on 13 April 1944 to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
Alexandre, who played in the orchestra at Auschwitz, survived and immigrated to the US. In 1983, he submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem in memory of his children, Maurice and Liliane, and his wife Chendlia.