Holocaust Survivor, 93, Continues Mission of Peace Through Testimony

As the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the testimony of survivors like Lili Keller-Rosenberg takes on renewed urgency. At 93, this French Holocaust survivor has spent over four decades sharing her story with young people, transforming personal trauma into a mission of peace and education.Born in 1932 to a Hungarian-Jewish family who had sought refuge in France—believing it to be "the country of human rights"—Keller-Rosenberg's childhood was shattered when Nazi forces captured her family in Roubaix when she was just 11 years old."They've taken everything from us. We have nothing left, not even a name, but we must not bow our heads. Let's be dignified," her mother Charlotte would tell her children each morning at Ravensbrück concentration camp, insisting they wash themselves before the daily horrors began. This lesson in maintaining dignity under the most dehumanizing conditions has shaped Keller-Rosenberg's philosophy for eight decades.The family's ordeal began on October 27, 1943, when German military police burst into their home at 3 a.m. Separated from their father Joseph—who was sent to Buchenwald—Keller-Rosenberg, her mother, and two younger brothers endured deportation to Ravensbrück, the largest women's concentration camp under the Third Reich."From that moment on, we were nobody," she recalls, her prisoner number 25,612 forever etched in memory. At Ravensbrück, located 80 kilometers north of Berlin, the family encountered other French deportees, including resistance fighters and Geneviève de Gaulle, the general's niece.The horror intensified in February 1945 when, as Soviet forces advanced, the family was evacuated to Bergen-Belsen—known as the "camp of slow death." There, amid a typhus epidemic, Keller-Rosenberg witnessed scenes she describes as "Dantesque," with corpses covering the ground and the living, dead, and dying mixed together in apocalyptic conditions.Against all odds, the family survived, though the trauma would last a lifetime. Today, Keller-Rosenberg continues her work as what she calls a "messenger of peace," speaking to young audiences about the importance of human dignity and the dangers of hatred.Her testimony comes at a critical time when Holocaust education faces new challenges globally, with surveys showing declining knowledge among younger generations. Educational initiatives and survivor testimonies like Keller-Rosenberg's serve as crucial bulwarks against historical amnesia and rising antisemitism."I'm always positive," she says, her smile and carefully maintained elegance serving as living proof that dignity can survive even the most systematic attempts at dehumanization. Her story, shared with thousands of young people over four decades, represents both personal resilience and a broader commitment to ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust continue to resonate with future generations.Source: France 24