The president of the Union of Auschwitz Deportees, Arlette Testyler, survivor of the Vel d’Hiv roundup, died Friday at the age of 93, announced the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah.
Born in Paris in 1933, Arlette Testyler, whose father died at Auschwitz, was arrested with her mother Malka and her sister Madeleine on July 16, 1942, then taken to the Vélodrome d’Hiver before being interned at the Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp, from which they managed to escape, recalls the Foundation.
She and her sister were then hidden, until the Liberation, by a family from Vendôme (Loir-et-Cher), Jeanne and Jean Philippeau, recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 2025. “I want to call on History to push back the cold shadow of oblivion and ignorance,” declared Arlette Testyler, at the time of this posthumous recognition. “From now on, memory is a line of resistance”, because “the wave is rising again, particularly in Europe”, she then added.
“A tireless conveyor of truth”
President of the Union of Auschwitz Deportees since the end of 2024, Arlette Testyler spoke in schools, places of memory and commemorative ceremonies. “After her husband Charles and with her, an essential voice in our collective memory dies, that of a child from Vel d’Hiv who became, throughout her life, a tireless transmitter of truth, courage and humanity,” reacted Ariel Goldman, president of the United Jewish Social Fund (FSJU).
Arlette Testyler “dedicated her life to recounting the unspeakable, to speaking out about the injustice suffered by her people, and to transmitting to younger generations the need for remembrance,” he added.
