Hélène Berr

Hélène Berr (27 March 1921 – April 1945) was a French woman of the Jewish faith, who documented her life in a diary during the time of Nazi occupation of France. In France she is considered to be a "French Anne Frank".

Life

Hélène Berr was born in Paris, France, a member of a Jewish family that had lived in France for several generations. She studied Russian and English literature at the Sorbonne university. She also played the violin.

She was not able to pass her final exam at the university because the anti-Semitic laws of the Vichy regime prevented her from doing so. She was active in the “General Organization of Jews in France” (Union générale des israélites de France, UGIF). On 8 March 1944 Hélène and her parents were captured and taken to Drancy internment camp and from there were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp on 27 March 1944. In early November 1944 Hélène was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died in April 1945 just five days before the liberation of the camp.