Conversation mediated by Sarita Mucinic Sarue was part of the pre-Passover program with Holocaust survivors.

Last Sunday, March 29, the São Paulo Holocaust Memorial, in partnership with the Beit Menachem Synagogue and Chabad Center, hosted a conversation circle with Hannah Charlier, a language teacher and Holocaust survivor. The dialogue, mediated by Sarita Mucinic Sarue, the Memorial’s Education and Culture Coordinator, was part of the initiative to prepare and deliver Passover baskets to survivors. The action distributed 80 baskets with the help of more than 15 volunteers of different ages.

Sarita, herself the daughter of survivors and an advocate for education as a weapon against hatred, introduced Hannah by highlighting the sensitivity and determination survivors have to engage with the modern world and share their stories, especially with public high school students. “They are the living witnesses of what happened,” she emphasized.

Hannah Maria Charlier Madeira was born in Belgium in 1944, during the Nazi occupation. When authorities ordered all Jews to present their documents at local city halls to be identified — a requirement that had not existed before — her parents refused, joining the Belgian resistance composed of men and women fighting against the Nazis. “There was no prejudice before. Documents were the same for everyone,” she recalled.

Her parents were eventually captured during an operation to sabotage train lines transporting Jews to Auschwitz and imprisoned. Her mother, pregnant with Hannah, was executed. Before being shot, she wrapped the baby in cloth and shielded her with her body. A German officer overseeing the execution noticed the infant was alive, placed her in a backpack, and attempted to deliver her to someone in Charleroi’s suburbs. However, he was intercepted and beaten by resistance fighters who did not understand German.

The group’s leader realized there was a child and entrusted her to Yvonne Nèvejean, a Belgian Catholic woman renowned for saving over 4,000 Jewish children during the war by placing them in families, boarding schools, and even a Jesuit orphanage that began accepting girls.

Hannah spent her childhood in that orphanage until age nine. Religious classes were divided among Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism, allowing her to maintain her roots. Her Jewish religion teacher, a priest, created a small synagogue in a classroom, taught Hebrew, and opened the weekly Torah portion. She also received visits from the German officer who had saved her — now living under a new identity — and from a couple: her father’s professor and his wife, a pianist and friend of her mother.

Eventually, Hannah was adopted by the couple she came to regard as her grandparents. The wife, a distinguished pianist and close friend of Hannah’s mother, converted to Judaism to make the adoption possible. With her husband’s investments in Brazil, the family emigrated by ship and settled in Rio de Janeiro. “I have my Brazilian registration,” Hannah proudly recalled.

“Each time I tell my story, I feel it more deeply and understand it better. It does me good. I heal a little from my wounds, and my faith grows stronger each time,” Hannah said.

The survivor received a Passover basket as a gift from Sarita and Ilana Rabinovici Iglicky, also Education and Culture Coordinator at the São Paulo Holocaust Memorial.

Images / Source: Beatriz Novik Falcão

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)