As Jews in Paris in the early 1940s, Brenda Hancock’s mother’s family endured the entire spectrum of experiences resulting from Nazi occupation. Some members hid in their home towns without ever being arrested. Some were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Hancock’s mother, Nicole Widerman Holland, managed to escape from Paris in 1942 with the birth certificate of a Catholic girl. She worked with the Forces Françaises De L’Interieur (French Forces of the Interior/French Resistance).

Hancock’s uncle, Robert Clary (born Robert Max Widerman; LeBeau on the television show Hogans’ Heroes), is the only one of 14 immediate family members who survived the concentration camps and returned to Paris. He spent 31 months in 4 different concentration camps.

Brenda Hancock is an educator and author of 2 books about her family:

• One of the Lucky Ones – a biography of her mother, Nicole Holland
• Talent Luck Courage – her mother’s experiences contrasted and compared to those of her uncle, Robert Clary

 
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Brenda Hancock’s PowerPoint Presentation