Vélodrome d'Hiver Roundup
Vélodrome d'Hiver Roundup, Vel' d'Hiv' for short, was done by the French. The French people took about 13,000 Jewish people from there homes on July 16th, 1942. This was still in the time when Hitler was taking Jews in Germany and sending them away to concentration camps. Many people thought that this awful situation was caused by the Nazi and the Nazi were doing this to the poor, innocent Jewish people. The French were embarrassed by there attack the Jewish people, so they decided to destroyed what they could. There is not that many books based on this horrific event that took place in 1942. Almost all the people that were taken died. The only way one could have survived is by escaping. It was not until 1995 French President, Jacques Chirc, made the first public apology to the Jews of Vél d'Hiv. A monument was created in their memory where the Vélodrome d'Hiver once stood. In addition to Jacques Chirc speech, on July 22nd 2012 French President Francois Hollande made another memorial speech for France. He opened an exhibit for the public. This exhibit showed the French police records of the Vél d'Hiv Roundup. This was one of the first steps the French took for redemption for their actions during the war. It will be hard to regain the trust of may French people them must try. The French must also never forget what they did to the Jewish people and their families. The torture and pain they went through, all because of the French.
Survivor of the Roundup
Madeleine Testyler was just eight when she was taken on July 16, 1942. She was taken to the cycling track next to the Eiffel Tower, along with 13,000 other Jews. In a number of days the Jewish people were transported to a number of different concentration camps. Then they were transported to Auschwitz. Less than forty people came out alive, Madeleine was one of them. Madeleine was taken with her mother, father, and six year old sister, but only came out alive by herself. On the night her and her family were taken they were put into trucks packed with people and brought to the cycling track. There were thousands of people, well beyond the maximum amount. After days in terrible living condition Jews were sent off to camps. Madeleine's father was sent a concentration camp. Madeleine, her mother and, her sister were on train and tan into a lady who asked why Madeleine's mother was crying. Her mother told the women about her husband. The women said that her husband works at the camp will do anything to keep her husband safe. Along with that the women also provided a safe house for her children. In 1942 they were returned to there mother and put in the roundup. The three of them were then taken to the Beaune-la-Rolande camp. Madeleine had to share a bunk was an eight and four year old, which where neighbors from Paris. These times were not the best for Madeleine, her sister and mother, but something good was going to come. On the day of the roundup the fur company her mother owned pulled a few strings and had them released not to long after they had gotten to the camp. Although they were released the family they shared a room with was killed. Shortly, after they arrived in Paris again they moved to Velodrome and hid till the end of the war. After they got out of hiding they found out that there father would never return. Madeleine mother thought there was still hope and kept on looking for him but n end accepted the fact that she would never see him again. Only four years after the roundup Madeleine's mother died of a stroke. Once her mother died Madeleine began to work at the age of thirteen. She had always loved painting ever since she was six. She began to paint ago and by the age of twenty that was her business. A young man named Yosef Testyler, a Holocaust survivor as well, took over the fur shop. Madeleine and him grow close to each other and then became a married couple. Her and her husband moved to Israel and she is now selling her art work and is a renowned painter. Her and her husband still live there today. She paints and sculpts and her husband writes and publishes books.