Annette Muller (15 March 1933 – 9 August 2021) was a French writer and
Holocaust survivor.[1] She was an escapee of the
Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.[2] Her autobiography, La petite fille du Vel' d'Hiv, published in 1991, gives rare accounts of the roundup and the destiny of her fellow prisoners.
Following anti-Semitic discrimination, Muller's father was laid off. Days before the roundup, he was warned and managed to hide in
Creil.[13] At the start of the roundup, her older brothers, Henri and Jean, escaped to the
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul orphanage in
Neuilly-sur-Seine.[14][15] However, Annette, her mother, and her brother, Michel, were arrested and held at the
Vélodrome d'Hiver, where the siblings were separated from their mothers and subject to neglect and abuse from guards.[12]
Muller's mother managed to bribe a guard and send a letter to her husband, and was later sent to
Auschwitz.[11] Later that year, she was murdered in the camp at the age of 33.[16] Muller and her brother were sent to
Drancy internment camp before escaping with the help of the other two brothers and the
Union générale des israélites de France. They stayed at the Catholic orphanage before moving to another in
Le Mans, where they stayed until 1947.
Muller published her autobiography in 1991, titled La petite fille du Vel d'Hiv : Du camp d'internement de Beaune-la-Rolande (1942) à la maison d'enfants du Mans (1947) and published by
Éditions Denoël. The story was made up of three parts: her childhood, the early stages of
World War II, and the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.[18] Throughout her later life, she was adamant about maintaining the memory of the Holocaust so that it can never be repeated.
Annette Muller died in
Le Blanc-Mesnil on 9 August 2021 at the age of 88.[19]
Publications
La petite fille du Vel d'Hiv : Du camp d'internement de Beaune-la-Rolande (1942) à la maison d'enfants du Mans (1947) (1991)