Arlette Testyler, Auschwitz deportee and Vel d'Hiv survivor, dies at 93

Arlette Testyler, a Holocaust survivor and president of the Union of Auschwitz Deportees, passed away on Friday at the age of 93. Testyler was a prominent figure who dedicated her life to bearing witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust and ensuring its memory was passed on to future generations.

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I want to call upon History to push back the cold shadow of oblivion and ignorance.

Born in Paris in 1933, Testyler was arrested with her mother and sister during the infamous Vel d'Hiv roundup on July 16, 1942. Her father perished at Auschwitz. After escaping internment at the Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp, she and her sister were hidden by a family in Vendôme until the Liberation. This family, Jeanne and Jean Philippeau, were later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 2025.

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Memory is a line of resistance, because the wave is rising again, particularly in Europe.

Testyler frequently spoke at schools, memorial sites, and commemorative ceremonies, striving to "repel the cold shadow of oblivion and ignorance." She emphasized that "memory is a line of resistance" as "the wave is rising again, particularly in Europe." As president of the Union of Auschwitz Deportees since late 2024, she continued her vital work of remembrance.

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After her husband Charles and with her, an essential voice of our collective memory is extinguished, that of a child of the Vel d'Hiv who became, throughout her life, a tireless conveyor of truth, courage and humanity.

Ariel Goldman, president of the Unified Jewish Social Fund (FSJU), remembered Testyler as an "essential voice of our collective memory." He described her as a child of the Vel d'Hiv who became a tireless conveyor of truth, courage, and humanity. Goldman added that Testyler "devoted her existence to telling the unspeakable, to speaking of the injustice suffered by her people, and to transmitting to young generations the imperative of remembrance."

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She devoted her existence to telling the unspeakable, to saying the injustice suffered by her people, and to transmitting to young generations the requirement of remembrance.