Biography
Asher Klein is the son of Jacques and Margot (nee Bloch) Klein. Both of his parents were raised in Orthodox homes in France. Jacques was the youngest child of Alexander (b. May 26, 1879 in Paris) and Marguerite nee Meyer Klein (b. March 3, 1891 in Mulhouse). Jacques was born on July 27, 1929 in Strasbourg. His siblings were Genevieve (Janet, later Zelikowski-Guttel b. June 2, 1910), Fanny (later Sternberg, b. Nov. 22, 1911), Henri (b. November 30, 1911 in Mulhouse), Naphtalie-Theodore Klein (b. June 22, 1913), Pierre (Shlomo-Zeev), Madeline (Mady) Klein (later Elbogen, b. 10/19/22 in Mulhouse) and Claire Klein (b. June 9, 1924). Jacques fled to Switzerland in the summer of 1944 with a group of other youth and studied in a yeshiva in Montreux until Pesach 1945. His parents remained in Roanne.
Janet was married to Adrien-Gustave Zelikowski, an educator in the strictly observant OSE children's home, Chateau des Morelles. They and their five children escaped to Switzerland in the spring and summer of 1944. Pierre was a soldier in the French Army at the start of the war. Captured in the early days of the war, he survived in a prisoner-of-war camp. He married Florine Muller. Naphtalie-Theodore Klein married Edith nee Orner Klein, survived the war, moved to Israel and passed away at the age of 94. Fanny Klein survived the war in Roanne along with her parents. After the war she settled in Paris where she married Alexander Sternberg in 1945 or 1946. She died in 1993.
Madeline (Mady) Klein Elbogen and Claire Klein had been students in University of Strasbourg. The school relocated during the war to Clermont Ferrand. One day there was a man-hunt at the university. Mady, who went by her married name Ellbogen was immediately recognized as a Jew and arrested. Claire was initially spared but after she enquired what would happen to her sister, she also was arrested. They were deported on Convoy # 66 on January 20, 1944 to Auschwitz where they perished immediately. Henri Klein, Mady's husband, Naftali Elllbogen, and their cousin Rabbi Shmuel (Sami) Klein all belonged to the Jewish underground. They were arrested in Saint Etienne and shot by the Germans on June 27, 1944. They were then buried in a Christian cemetery. After war they were reburied in Jewish cemetery in Lyon.
