You're listening to the Shirelax Conversations podcast, whether it's the success story behind a household name business, a deep dive into women's health issues, a long chat with some of the industry's biggest names, it's a podcast that keeps you in the knowoccupied France, a time of unimaginable danger for Jewish families.

The daughter of a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, Anne's early years, were marked by the hardships of the war and the horrors of the Holocaust.

After being separated from her family and taken to prison with her mother, aunt and grandparents,

Anne's life was forever changed by her father's heroic actions, which saved her and her baby cousin.

Tragically, the rest of her family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they perished.

After the war, Annik was raised by a Catholic family in France, unaware of her Jewish heritage, until she was 17.

She later moved to the UK where she married,

raised a family and became a passionate advocate for Holocaust education. Today she joins us

to share her extraordinary journey of survival, identity and the deep personal loss that

shaped her life.

Annick, welcome.

Thank you so much for joining us and taking the time out to share this truly remarkable

story.

So let's start at the beginning.

Now we must note you were a baby at the very, very beginning, so obviously you won't

have memory of what happened. But the story begins in Nazi-occupied France.

Do you know what it was like, even anecdotally in 1940, for your family, for friends,

what was going on at that time?

Well, first of all, I should tell you that my, the family came from Paris and in 39, summer

of 39, they came down to the southwest of France to the seaside, their place called Royon.

At the time, my aunt was 22 and my mother was 20.

And I was always told that they were two very beautiful women.

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