Chilling: "Then She Gave Me the Piece of Chocolate and Said, 'I Am the Baby Your Mother Saved in the Camp'"

"My name is Francine Christophe," this is how the Holocaust survivor who stayed at Bergen-Belsen begins her amazing story. "I was born on August 18, 1933. 1933 is the year Hitler came to power."

"Look," says Christophe as she pulls out her yellow star. "This is my 'star'. I had to hang it on my chest, of course, like all Jews. It's big, isn't it? Especially for the small child I was, eight years old."

Here Christophe begins to narrate one of the most touching stories we've heard, a story filled with extraordinary divine providence and endless miracles.

"When I was in the Bergen-Belsen death camp – an amazing thing happened: As small children who lived as prisoners during the war – we had a privilege. We were allowed to bring something from France: a small bag with two or three small things in it.

"One woman brought chocolate, another brought some sugar, a third brought a handful of rice... My mother packed two small pieces of chocolate for me and told me: 'We will save this for the day when I see you have collapsed completely and really need help. Then I will give you this chocolate, and you will feel better.'"

Here Christophe tells about her mother's friend, a prisoner named Helene who was with them in the camp. "Helene was pregnant, but you couldn't guess it – because she was very thin," Christophe recounts.

The months passed with difficulty, and then it was time for the birth. "She went to the camp hospital with my mother, who was the block commander, but before they went – my mother came to me and asked: 'Do you remember the chocolate I saved for you?'"

"Yes, Mom," I said.

"How do you feel?"

"I'm okay, Mom, I'll be fine," I replied.

"Well, if it's okay with you – I would like to give your chocolate to this woman, our friend Helene. The delivery here will be difficult, and she might die. But if I give her the chocolate, it might help her," her mother said to her, and she just nodded in agreement.

"Helene gave birth to the baby – a tiny, small, and weak thing. She ate the chocolate, and she did not die. She returned to the block."

At this point, Christophe describes a supernatural situation, almost unbelievable: "And the baby never cried! Never ever!!! She didn't even make a small squeak," she recounts with extraordinary excitement.

The moment they unwrapped the baby from her rags – she screamed!

Six months later, the camp was liberated – a miracle in itself, but the greater miracle Christophe witnessed happened at those moments when the prisoners untangled Helene's daughter from the rags she was wrapped in. "At that moment – the baby screamed!", tears of excitement well up in Christophe's eyes as she recalls those moments. Even as a small child, she understood that something extraordinary was happening. "This is the moment she was born!", she says. "We returned to France with the baby – a tiny, frail thing you wouldn't believe was six months old."

At this point, Christophe pauses the flow of the story and moves on to talk about her life in the present. "A few years ago, my daughter asked me: 'Mom, if the deportees had a psychologist or psychiatrist when they returned here, could it have been easier for you to cope?'. I answered: 'Without a doubt, but we didn't have one. No one thought about mental illness back then. But you gave me a wonderful idea. We will initiate a lecture on this subject.'"

Christophe organized the lecture, titled: "If Concentration Camp Survivors Had Received Counseling in 1945, What Would Have Happened?"

People of all kinds came to the lecture – elderly survivors, historians, and many psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists. "It was very interesting. Many ideas were raised, and it was excellent," Christophe recalls.

And then, in the middle of the lecture, something wonderful happened. One of the women asked to speak, got on the stage, and began to introduce herself to the audience: "I live in Marseille, and I'm employed there as a psychologist," she said with excitement, adding. "Before I present my opinion on the subject, I want to give something to Francine Christophe."

The audience waited with bated breath. "Then she reached into her pocket and took out a piece of chocolate," Christophe recounts. "She handed me the chocolate and said: 'I am that baby.'"

Watch the amazing story of Francine Christophe (with English translation):