Arlette Testyler, one of the last living survivors of the Vel d’Hiv round-up and a tireless advocate for Holocaust remembrance in France, has died at the age of 93.
The Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah announced that Testyler passed away on 12 June 2026.
Throughout her life, she dedicated herself to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and educating younger generations about the persecution of Jews during the Shoah.
Born in Paris in 1933, Testyler was arrested on 16 July 1942 alongside her mother, Malka, and her sister, Madeleine, during the notorious Vel d’Hiv round-up. The family was taken to the Vélodrome d’Hiver before being transferred to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp.
Remarkably, Testyler, her mother and sister managed to escape the camp. The two sisters were subsequently hidden in Vendôme by Jeanne and Jean Philippeau until the Liberation. In recognition of their courage in sheltering Jewish children during the German occupation, the couple were posthumously honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 2025.
Testyler’s father was deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered.
In late 2024, she became President of the Union of Auschwitz Deportees, continuing her longstanding commitment to Holocaust education and remembrance. She regularly addressed schools and commemorative events, urging younger generations to confront prejudice, ignorance and historical denial.
She often described remembrance as an act of resistance against hatred and the resurgence of antisemitism, stressing the importance of keeping alive the stories of those who suffered and perished during the Holocaust.
Paying tribute to her passing, Ariel Goldman, President of the Fonds Social Juif Unifié, described Testyler as “an essential voice” whose lifelong dedication ensured that the experiences of Holocaust victims would not be forgotten.
For decades, Arlette Testyler recounted her own childhood experiences of persecution and survival with the aim of preserving the memory of the deportation of French Jews and its enduring consequences. Her death marks the loss of one of the final eyewitnesses to one of the darkest chapters in French and European history.
