Key Facts
Career & Education
About
Mila Myriam Racine (aliases: Marie-Anne Richemond, Marie-Anne Racine, Miriam Racine), cousin of David Harris, was born in Moscow, Soviet Union, to Jewish parents Georges-Hirsch Racine and Berthe (Bassia) Racine. Fleeing the Soviet regime around 1922, the family settled in Paris by the mid-1920s. She had siblings Emmanuel (alias 'Mola') Racine and Sacha Racine (married to resistance fighter Maurice Maidenberg); all were involved in the French Resistance. She attended Lycée Racine in Paris, earning a certificat d'études secondaires by 1936.
Resistance Career
From January 1942 to October 1943, Racine worked as a social assistant and resistance fighter affiliated with WIZO, EIF, and MJS. Under Tony Gryn in Annemasse, she aided internees at Gurs camp, led a Zionist youth group in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, and organized clandestine escape routes to Switzerland alongside her brother Emmanuel and Georges Loinger. She escorted convoys of Jewish children and adults across the border, rescuing over 230 Jewish children in Nazi-occupied France, notably attempting to smuggle 30 children on her final mission.
Arrested 21 October 1943 by Gestapo at Saint-Julien-en-Genevois with Roland Epstein. Imprisoned at Hôtel Pax (Gestapo HQ) in Annemasse, she concealed her Jewish identity and refused the local mayor's escape offer to protect detained children, some of whom were released. Deported via Montluc prison (Lyon), Compiègne (convoy I.175, 31 January 1944), to Ravensbrück, then Mauthausen subcamps; murdered/died during Allied bombing at Amstetten site (discrepancy in exact date: 1945-03-20 vs. 1945-03-30).
Posthumously awarded Médaille de la Résistance (1946) and Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 avec étoile d'argent (1946).