It is an exceptional reunion, as life rarely offers.
In a green mountain valley dominated by the milky north faces of the Vanoise massif, Monique, 87, hugs Robert, 82.
Since 1946 and the end of World War II, she dreamed of finding the one she considered her little brother.
"I'm so happy to see him again," she rejoices, sobs in her voice, holding both hands tight.
Robert Lévy and Monique Lefèvre were kids under the Occupation and both lived in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, where their parents were friends.
Robert's are Jewish.
They were arrested during a raid in November 1943 and then deported to Auschwitz on December 17, in convoy number 63. At the time of their arrest, Robert was only 4 years old and was in school.
"Monique's mother then rushed to get me back, in the face and beard of the Germans who were looking for me," he says.
"Neither kiss nor farewell"
Five years her senior, Monique very quickly considers the little survivor as a brother and protects him. "I had to console him often because he cried a lot, because of his mother who missed him", she confides. The two children grow up as the war drags on. After being denounced for having hidden a young Jew, the Lefèvre family must flee to a farm in Touraine. “One day, German soldiers came to the farm,” remembers Monique. I took Robert through the vineyards so they couldn't see him. We ran to exhaustion. "
For his part, Robert Lévy struggles to gather his memories.
“I was not 7 years old.
It is a period that I had almost forgotten, buried.
Her mother Rebecca will never return from the death camps.
Only his father, Michon, survived.
He is one of the twenty-two survivors of convoy 63, which numbered 850 deportees.
Returning to Paris, he picks up his son.
"I was not present at that time", always regretted Monique.
“We couldn't exchange a kiss or a farewell.
Then all contact was severed, without anyone really knowing why.
All her life, she never stops talking to those close to her about this little brother with a heart that is lost forever.
“For me, it was impossible to see him again one day.
"
Mention of Robert's marriage at age 80
A friend of Monique's family, Joseph Dutertre, hears this story. He knows of Jewish associations capable of putting him on Robert's trail. “He finds his birth certificate on which is mentioned, in 2019, in Champagny-en-Vanoise (Savoie), the marriage of Robert with Béatrice, when he is 80 years old! It's still an incredible combination of circumstances, ”marvels Claude, Monique's son.
Robert is contacted and initially believes in a hoax. Finally, in the midst of the Covid-19 health crisis, Robert and Monique, who lives in Cantal, manage to meet again, three quarters of a century later. "We had parted as children, we find ourselves at 82 and 87 years old, with a few more wrinkles," they laugh, arm in arm in the pastures of Champagny-en-Vanoise, where Robert is now a municipal councilor. They are now using every second that life offers them to remember their childhood and fill the 75-year parenthesis that separated them. "You should never lose hope", breaths Monique under the tender gaze of Robert, her little brother found.