Georgette Brinberg
A family mosaic
Thanks to photographs that one of her aunts sent from Israel, Georgette Brinberg was able to reconstruct the following family mosaic. The portraits of her parents taken in Poland during the 1920s are the only memories she has. Georgette was very young when her parents were deported and killed in Auschwitz (occupied Poland). The other photographs taken of her sister and grandmother are reminders of their rescue from the Vél’ d’Hiv Roundup in Paris (France), of their hiding place in Morée (France), and of their reunion after the war with their grandmother they thought they had lost.
Listen to the photo mosaic's story
This is me, this is my sister. This is my grandmother, and this is my aunt, my grandmother’s
daughter who also disappeared. She worked with fur. She went to Haute-Savoie and there the
Germans took her. It must have been in ’44, towards the end of the war. This is me and my
sister, it must have been taken before the war, because I was very young here. This is my
mother, she was young, young, but I really have no idea. Those are my parents too, it must have
been in Poland, I think. My older sister in ‘28… in ‘26. That had to be taken first. My mother.
These photos were sent to me from Israel. My grandmother had five daughters, five children,
there was one left, and she went to Israel. I think she must have had some photos that she took
with her when she left after me to Israel. And she sent them to us because I wanted to know
something. So, she sent them to me. In what year, I don’t remember. But she sent them from
Israel, those my aunt had. I was in contact with her and then I thought they might have some
pictures. I think my grandmother must have had these pictures that she always carried with her,
I think.
These are the photos you have of your parents? That’s all I have left of them.
But do you have any memories of your parents?
Of my parents, no. No, I don’t have any memories, I didn’t know them. I was too young.
