3 years ago today, 85-year-old French Jew and Shoah survivor #MireilleKnoll z"l, was slaughtered in her home in Paris by two antisemitic Islamists.
She was found with 11 stab wounds in her back, throat, and stomach, her body partially burned and her apartment in flames.
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She was found with 11 stab wounds in her back, throat, and stomach, her body partially burned and her apartment in flames.
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In July 1942 she narrowly escaped the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup which was ordered by Nazi occupiers and resulted in the mass arrest of 13,000 French Jews by the French police. Those detained were held at the Vel’ d’Hiv cycling track and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
in Poland, where the majority perished. She managed to flee with her mother & cross the border into Portugal on a Brazilian passport obtained by her father. After the war she married an Auschwitz survivor & moved to Canada before returning to Paris. They raised two sons and she
eventually became a grandmother.
Mireille suffered from Parkinson’s disease and lived alone in her second-floor apartment and only came out and in via her wheelchair accompanied by a carer. She was described by her son Daniel as a woman of limited means and boundless generosity.
Mireille suffered from Parkinson’s disease and lived alone in her second-floor apartment and only came out and in via her wheelchair accompanied by a carer. She was described by her son Daniel as a woman of limited means and boundless generosity.
Her neighbours described her as a ‘typical Parisian lady’ who would wear a hat and white gloves and got regular haircuts. She was a very intelligent, kind and despite being a Holocaust survivor, she did not believe in the evil inside people, and was never afraid.
On March 23, 2018, at 85-years-old, she was brutally murdered in her apartment in eastern Paris.
She was found by firefighters with 11 stab wounds, in the back, throat, and stomach. Her body was partially burned and her apartment in flames.
She was found by firefighters with 11 stab wounds, in the back, throat, and stomach. Her body was partially burned and her apartment in flames.
The two perpetrators hoped to destroy all evidence of their crimes. In doing so there was nothing left of Mireille, no photos, no memories. Authorities suggest that Mireille *might* have been the target of robbery that escalated.
According to investigations one of the perpetrators allegedly told the other “she’s a Jew. she must have money” (an antisemitic trope) and the other shouted “Allu Akbar” (‘God is the greatest’ slogan adopted by Islamist fundamentalists) as they murdered her.
"There was nothing to steal. My mother was poor,” her son said. “Her credit card? She would have only been able to withdraw 100 euros. She had no money on her account.”
The investigation found that the murderers met in prison and retained a friendship beyond. They possessed lengthy criminal records for offences that included theft, possession of narcotics, violence, & sexual assault.
One perpetrator was attracted to Islamist ideas &was already known to the authorities for having praised the two responsible for the January 7, 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre. He was also compulsively addicted to antisemitic websites &a stanch defender of the terrorist group Hamas.
His mother had removed evidence from the scene; murder weapons which she cleaned, and she also broke judicial obligations by conversing with her son during his preventative detention in order to agree on the version of the facts.
In France, politicians and judges are increasingly reluctant to recognise the antisemitic nature of such acts. Consequently, the Knoll family and lawyers faced a gruelling trial. They feared a repeat in judgement in the court ruling over the murder of Sarah Halimi who was killed
slaughtered 11 months before. The prosecutors denied the antisemitism and declared that the murderer was not responsible for his crime citing a ‘psychotic episode’. However, justice was finally granted, and the double aggravating circumstance of antisemitism was retained.
The men were charged with “intentional homicide on a vulnerable person on the grounds of the victim’s
true or supposed belonging to a religion”, “theft on a vulnerable person in a meeting in living quarters and arson” and “degradation by dangerous means to individuals”.
true or supposed belonging to a religion”, “theft on a vulnerable person in a meeting in living quarters and arson” and “degradation by dangerous means to individuals”.
The public prosecutor’s office clearly saw that “Madame Knoll was killed both because she was an old person unable to defend herself, and because she inspired a particular hate because of her Jewish origins” - Gilles-William Goldnadel, a lawyer for the Knoll family
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