Rene Lichtman Oral History

Rene Lichtman Oral History

An interview with Rene Lichtman, a Holocaust survivor, conducted by Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Rene was born in Paris, France in 1937, the only son of Polish immigrants who arrived in France in the 1930's. After his birth, his parents hired Anne Lepage to serve as Rene's guardian. Under this arrangement, Rene spent weekdays with the Lepages in a small town northeast of Paris and returned home on the weekends. Rene's father joined the French Army shortly before the outbreak of World War II. His father was killed in action in May 1940 when the Germans invaded the Benelux countries. After the fall of France, Rene's mother sent him to stay with the Lepages on a permanent basis where he was a hidden child for the remainder of the war. His mother went into hiding in Paris in 1942. After the war, Rene returned to his mother in Paris where the two stayed for five years. In 1950, Rene's mother married an American Orthodox Jew and the two moved from France to Williamsburg, New York, returning to France once in 1957 to visit the Lepages

Bolkosky, Sidney M

Lichtman, Rene

1998-08-08