A series of haunting letters written by a young French Jew to her favourite teacher during World War II before she was arrested and later sent to Auschwitz, have emerged after being forgotten for over 70 years.

Louise Pikovsky's letters to her teacher, Anne-Marie Malingrey, lay undisturbed for decades in a cupboard at the Lycée Jean de La Fontaine in Paris's 16th arrondissement.

Then in 2010 they were unearthed and staff, along with a journalist from France 24, began to piece together the puzzle of who wrote the letters and what became of the author.

The first letters were written in the summer of 1942 while Louise was on holiday in Boulogne, and later back in Paris.

Louise Pikovsky (pictured, left) wrote, in beautiful handwriting, to her teacher in the summer of 1942, before being detained and eventually transferred to Auschwitz

She corresponded with Miss Malingrey, who was spending the summer holidays in her home town of Authoison in Burgundy.

In one letter Louise wrote: 'Dear Miss, I received your letter and parcel and I can’t thank you for one or the other. But may I tell you that the beans were delicious? And the letter…Oh! I can’t say anything at all because I would overstep the limits you set.'

But the tone changed when her father was arrested and sent to an internment camp at Drancy, just outside Paris.

She wrote: 'Oh! Miss, if you could talk to me again about happiness. I'm sure we can appreciate happiness after we've suffered, but does suffering ever end? I'm beginning to doubt that. With all my love and best wishes, Louise.'

Louise's last letter: Scrawled in a hurry in 1944, her final note to her teacher says: 'We have all been arrested. I’m leaving you the books that are not mine and some letters I’d like to find if I ever come back. I’ll think of you, of Father and Miss Arnold. All my love, Louise.'

Amazingly the letters reached Miss Malingrey, who must have been very well known in the town of Authoison in the Haute-Savoie region of Burgundy

In another letter she wrote: 'We have some news of father. He has not left Drancy… We were able to send him a parcel of clothes. I had to do a lot of work to get the parcel ready, but it was such a joy to do so.'

She sent her last summer holiday letter on September 19, 1942. Just one more note from Louise was found among the stash, dated January 1944, it said: 'We have all been arrested. I’m leaving you the books that are not mine and some letters I’d like to find if I ever come back. I’ll think of you, of Father and Miss Arnold. All my love, Louise.'

There were to be no more letters.

In February 1944 the Pikovsky family were transferred to Auschwitz by train and their fate was sealed.

Theirs was the last train to leave Paris for Auschwitz before the city was liberated in August 1944.

Louise, aged 16, perished in the gas chambers at the Nazi death camp in what is now Poland.

The letters were discovered in a cupboard at Louise's old school in Paris

The letters lay hidden in the Lycée Jean de La Fontaine in Paris's 16th arrondissement for decades

Her father Abraham, her mother Barbe, and her three siblings also died during the Holocaust.

When the letters were discovered by a teacher at the Lycée Jean de La Fontaine, librarian Khalida Hatchy, set about trying to find out more about the author.

She got in touch with journalist Stephanie Trouillard and together they managed to track down her former classmates and even some of her cousins.

When Louise's cousin Françoise Szmerla was presented with the letters she told France 24: 'We are overwhelmed... We have our very own Diary of Anne Frank in the Kohn family.'

Louise's former classmate, Madeleine Rivère, told France24.com: 'She was very discreet and very likeable. She came first in everything. She liked studying and worked hard.'

She remembered Louise coming to school one day in 1941 wearing the yellow Star of David which Jewish children were forced to wear by the Germans.

Ms Rivère said: 'One day she came to school with the star, but that was it. She never talked about her problems. We carried on like nothing was happening.

'I just remember that Miss Malingrey offered to let Louise stay with her because Jews were being closely watched and were often arrested. But Louise refused because she didn't want to leave her family.'

After reading Louise's letters, Ms Rivère was even more admiring: 'These are really beautiful letters. She was so mature compared to me and others our age. It gives me goosebumps. We were friends, we were young and we had hoped to continue seeing each other. It still gets to me. I still think of her. To this day.'

Miss Malingrey never had children and died in 2004, aged 98.

Shortly before she died she donated a photograph of Louise to the Shoah Memorial in Paris.