Ina Bernstein

Born: Szprynca Ponczer
Lublin, Poland
November 25, 1919

Died:
March 4, 2008

In 1938, Ina Bernstein bid farewell to her parents and her younger brother and sister and left her native Poland to attend university in Belgium. As a Jew, she knew that restrictive quotas would likely bar her from higher education in Poland. The following year, as Ina studied in Brussels, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. At first, Ina was able to correspond with her family, but after the spring of 1940 their letters stopped.

On May 10 of that year, Ina awoke to the sounds of sirens. Belgian radio reported that "unknown aircraft" had been spotted overhead. The German invasion had begun. With lightning speed, armored divisions entered and overran Belgium, driving a flood of refugees southward in front of them as they advanced toward France.

Together with a group of fellow students, Ina joined the exodus. "The Germans were very  [closely following] behind us," she recalled of her flight to France. By mid-June, Paris had fallen to the invaders, and at the end of the month France signed an armistice that divided the country into occupied and unoccupied zones. Ina did not stop running until she reached unoccupied France, where the French government had established a capital at Vichy. Even here, she knew she might not be safe; although purportedly neutral, the Vichy government collaborated with Germany and routinely sent foreign Jews to internment camps. False papers identifying her as a Catholic offered Ina a degree of security, as did her December 1940 marriage to a non-Jewish man Noel John Flornoy.

In November 1942, Germany swept southward into Vichy France, occupying the entire country. Terrified, Ina and Noel went underground. Their daughter, Michelle, was born on March 27, 1943, while they were in hiding in Castanet. Since Noel had joined the French Resistance, Ina was often alone with her infant. Aware of the increasing danger to both of them, she made the wrenching decision to entrust Michelle to a family outside of Toulouse in the middle of 1943. With Michelle safe, Ina was able to change hiding places more frequently, sometimes sleeping in the forest.

When the war was over, mother and daughter were reunited and Ina divorced Noel. After she learned that her entire family had been slaughtered, Ina had no desire to return to Poland. She began to build a life for herself and her daughter in France. In 1955, Ina came to America with twelve-year-old Michelle. They settled in Houston, where they had relatives and Ina hoped to provide a semblance of family life while she raised Michelle. In 1959, Ina married Jack Bernstein. He died in the early 1980s.

After working in the real estate industry for 27 years, Ina retired and became a volunteer and a docent at Holocaust Museum Houston.

Parents:
Motel Ponczer, d. in Holocaust
Rachel Brones Ponczer, d. in Holocaust

Siblings:
Gitla, d. in Holocaust
Josek, d. in Holocaust