Belle Ostroff

Belle Ostroff was born in Paris, France in 1925. Her parents were Polish Jews who moved to Paris for a better life and to be close to her mother’s family. Eventually, Ostroff’s parents moved to the northern city of Reims, where her father found work as a tailor to support his wife and seven children.

In 1940, Germany invaded northern France. Fourteen year-old Belle and her family fled Reims and eventually settled in the south of France where they thought they were safe from Nazi persecution. However, the southern Vichy government viciously collaborated with the Nazis and the family was in danger again.

Ostroff was restricted from going to public school and her family was torn apart. The sister of a friend betrayed the family to the Nazi’s and Ostroff’s brother and father were arrested and sent to different concentration camps. Ostroff’s living situation went from bad to worse as she lived in constant fear of capture and death. She was always hungry, eating rotten apples that fell from the trees and potatoes with worms in them, anything for something to eat.

The remaining members of the Ostroff family moved from hiding place to hiding place. They were constantly hungry, dirty, cold, and exhausted. They lived this way until 1944 when allied troops liberated France. After the war, Ostroff’s family returned to Reims to collect their past, but their home was gone and all their possessions were lost. While in Reims, Ostroff met an American soldier. She married him in a gown her father made from a silk parachute donated by the American Army. Her father died shortly afterwards. Ostroff settled in Philadelphia with her new husband and raised three daughters.

You can easily download and print her biography here (pdf)