Factory-printed Star of David badge printed with Juif, belonging to a Jewish family.

Danielle Snegg (1926-1990) was born Fernande Halerie in Paris, France, to Avram (Adolf) Halerie (1902-1945) and Marguerita (Ita) Halerie (nee Bercovitz, 1902-1942). Avram was born in Mihăileni, Romania and Marguerite was born in Constantz, Romania. Fernande had an older brother, David (1922-1942). Avram was a tailor, and their family was among the 175,000 Jewish families living in Paris in the 1940s.

The German army invaded France in May 1940, and occupied Paris on June 14. That October, Nazis began persecuting Jews with the bombing of seven synagogues in Paris. While many Jews began leaving the city, Fernande and her family remained until 1942, when the systematic deportation of Jews began. In June 1942, German authorities required that Jews in France wear a yellow Star of David badge to identify themselves as Jewish. During this time, Fernande’s brother, David, attempted to cross the French border, but was arrested and interned in the La Lande-à-Monts transit camp. David was later taken by truck to the city of Angers and on July 10, 1942, he was deported on convoy 8 to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland. He arrived there on July 23 and was killed.

In mid-September, Germany reached an agreement with Romania to deport all Romanian Jews, including Fernande’s parents. On September 24, 1942, both Avram and Marguerita were imprisoned in the Drancy transit camp. While in Drancy, Marguerita wrote a postcard to her sister, instructing Fernande to go stay with her friend Monique Pliez and her parents. Four days later, Avram and Marguerita were deported to Auschwitz on convoy 38, which consisted mostly of Romanian Jews. Marguerita was likely killed upon arrival, but Avram was among 223 men selected for forced labor and he was sent to the Blechhammer forced labor camp. For a time, Fernande received letters from her father, as well as from a family member, Marcel, while they were in Blechhammer.

On April 1, 1944, Blechhammer was put under the administration of Auschwitz III-Monowitz, and Avram was assigned prisoner number 177396. On January 21, 1945, Avram was among 4,000 prisoners sent on a 13-day death march to Gross-Rosen concentration camp. After five days there, he was put on a train and transported to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Avram arrived on February 10, and he was assigned prisoner number 125620. In Buchenwald, disease was rampant due to a lack of food and horrific sanitary conditions. Avram likely died before the camp was liberated on April 11, 1945.

Fernande survived the war in hiding with the Pliez family under the false name Danielle Fernande Deschamps, and began primarily using the name Danielle. She also worked with another family friend, Madame Rouxell, selling shirts on the black market. After the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944, while attending the newly reopened Rothschild Synagogue, Danielle met and began dating American serviceman David Israel Snegg (1923-2008). David had been drafted into the U.S. Army in May 1943, and served in the 900th Signal Corps. In mid-January 1945, David’s duty station moved to Belgium, and Danielle began writing him letters in which she practiced her English. Shortly after he left, Danielle began working in an administrative office for the American army.

David was discharged from the Army in December 1945, and stayed in Paris, where he was able to obtain a civilian job with the army. Danielle and David married in January 1946, and had their first son, Harry, that September. In May 1947, they relocated to the United States, and settled in Los Angeles, California, where David started an equipment rental business. They had another son, Michael, in 1948. Danielle became a naturalized American citizen in April 1953 and legally changed her name to Danielle Fernande.