Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

During the war, the Silberberg family moved to Bruxelles and then moved to the north of France.
Félix Silberberg, Esther’s older brother, had already left Belgium.
They paid a smuggler to help them cross the demarcation line to France, where they were taken them to a farm near Dax.
Instead of hiding the Silberbergs, the farmer took them to the Gendarmerie.

Esther Silberberg, her brother, Léon, and her parents were sent to a stadium near Pau, before being interned in the Camp de Gurs.

Esther Silberberg, he brother, Léon, and their parents were transferred to the Camp Rivesaltes.

Esther Silberberg and her brother, Léon, were in a group of ten Jewish children under 15, liberated from Camp Rivesaltes., due to the intervention of the archbishop of Toulouse, Monsignor Saliège.

Esther Silberberg, and her brother, Léon, were sent to one of the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants OSE children’s homes near Toulouse.
Esther Silberberg cites: "This group of ten children, three of them were from her neighborhood in Antwerp."

In December, 1942, Esther Silberberg and her brother, Léon, were taken by their cousin who was living with his parents in Châtelus-Malvaleix, to live with his family, where Esther stayed until the end of the war, while Léon became a member of a youth movement in central France.