Historical Context Jacques Halpern was a French Jewish youth born in Paris, France. During the 1942-1943 school year, he was a student at the petit collège des Carmes in Avon, Seine-et-Marne, where he studied under the name Jacques Dupré. He was one of three Jewish students placed under false names at the institution, which was directed by the father Jacques de Jésus. In January 1944, the school was surrounded by Wehrmacht soldiers, leading to the arrest of the students and the director by the Gestapo. Following their incarceration in Melun and a transfer to the Drancy camp, the group was dep…