The Drancy camp was a multistory complex that imprisoned and deported a majority of Jews from France. The U-shaped building was initially built in the 1930s as a housing project. Approximately 70,000 prisoners passed through Drancy between August…
Monique Bental (née Alexander) was born in Marseille, France, on November 19, 1929. She was a hidden child with her grandmother and youngest sister, Simone, during the war. Monique's mother and father died at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp after…
Monique's capstone paper titled "The Holocaust Generation, The Survivor Children," which she submitted to Professor Peter Katopes. She recognized early on the generational trauma of survivors and their children.
Laissez-Passer (papers) from the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem allowed Monique to return to France from Israel since she secretly left without papers.
"Active Membership" cards from the Union Nationale des Associations de Déportés, Internes et Familles de Disparus (National Union of Associations of Deportees, Internees, and Families of the Disappeared). The cards recorded that Monique was an…
The Office National des Anciens Combattants et Victims de Guerre (The National Office for Veterans and Victims of War) sent a "certificate of disappearance" concerning Monique's mother, Valentine. The certificate did not recognize that she died at…
By May 1942, the German military commander in France ordered all Jews over 6 to wear a yellow star. The star, about the size of a person's palm, had the inscription, Juif ("Jew" in French). Monique did not wear the identity badge because she hid…