Edouard Arditti

From US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Facebook:

This portrait is one of the last photos Edouard Arditti took before he was deported to Auschwitz.

Born in Paris, teenage Edouard was living in the Parisian suburbs with his family when Nazi Germany attacked France in May 1940. After the French surrendered, the Germans occupied the northern part of the country, including Paris, and the collaborationist French government, known as the Vichy regime, held power. The Vichy regime enacted antisemitic legislation and, along with the German occupiers, persecuted Jews in France.

Waves of arrests terrorized Jewish communities in Paris and other cities. Edouard and his father were among those arrested, and they were sent to the camp at Compiègne-Royallieu, east of Paris. When his father was eventually released due to illness, Edouard remained at Compiègne.

In March 1942, some 1,000 Jews, including Edouard, were deported from Compiègne and Drancy to Auschwitz. This initial transport marked the beginning of deportations from France, which would begin at a systematic level in summer 1942.

Upon his arrival at Auschwitz, Edouard was registered as prisoner 27863. He died there approximately one month later.

More than 77,000 Jews from France were killed during the Holocaust—mainly at Auschwitz.