On May 11th 1987 at the Law Courts of Lyons during the reading of his impeachment, Klaus Barbie appeared before the law court to answer for his responsibility in the Izieu roundup.
The home
Izieu is a smalll village upon an arm of the Rhone river on the boundary of three French departments: the Ain, the Isere and Savoie. The fame of this village comes from the tragedy that occurred there on April 6th 1944. On this day forty four Jewish children and their seven educators were arrested by agents of the Lyons Gestapo, with Klaus Barbie at its head, accompanied by a battalion of the Wehrmacht. Only one educator survived the roundup and deportation, Lea Feldblum testified in 1987 at Barbie’s trial in Lyons. Barbie was condemned for the crime of Izieu. On the small road leading to the village, a few hundred meters before the church, slightly set back from the road, the hamlet of Lelinaz contained the house that acted as a colony for the Jewish refugee children.
This house was offered to Sabine Zlatin by the sub-prefect of Belley (Ain), Pierre-Marcel Wiltzer, to create a children’s home during spring 1943. Without being explicit, the sub-prefect knew that these were Jewish children coming from Lodeve in the Herault department, who needed to be kept from danger. He offered the house of the hamlet of Lelinaz on the outskirts of Izieu providing shelter, away from the Belley road. Sabine Zlatin accepted the offer and with her husband Miron put into action the steps to move the children and to recruit the educators who would care for them. Some of these children came from camps in the south of France, and in this way Mina and Claudine Halaunbrenner were interned in Rivesaltes with the whole of their family.
Mina Halaunbrenner’s file at Rivesaltes.
Photography by Dorot source AD 66
Little by little the house filled, and the number of children continuously increased until September 1943, when there were sixty-four children to divide between the dormitories of the first floor and the annex building where the eldest slept. In September 1943, following the invasion of the Italian zone by the Wehrmacht, Izieu again was in danger, and some parents managed to collect their children and flee. Others were deported or hid and their children had to stay at the colony.
At the start of term in October a young teacher was nominated by Vichy and the children were taught in a room in the house, the eldest were sent to Belley secondary school. Gabrielle Perrier stayed in her post until the Easter holidays of 1944. April 6th 1944 marked the first day of the school holidays.
Sabine Zlatin tried to close down the Izieu home on the instructions of the OSE and the Garel network, but failed. It was hard to find refuge for the children. Danger grew closer and on January 7th 1944 Albert Bendrihem, a doctor at Bregnier-Cordon, practicing despite the anti-Semitic Vichy laws, was arrested and deported. In February the Gestapo arrested the personnel of the OSE at Chambery. The colony was still not disbanded and the roundup took place on April 6th 1944, when everyone had just been called for breakfast. Leon Reifmann was the only person to escape out of a window on the stairwell, jumping into the forest behind the house. His sister Sara, his nephew Claude and his parents were arrested.
The children
Sami Adelsheimer, 5 years old Hans Ament, 10 years old Nina Aronowicz, 12 years old Max-Marcel Balsam, 12 years old Jean-Paul Balsam, 10 years old Esther Benassayag, 12 years old Elie Benassayag, 10 years old Jacob Benassayag, 8 years old Jacques Benguigui, 12 years old Richard Benguigui, 7 years old Jean-Claude Benguigui, 5 years old Barouk-Raoul Bentitou, 12 years old Majer Bulka, 13 years old Albert Bulka, 4 years old Lucienne Friedler, 5 years old Egon Gamiel, 9 years old Maurice Gerenstein, 13 years old Liliane Gerenstein, 11 years old Henri-Chaïm Goldberg, 13 years old Joseph Goldberg, 12 years old Mina Halaunbrenner, 8 years old Claudine Halaunbrenner, 5 years old Georges Halpern, 8 years old Arnold Hirsch, 17 years old Isidore Kargeman, 10 years old Renate Krochmal, 8 years old Liane Krochmal, 6 years old Max Leiner, 8 years old Claude Levan-Reifman, 10 years old Fritz Loebmann, 15 years old Alice-Jacqueline Luzgart, 10 years old Paula Mermelstein, 10 years old Marcel Mermelstein, 7 years old Theodor Reis, 16 years old Gilles Sadowski, 8 years old Martha Spiegel, 10 years old Senta Spiegel, 9 years old Sigmund Springer, 8 years old Sarah Szulklaper, 11 years old Max Tetelbaum, 12 years old Herman Tetelbaum, 10 years old Charles Weltner, 9 years old Otto Wertheimer, 12 years old Emile Zuckerberg, 5 years old
The educators
Lucie Feiger, 49 years old Mina Friedler, 32 years old Sarah Levan-Reifman, 36 years old Eva Reifman, 61 years old Moïse Reifman, 63 years old Miron Zlatin, 39 years old
This house was offered to Sabine Zlatin by the sub-prefect of Belley (Ain), Pierre-Marcel Wiltzer, to create a children’s home during spring 1943. Without being explicit, the sub-prefect knew that these were Jewish children coming from Lodeve in the Herault department, who needed to be kept from danger. He offered the house of the hamlet of Lelinaz on the outskirts of Izieu providing shelter, away from the Belley road.