The Passing of Bertrand Herz
Bertrand Herz, President of honour of the International Committee Buchenwald-Dora and Kommandos, Vice President of the French Buchenwald Association, Dora passed away yesterday, May 20, 2021, in Paris.
Bertrand Herz was born on April 24, 1930 in Paris in a Jewish family from Lorraine, France. In September 1942, his family fled to the unoccupied zone in Toulouse.
After the Allies landed in North Africa and after the South zone was occupied by German troops, the Herz family was arrested by the Gestapo on July 5, 1944. The father, mother, Bertrand and his older sister were interned in the Caffarelli barracks in Toulouse. Only his brother could escape arrest.
On July 30, 1944, the whole family was deported to Buchenwald for the men and Ravensbrück for the women. The journey lasted six days for the former, seven days for the latter. On August 6, 1944, Bertrand Herz was registered in Buchenwald under the number 69592. He stayed with his father in block 61 of the Small Camp until December 14th. Father and son were then transferred to Kommando of Niederorschel, where they fixed airplane wings in the armament factory Junkers.
Bertrand’s father, Willy Herz, KLB 69591, died in Niederorschel on January 27, 1945. The inmates of the Kommando of Niederorschel were evacuated from there to Buchenwald on April 1 and reached the main camp on April 10, the day before the liberation of the Camp.
At the end of April, Bertrand Herz returned to Paris, where his sister and older brother were waiting for him. His mother, Louise Herz, did not survive the deportation and died on December 29, 1944 in Ravensbrück.
Bertrand Herz resumed his studies. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1953.
From 1953 to 1960 he worked in the Commissariat de la Marine Nationale, where he was a Reserve Commander. An IT specialist since 1958, he joined the Thomson Group, where he spent his entire career. From 1985 to 1994 he was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Technology of University of Paris-V, where he taught the implementation of computer systems. He published two books on this issue.
Bertrand Herz joined the Association Française Buchenwald Dora et Kommandos in 1994. From 1997 to 2000, he was the General Secretary if it and since 2000 he became one of its vice-President.
In 2002 he succeeded Pierre Durand as Chairman of the International Buchenwald Dora and Kommandos until 2016. He then was nominated honorary president of the ICBD.
Bertrand Herz was made a Knight of the French National Order of Merit in September 2006 and a Knight of the French Legion of Honor in April 2011. October 2009 the city of Weimar awarded him honorary citizenship.
He received the Order of Merit of the State of Thuringia in April 2010.
In 2015, Bertrand Herz published his memoir Le pull-over de Buchenwald, Editions Tallandier. The book was very successful and was re-edited recently (Collection poche — Texto, Tallandier).
In 2016 the book was published in German under the title Der Tod war überall.
We express our condolences to his children Olivier, Florence and Véronique, all his family and loved ones.
