Testimony of Kolette Khazan Halbert (Halber), born in Saint Raphael, France in 1939, regarding her experiences in the children’s orphanage and her rescue by righteous gentiles

Testimony of Kolette Khazan Halbert (Halber), born in Saint Raphael, France in 1939, regarding her experiences in the children’s orphanage and her rescue by righteous gentiles Childhood in Saint Raphael in southern France; father’s deportation to Auschwitz in Vélodrome d’Hiver (or Vél d’Hiv) roundup on 16 July 1942; mother’s arrest in Marseille and deportation via Drancy to Auschwitz in May 1943; transfer by grandfather and grandmother to orphanage for children of French origin in Cannes; smuggling of children to Mirepoix on the Spanish border; rescue of herself and her siblings by Elisabeth Martinet and Françoise and Hélène Charpiot (later recognized as Righteous among the Nations); life after the war; joining Zionist youth movements in Paris and Nice; studies; aliya to Israel in 1964; raising a family; receiving her mother’s letter from 1942 when she reached 40 years of age.