Suzanne

Suzanne Laugier

At 101, Suzanne is the oldest survivor I've interviewed. For her 100th birthday, her granddaughter convinced her to tell her story for the first time to the newspaper La Provence.
Born in 1918, Suzanne grew up in Marseille, in a family of well-to-do shopkeepers. During the war, her parents fled to the countryside, while she stayed in town with her fiancé Roger. Hiding out with a Catholic family, they promised each other to marry as soon as the war was over. One evening, while they were with friends, the police came and arrested them. They were first taken to the Baumettes prison, then to Drancy, and from there to Auschwitz. In the camp, Suzanne worked in the quarries, then in the kitchens for 6 months, which likely contributed to her survival. She never saw Roger again.
Upon her return, her mother told her that if she was still here, it was because there was a God. Suzanne replied, "If there was one for me, then why not for the others”? She would never believe in God again.
A few years later, she married the man with whom she would share 65 years of her life. They had a daughter and a son. Suzanne agreed to have them baptized - her husband was Catholic - in order to protect them from a possible new threat to the Jews.