Small detail on Olympic medallist Jemima Montag's wrist dates back to the Holocaust

The Paris that Jemima Montag racewalked through today is worlds away from the war-torn Paris of the 1940s.

But the dull sting of the city's horrific history still lingers decades on and the stories of ancestors – lost and surviving – carry on through their descendants.

As she battled through the scorching sun across 20km to take home the bronze medal for Australia, Montag carried with her remnants of a family history in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II.

READ MORE: Jemima Montag wins bronze medal 20km race walk

Sitting snug on her wrist throughout every taxing kilometere of the race was a small gold bracelet. A bracelet made from the necklace of her late grandmother Judith – who sought refuge in the French capital after surviving the unimaginable horrors of the concentration camp.

Split into three, the necklace was made into three bracelets for Montag and her two sisters and stands as a stark reminder of her grandmother's strength and resilience.

A reminder that we can be sure rang true for Montag as she walked through Paris in the footsteps of her grandparents.

"This is the city that my nana and her father sought refuge [in] after the Second World War," Montag said, per The Sydney Morning Herald.

"I was feeling extra levels of strength and resilience today. She passed on all of those amazing traits to my dad who's passed them on to my sisters and me, and boy today took all of those things."

Navigating 20 laps of a 1km loop filled with cobblestones and fierce competitors and lined with cheering spectators, Montag had to dig deep to race her way to the bronze medal.

The champion told Nine's Allison Langdon and James Bracey after stepping off the podium that the race was the "hardest thing" she's ever done "physically and mentally".

But having "so many family and friends on the sideline as well in their 'Team Jem' t-shirts was exciting" and kept her going.

While it's an undoubtedly impressive feat, it pales in comparison to the story of what her grandma endured only decades prior.

After finding some old family documents and journal entries after her grandma's passing, Montag and her aunt uncovered more details of her family's extraordinary history, The Sydney Morning Herald reported after Montag's gold medal win at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

"Reading about a story called Death March, I think it was towards the end of the Holocaust, and walking through snow and cold for days on end in little sandals and hardly any clothing, and she [Judith] and her sister took their bands off and tied their wrists together, and they said, 'We are getting through this together or not at all'," Montag told The Sydney Morning Herald of what they found.

After "visualising her [grandma] walking on ice, not knowing when her next meal would be, or if she would survive," Montag reflected on her own experience and the stark contrast of what she chooses to put her body through opposed to what her grandma was forced to go through.

And while their realities could not be more different, one thing can be said for sure - her grandma's strength and resilience lives on.

"Yes, this is fun and something I choose to do, and yes, it's hard, but someone just two generations ago had that level of strength and I know it is with me now," she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

After the war and taking refuge in Paris, Montag's grandma emigrated to Melbourne where she married fellow Holocaust survivor Richard and started a new life.

Generations on the family still live in Melbourne and many recently made the jet lag inducing journey to Paris to cheer on Montag and revel in her victory.

A victory that is testament to Montag's determination but also testament to the legacy of the Montag family matriarch.

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