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The Ravensbrück Memorial mourns the death of Manou Kellerer-Bernit, who died on 21 November 2021 at the age of 98. Born in Niort on 27 February 1923, she and her parents were part of the Delbo-Phénix resistance network. They harboured resistance fighters, and gathered information on German lines of defence. In 1944, the family was arrested by the Gestapo. Manou Bernit and her mother were deported to Ravensbrück on 30 June 1944. While Manou Bernit was transferred to the Berlin-Schönefeld satellite camp for forced labour, her mother was murdered in the gas chamber in Ravensbrück in March 1945. When the Heinkel factories in Schönefeld were bombed in April 1945, Manou and several other women managed to escape. With the help of French prisoners of war, they reached the Elbe and met the US army there.

After returning to France, Manou Bernit was able to recover from the consequences of her imprisonment in a convalescent home set up by the ADIR in Mont-sur-Lausanne. Here she also met her future husband and stayed in Switzerland. In 1986, Manou Kellerer-Bernit, like Ravensbrück survivor Noëlla Rouget, took a stand in the press against the questioning of the existence of gas chambers that had been circulated by Swiss Holocaust denier Mariette Paschoud. Manou Kellerer-Bernit was an officer of the Legion of Honour, recipient of the Resistance medal and the Croix-de-guerre 39-45.

The photo shows Manou Bernit (in front) with Odette Peyrot-Bouchard (in the background). The two women were deported together and became close friends. Both lost their parents, who had also been deported.

Brigitte Exchaquet-Monnier and Éric Monnier portrayed Manou Kellerer-Bernit in the book " Retour à la vie. L'accueil en Suisse romande d'anciennes déportées françaises de la Résistance " (Éditions Alphil, 2013).