Dora Werzberg

Dora Werzberg Amelan (5 September 1920 – 1 April 2020) was a French nurse and social worker.[1] In 1942, she rescued Jewish children through Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE). She worked in the Camp de Rivesaltes and the Gurs internment camp, and took care of children who had survived the Nazi concentration camps. She died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19.

Dora Werzberg
Born5 September 1920 (1920-09-05)
Strasbourg, France
Died1 April 2020(2020-04-01) (aged 99)
Paris, France
Occupation(s)Nurse, social worker

Biography

Werzberg was born in Strasbourg, the daughter of Karl Werzberg and Gisèla Blum, who were Jewish emigrants from Poland. The family moved to Antwerp when Werzberg was ten, and stayed until the death of her mother and the invasion of Belgium by Nazi Germany. She then joined a Zionist youth movement.[2]

Werzberg had two sisters, Manda, who died of sepsis in 1942, and Simone Ben David, who died in Israel at age 86. Her cousins included Georges Loinger and Marcel Marceau. Werzberg went to the German Kommandantur to obtain papers to flee to the south of France. Her father was unable to obtain the papers, but fled to the Zone libre illegally. There, the Werzbergs settled in Limoges, where her extended family was located.[3]

Werzberg worked for the OSE, the Camp de Rivesaltes, and, lastly, the Gurs internment camp until its closure in November 1943.[4][5]

Distinction

References
  1. "In Memoriam: Dora Amelan". The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities. 3 April 2020.
  2. "Discours de Jean-François Guthmann en l'honneur de Dora Werzberg-Amelan" (PDF). Œuvre de secours aux enfants (in French). 12 May 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  3. "L'OSE honore Dora Werzberg Amelan, l'une des actrices du sauvetage des enfants juifs pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale". Œuvre de secours aux enfants (in French). 12 May 2016.
  4. "The last voice from the French internment camps". Jewish Journal. 27 April 2016.
  5. Garel, George (2012). Le sauvetage des enfants juifs par l"OSE (in French). Paris: Éditions Le Manuscrit. ISBN 9782304040463.
  6. "Carnet". Le Monde (in French). 4 April 2020.
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