Julia

Julia Wallach

Julia was born in Paris in 1925, the only daughter of Polish parents. Her father, a leather craftsman, had his workshop at home, in the apartment she still lives in today and where she welcomed me. Her mother was arrested in July 1942, during the Vel’ d'Hiv roundup. She never saw her again. In April 1943, she was ultimately taken with her father to Drancy, from where she was deported to Auschwitz. She owed her survival in part to one of her cousins, whom she met there, and who advised her never to miss work, under any circumstances, or she too would go "up the chimney". Julia listened to her advice and went to work, even though she was extremely ill with typhus. In January 1945, the camp was evacuated. Then began the interminable death march, in the freezing cold, which took her to several camps, including Ravensbrück. In April 1945, she managed to escape and, after a long journey, reached American soldiers. Back in Paris, she managed to recover the family apartment, occupied by a collaborator, and where her father had hidden his modest savings, a few gold coins, in a wall. Thirteen months later, Julia married a former deportee who had returned very ill from the camps, and with whom she led a happy life. She has two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, with whom she is very close.