Key Points
- Esther Wise was 17 when her parents were arrested in Paris, never to return.
- She recalls waited at Hotel Lutetia at war's end for her family, before realising they had perished in the camps.
- She migrated to Australia, and lives in a retirement home in Melbourne.
Esther Wise's story begins in Paris in 1942, when occupying German forces forbade French Jews from attending school.
Two years earlier, France was invaded by Nazi Germany, among the most decisive actions of World War II.
Ms Wise was 17 years old.
"Mummy knew something was wrong and asked me to sleep over at my friend’s place," she remembers of the day that changed her life.
Her mother and younger brother were arrested that same night and never returned.
Ms Wise says she learnt years later that they had both died in Auschwitz.
Auschwitz concentration camp was a complex connected by train lines operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. Source: AP / Markus Schreiber/AP
"I was homeless. I remember the loud noise in the street, people yelling, crying, running," she said.
I survived but this day marked the end of my life.Esther Wise
Her pregnant neighbour from the first floor decided to jump out of the window to escape police.
"She did this desperate gesture with her five-year-old in her arms. Edith, that was the kid’s name," Ms Wise lamented.
"I had no idea what to do, where to go. Daddy had also been arrested but we were sure he had just been sent away to work. Nobody could ever believe such a thing was possible."
Her father was also deported and later killed in German captivity alongside his wife and son.
At the war’s end in 1945, Ms Wise waited at Hotel Lutetia, which had become a centre for the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, before realising that her family members would never come home.
French refugees fleeing down country roads as British Forces move past them (France, 1940). Credit: British Pathe / Mary Evans/MARY EVANS
‘We needed to look like young Catholic girls’
Following that fateful night, Ms Wise and her older sister decided to flee Paris and joined Free France - a political entity led by General Charles de Gaulle, that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic.
The most important step was to change their names and have access to a power source to be able to eat, she recalls.
They purchased a crucifix to put around their necks, in hopes of hiding their Jewish faith.
"We needed to look like young Catholic girls,” she said.
Together, with her brother-in-law’s help, they found a man willing to make fake IDs.
They then located a smuggler to whom they gave all of their money.
Despite waiting for several days, he never showed up.
"He gave up on us. He stole our money and did not come," Ms Wise explains, 81 years after the event.
"But in the end, we were so lucky he did not rat on us. He just stole our money, but he could have had us killed. We have been very lucky.”
The family decided to join Free France by themselves, which carried a significant element of risk.
"Once again, we were lucky. The Germans did not see us and here we were, free," she said.
They remained hidden in the forest for days, with no water, food, or clean clothes.
"It was July, the temperatures were very high, and we fled with nothing. I just had a skirt, a top and my shoes, that’s it,” Ms Wise remembers.
“I did not shower for so long, wearing those same clothes every day.”
A few days later, they moved to Issoudun, a city 250km south of Paris. But they had to move again as the commissioner refused to house Jews in the district.
"He was afraid,” she recalls.
“We went 15km south again, to Neuvy-Pailloux. My sister and her husband found a place, but it was too small for the three of us. I had to leave them. I travelled another 160km south by myself and ended up in Limoges.”
With hopes of a brighter future, she says she applied to work on a farm.
The farmer told me ‘no’. I was too small, too skinny. He told me I was not capable. I cried my eyes out.Esther Wise
Eventually, she was sent to the Catholic sisters.
"I learnt everything I had to know about Catholicism. I was treated with respect," she said.
She remembers the period with the sisters fondly, though agony again took over when the man taking care of them was shot dead.
Back to square one, Ms Wise fled again. In an act of desperation, she decided to surrender.
"I could not live in such fear all the time. I was tired. I had had enough. I wanted everything to be over," she confesses.
"Better be arrested and killed than carry on a life like that.”
But before she handed herself over, the war came to an end, and Ms Wise had survived.
General Charles De Gaulle leading a huge crowd following the liberation of Paris in 1944. Credit: British Pathe / Mary Evans/MARY EVANS
New life in Australia
A friend of her sister's offered up one permit to immigrate to Australia and start life afresh.
"Because I was alone, my sister asked me to go, and from there do the paperwork to allow them to join me later,” she said.
Ms Wise arrived in Australia following an arduous journey by sea.
"I had no money, no education, no job, no friends, I did not speak the language," she said.
Her sister never joined her.
"A few months later, she sent me a letter saying she had changed her mind and was not coming. I had no money to go back so I stayed. Once again, I survived,” she said.
Ms Wise learnt English, met her husband, and they eventually welcomed two children.
In a hope to “protect” her children, she chose not to divulge details of her past.
"When [my children] were young, I wanted to protect them, so I did not tell anything," she said.
Now I am old, I understand the importance of sharing my story. Never forget, do not forget what history is made of. There’s no difference between people, we are all the same. But there are mad people that do terrible things, never forget.Esther Wise
Now, she shares her memories with her great-great-grandchildren and people who want to listen.
"People have a heart beating inside them. I only have rocks. My life stopped in July 1942. I miss Mummy. I do love my family, I love my kids," she said.
“But I can’t forget my past. It’s not a story I am telling you today. It is the reality.”
In December, she will turn 99 - an event she will celebrate at her Melbourne retirement home surrounded by family.
