My double life

It was a policeman who passed on the warning to my mother in 1942 – the Nazis were planning to round up Jews in occupied Paris. I was two when my mother, sister Liliane and I were smuggled out of the city in a laundry van. We headed south, ready to attempt an escape across the mountains into Spain.

‘My name was changed and in effect, my past was wiped out’

My father followed by a separate route. We were briefly reunited but then my father was rounded up. We got to the Spanish border, but were caught and arrested. My sister was put into a convent and I was allowed to stay with my mother in a Spanish prison until June 1943. At this point, she had to make an