Lucette

Lucette Gejzenblozen

Lucette was born in Paris in 1924, a stone's throw from the Sacré-Cœur. Her parents came from Poland and she had a sister, Sarah, just two years her senior.
During the war, her father, a renowned decorator, took his family to take refuge in Lyon, where he quickly found work. His twin brother came to join them after his wife and four of his children were arrested, none of whom ever returned. He died of grief.
Lucette had just turned twenty when she too was arrested, along with her parents. Sarah, who was not at home, escaped deportation. They were taken to the Gestapo, led by Klaus Barbie, where Lucette saw her father beaten up. All three were deported on the very last convoy from Lyon to Auschwitz. They were separated a few days later.
On her release, Lucette is convinced that her parents are dead. However, against all odds, she found her mother, hospitalised in a deplorable condition, but alive. Her father did not survive. Lucette returned to Montmartre, married and became the mother of three children. Her own mother attended the weddings of her two daughters, but never really recovered from her deportation. A few years before her death, Lucette was devastated to hear a procession shouting "death to the Jews" outside her windows, and above all to see that no one around her reacted.
Lucette accompanied me to a conference at the Shoah Memorial, where I was presenting the episode devoted to her. That day, very moved, she repeated many times that she was fulfilling her mission by bearing witness, but that there were certain things she could never say.
Lucette died at the end of 2018, taking the worst of her story with her.