Wikipedia

Annette Muller

Annette Muller (15 March 1933 – 9 August 2021) was a French writer and Holocaust survivor.[1] She was an escapee of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.[2] Her autobiography, La petite fille du Vel' d'Hiv, published in 1991, gives rare accounts of the roundup and the destiny of her fellow prisoners.

Annette Muller
Born15 March 1933
Paris, France
Died9 August 2021(2021-08-09) (aged 88)
Le Blanc-Mesnil, France
NationalityFrench
OccupationWriter

Biography

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Muller was born in Paris on 15 March 1933 to a family of Polish Jews from Tarnów who emigrated to France in 1929.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Her mother, Rachel Muller, was born on 16 October 1908 in Wojnicz,[11] and her father, Manek, was a communist militant and tailor. She grew up poor with three siblings: Henri, Jean, and Michel [fr]. Her father was a member of the Main-d'œuvre immigrée and the General Confederation of Labour.[12]

Following anti-Semitic discrimination, Muller's father was laid off. Days before the roundup, he was warned and managed to hide in Creil.[13] At the start of the roundup, her older brothers, Henri and Jean, escaped to the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul orphanage in Neuilly-sur-Seine.[14][15] However, Annette, her mother, and her brother, Michel, were arrested and held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver, where the siblings were separated from their mothers and subject to neglect and abuse from guards.[12]

Muller's mother managed to bribe a guard and send a letter to her husband, and was later sent to Auschwitz.[11] Later that year, she was murdered in the camp at the age of 33.[16] Muller and her brother were sent to Drancy internment camp before escaping with the help of the other two brothers and the Union générale des israélites de France. They stayed at the Catholic orphanage before moving to another in Le Mans, where they stayed until 1947.

Following the Liberation of Paris, Muller married Daniel Bessmann, a former resistant in Basses-Alpes and later worked various jobs.[17]

Muller published her autobiography in 1991, titled La petite fille du Vel d'Hiv : Du camp d'internement de Beaune-la-Rolande (1942) à la maison d'enfants du Mans (1947) and published by Éditions Denoël. The story was made up of three parts: her childhood, the early stages of World War II, and the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.[18] Throughout her later life, she was adamant about maintaining the memory of the Holocaust so that it can never be repeated.

Annette Muller died in Le Blanc-Mesnil on 9 August 2021 at the age of 88.[19]

Publications

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  • La petite fille du Vel d'Hiv : Du camp d'internement de Beaune-la-Rolande (1942) à la maison d'enfants du Mans (1947) (1991)

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Arlot, Alexandre (17 August 2021). "Figure du Blanc-Mesnil, "la petite fille du Vél d'Hiv" Annette Muller s'en est allée". Le Parisien (in French). Seine-Saint-Denis. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  2. ^ Rajsfus, Maurice (2002). La rafle du Vél d'Hiv (in French). Paris: Presses universitaires de France. ISBN 9782130514497.
  3. ^ "Annette Muller, la petite fille du Vél'd'Hiv". France Culture (in French). Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  4. ^ "Plus qu'un nom dans une liste : Rachel Muller". Jewish Traces (in French). 27 March 2012.
  5. ^ "Au Vel d'Hiv, mon enfance a basculé" (Dailymotion) (in French). Europe 1. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  6. ^ "La Petite fille du Vel d'Hiv". Histoire d'en Lire (in French).
  7. ^ "" Annette Muller, la petite fille du Vel d'Hiv. "". Yad Vashem (in French). 19 August 2020. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  8. ^ "Intervista: Gilles Paquet-Brenner". Cinema del Silenzio (in Italian).
  9. ^ "Annette Müller, 7 ans, raflée... et sauvée". Nord éclair (in French). 16 July 2012. Archived from the original on 12 July 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  10. ^ Bryant, Lisa (10 April 2010). "French Movie Recounts Role in Holocaust". Voice of America. Paris. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  11. ^ a b Klarsfeld, Serge (1976). Le Mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de France (in French). Paris: Beate et Serge Klarsfeld.
  12. ^ a b Rabino, Thomas (11 July 2012). "Michel Muller, rescapé du Vel d'hiv'". Marianne (in French). Archived from the original on 10 November 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  13. ^ Rees, Laurence (2006). Auschwitz. I Nazisti e la soluzione finale (in Italian). Milan: Oscar Storia Mondadori.
  14. ^ Zuccotti, Susan (1999). The Holocaust, the French and the Jews. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-8032-9914-6.
  15. ^ "Spéciale La Rafle du Vél d'Hiv". Au Field de la nuit (in French). 1 March 2013. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  16. ^ "Les plaques commémoratives du 20e". Mairie du 20e Arrondissement de Paris (in French). 8 March 2019.
  17. ^ "Expériences vécues de la persécution : le port de l'étoile jaune" (PDF). USC Shoah Foundation Institute (in French). 2011.
  18. ^ "Annette Muller". Les enfants de la Shoah (in French). Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  19. ^ Denéchère, Antoine (19 August 2021). "Annette Muller, inlassable témoin de la rafle du Vel d'Hiv et du camp de Beaune-la-Rolande, est décédée". France Bleu (in French). Orléans. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  20. ^ "États généraux du film documentaire". film-documentaire.fr (in French).
  21. ^ Un voyage pas comme les autres - un film de Samuel Muller (Dailymotion) (in French). Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah. January 2011.
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