One Of The Lucky Ones

Born Cipa Widerman into a large Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland in November of 1922, Nicole Holland immigrated at the age of six months with her mother and sisters to Paris, France where they joined her father and brothers.  Her happy childhood was spent in an apartment house built for large families like hers on Ile St. Louis in the middle of Paris with summers at Colleville, later known as Omaha Beach. Once the Nazis invaded France, and more specifically Paris, her life changed drastically.  As a Jewish indeterminee or a person with no nationality, Nicole was included on the list of the first round-ups of Jews.  Barely missing arrest, she escaped to unoccupied France and took on a new, non-Jewish identity.  As a naïve teenager, she was thrust from the comfort of a loving home and forced to survive on her own in several strange cities. Nicole managed to find work and friends and along the way became a member of the French Underground in order to do whatever she could to rid France of the Nazi invaders.  When the Germans began retreating, she even joined the Underground fighters she had supplied with messages and arms as the only woman fighting with them as liberators. Upon her return to Paris, she joined the CAVF, an organization of the former French Underground.  Through this job, she searched for lost family members and a way to build a future without hatred, fear, and the devastation of war.  One of the Lucky Ones is the story of her amazing journey.