History of Sorts

This story is both heartbreaking and uplifting — heartbreaking because it tells of a mother who knew she was going to die, and uplifting because her final words revealed remarkable courage and hope in the face of certain death.

Olga Bancic was born on May 10, 1912, into a large Jewish family in Bessarabia, then part of the Russian Empire. From an early age, she became involved in political activism and workers’ movements.

In 1936, she moved to France, where she assisted communist networks transporting weapons to Republican forces fighting in Spain. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, she gave birth to her daughter, Dolores; the child’s father was the writer Alexandru Jar. When war began, Olga made the painful decision to leave Dolores in the care of a French family so she could join the Resistance.

On November 6, 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo. During interrogation she was subjected to severe torture, yet she refused to reveal any information about her comrades.

On February 22, 1944, Olga and twenty-two others were sentenced to death. The male defendants were executed the same day at Fort Mont-Valérien. As the only woman among them, Olga could not legally be executed on French soil, and was therefore deported to Stuttgart. There, on May 10, 1944 — her thirty-second birthday — she was executed by decapitation in the prison courtyard.

One of her final acts was to throw a letter from a window during her transport to the place of execution. Attached to it was a note that read:

“Dear Madame: I ask you to please give this letter to my little girl Dolores Jacob after the war. This is the last wish of a mother who will only live twelve more hours.”

Miraculously the letter did reach Dolores, who had been given the name Dolores Jacob, the letter said the following:

“My dear little daughter, my darling little love

Your mother is writing the last letter, my dear little daughter; tomorrow at 6:00, on May 10, I will be no more.

Don’t cry, my love; your mother doesn’t cry any more either. I die with a peaceful conscience and with the firm conviction that tomorrow you will have a happier life and future than your mother’s. You will no longer have to suffer. Be proud of your mother, my little love. I always have your image before me.

I’m going to believe that you will see your father, and I have hope that he’ll meet a fate different from mine. Tell him that I always thought of him, as I always thought of you. I love you both with all my heart. Both of you are dear to me. My darling child, your father is, for you, also a mother. He loves you a lot. You won’t feel the loss of your mother. My darling child, I finish this letter with the hope that you will be happy all your life, with your father, with everyone.

I kiss you with all my heart, a lot a lot.

Farewell my love.

Your Mother”

sources

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/id-card/golda-olga-bancic

https://www.jewishindependent.ca/oldsite/archives/april13/archives13april05-05.html