Strength, Courage, and Hope
featured:
Charlotte Adelman, Holocaust Survivor
february 5, 2021
Holocaust survivor, Charlotte Adelman was 9 years old and living in Paris when the Nazis invaded in 1940. She and her brother were given away to an orphanage by her parents, who were told by the Nazis that they had to go work at a “camp.” Instead, they were put on a truck that was headed to Auschwitz, where her mother, the motivation for Charlotte’s own survival, was killed.
Adelman’s father escaped but her mother stayed on the truck, fearing she’d be killed and never see her children again if she ran away. Adelman’s brother was sent to the hospital due to scarlet fever, and she was adopted by a woman who was later known to be selling children to the Nazis.
Her father successfully located her and made arrangements to bring her to the Quatreville family in Beaumont du Argonne. Charlotte’s dad met “Mr. Quatreville,” where he was working for the Germans in hopes of finding out his wife’s whereabouts. He asked if his family would be willing to take care of young Charlotte so she would be safe from the Nazis.
The Quartreville family, recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations, agreed to take her in and hid her in a cellar, with a mattress and a lamp. Charlotte spent 9 months in the dark basement, recalling that food was brought to her by the Quartreville’s daughter, Ginette.
After the war, Charlotte stayed with the Quatrevilles for another six months, as her father fought to find her brother and piece their lives back together. Over the years, Charlotte lost touch with the family, but in 2014, after nearly 70 years of not being in contact with the family who saved her, she received a message from Quartreville on Facebook, and later reunited.