Born: Sylvia Pardo
Paris, France
December 27, 1930
Sylvia Bassat was born on December 27, 1930 in Paris, France to an Egyptian mother and Italian father. As a young child she spent time both in Egypt and Italy. Bassat was eight years old when World War II began in September 1939.
The German army entered Paris on June 14, 1940. For the next few years Bassat and her family lived on the run, fleeing to cities around France and stealing food to survive. In 1943 Bassat was hidden in an orphanage run by the Catholic Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul. While still in hiding she was reunited with her family in the village of Jumeaux. After the liberation of France in 1944, Bassat and her family returned to Paris, where they learned that the Jewish resistance had intercepted a letter that would have revealed the family’s location in hiding.
When she was 20 years old Bassat married a Jewish man from a Turkish family and the couple moved to Spain where her new husband’s family owned a small factory.
Parents:
Maurice Pardo, survived
Mother Rossano Pardo, survived
Siblings:
Georgette, survived