In the various archives and documents we have found and quoted from there is conflicting information regarding Leia Helfman – Rene’s mother. Her full name appears to be Leia Haia Helfman.
Even though she was married to Sender Ancel, many official documents use her birth name of Helfman. When she enters Belgium looking for work in 1925, apparently arriving from Paris, she uses the name Helfman but also lists her husband Sender Ancel (by then deceased) and her children Maia (Marcel) Ancel and Simon (Rene) Ancel.
Later she was to use Ancel exclusively most likely to try and conceal the fact that she was a Jew. By the time she was rounded up and held at Drancy before her deportation and murder at Auschwitz, the authorities were referring to her by both her birth name and her husband’s name.
Leia’s birthplace is given as Tecuci in Romania though some of the later BCRA (French secret service) documents say she is a Hungarian Jew.Her birth date is usually given as 24th August 1890 but other documents give different dates – these are probably bad transcriptions. She gives her birth date to the Belgian authorities as 24/08/1890.