Annette Krygier papers

Annette Krygier (1926-2020) was born Chana Groner on 10 November 1926 in Nowe Miasto, Poland to Dyna Szwajcer and Zysman Groner. She had six siblings: Albert, Rosa, Helene, Therese, Charles, and Jacques. The Groner family left Poland between 1934 and 1935 to join Annette’s uncles already living in Paris, France. Albert was arrested in Paris on 14 May 1941 and interned at Pithiviers concentration camp after he presented himself to a French Gendarme. At that time, Rosa was engaged to marry Ari Gutman, and they befriended a French woman in Pithiviers, who brought them food. Rosa decided to have her wedding at the camp so that Albert could attend. She received permission to take Ari, herself, a rabbi, her parents, Annette, and their older sister to the camp in order to witness the wedding. While there, Albert gave the family a cup, a sailboat, and a Kiddush cup that he had created in while in the camp. The family eventually gave these items to a French woman to hide for them during the war. The family went into hiding in Paris, and in 1942 Annette and Helen, along with 3 other Jewish girls were sent to live in a convent in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France. The nuns encouraged the girls to continue practicing their Judaism, even providing them with matzah and extra potatoes during Passover. In January 1943, Annette took on the false identity "Alice Grenier." Only Souer Jeanne-Francoise Zufferey and the Mother Superior the Honorable Mere Antoinette du Sacre Coere knew her true identity. By August 1944 when Annette and Helen's parents came to join them, there were 62 Jewish girls living at the convent. In September 1944 their maternal grandfather joined them as well. He was given a room, complete with a mechitza [screen to separate seating between men and women] to lead services for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. After liberation, the family returned to Paris. The family searched for Albert's whereabouts and discovered he was deported to Auschwitz where he perished. Annette met fellow survivor Leon Krygier in Paris after the war, and they married in 1948. They emigrated from Paris to Canada later that year. Souer Jeanne-Francoise Zufferey was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in October 1993.

Leon Krygier was born in Nowe Miasto, Poland. Two of his sisters were Lea Krygier Kohn and Helen (Chaya) Dreszman. His family moved to Łódź, where they worked as tailors and had a small manufacturing business. Leon and some of his family remained in Poland until September 1939, while some of the older members of the family had already married and moved to Germany. The family fled Poland, and eventually ended up in a Siberian camp where they stayed until the end of the war. After the war, the Krygiers made their way to Paris, France. Once there, they reached out to their fellow survivors who came from the same shtetl, and befriended the Groner family. Leon married Annette Groner in Paris in 1948. Immigration applications had already been completed for Annette under her maiden name, and when they came through in 1948, she left Paris to join her extended family in Calgary, Alberta. Six months later, Leon posed as the fiancé of one of Annette’s Canadian born cousins, and was then able to come over to Calgary and join Annette. The couple was remarried in Calgary in 1949.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Annette Krygier

The papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Annette Krygier in 2002.