Interview with Nathalie Letierce-Liebig: A life-long task
The long-standing employee talks about her work at the Arolsen Archives.
During her more than forty years’ work for the Arolsen Archives, Nathalie Letierce-Liebig was able to explore, and gain an insight into, innumerable family histories. In 2024, Nathalie entered her well-earned retirement. We have asked her to tell us how she looks back on her work today and which fates in particular she has retained in her memory.
Nathalie, which encounter or fate has been most moving for you as a person?
There are a lot of stories occurring to my mind. Every inquiry held in store a fate, a family history, and human tragedies you can only surmise often. One example that comes to my mind is Jean from Poland whose father Tadeusz was taken to a concentration camp by the Nazis. His mother fled with their children to France where her brother already lived. She died shortly after arriving. Jean and his sisters stayed with their uncle who collaborated with the Nazis. When Tadeusz was liberated and wanted his children back, their uncle told him that they were no longer with him. He let the children believe that their father had died.
The siblings went through years of abuse by their uncle. Tadeusz’s efforts from Poland to find his children were untiring. But Jean learned only years later that his father was still alive. The reunion they had longed for did not take place unfortunately. Shortly before he could start travelling to his son, Tadeusz suffered a heart attack and died. Coming to terms with his family history and keeping up his father’s memory was something that mattered to Jean. We had a long exchange of correspondence in that context. He also came to see the archives. We formed and have kept upright a deep friendship since.How did your work change over the years?
When I started work in 1984, few inquiries were submitted only – primarily by survivors or authorities acting on their behalf. They needed evidence of the imprisonment they had suffered or the forced labor they had performed to obtain a pension. The institution was not accessible to the public, there was no direct contact with the survivors or their relatives. When the archives were opened and the documents were digitized, though, many things changed. I was allowed access to the database, I was able to process inquiries, do a search in the documents and send copies of documents to the families. Thus, I became even more aware of the dimension of Nazi persecution and the atrocities they committed.
I was tasked with taking care of French speaking visitors then. Owing to the personal contacts I had with the families, I have been allowed to live through many emotional moments which I will never forget: there was, for example, this son who opened a wallet and saw for the first time a photograph on which his late father held him in his arms. I also remember how people who did not know of each other met for the first time and fell into each other’s arms. This work was a life-long task for me, that did not end when I left the office at the end of the day and which often kept me awake at night. And this continues to be so. I give support to the #StolenMemory project on a voluntary basis now and I regard this as my duty towards the victims of the Nazi regime and their relatives.
Have you sometimes felt the importance your work has for the persecutees’ descendants??
Yes, I have felt this very often, for example, when I worked on Véronique’s inquiry. She was only eighteen years old, when she learned that she was the natural daughter of a German Jewish survivor born out of wedlock. My search unearthed that many of her family members had suffered a tragic fate. It was essential, though painful, for Véronique to uncover her roots and her Jewish identity. Years have gone by since her first inquiry, but she still informs me regularly about the remembrance work she does not tire of doing to honor the memory of relatives she did not have the chance to meet. She plans to take German citizenship now, as a symbol of her connectedness with her German-Jewish family, but also as a symbol of reconciliation.
Unfortunately, we cannot make undone what happened under Nazi reign. But what we can do is help the descendants of the victims reconstruct and come to terms with their family history and keep awake the memory of their loved ones for future generations. In my view, this is one of the most significant and responsible tasks the Arolsen Archives have. I am proud that I have made a small contribution to that.
