February 9, 1943 – The raid on Sainte-Catherine Street in Lyon that day

It is a trap that the Nazis are setting at 12 Rue Sainte-Catherine, headquarters of the Federation of Jewish Societies of France and the Committee for Assistance to Refugees, gathered within the General Union of Jews in France. The Gestapo waits several hours on the spot to arrest as many people, employees and people as possible who come into the premises.

First imprisoned at Fort Lamothe, the group is transferred to the Drancy camp on February 12. On the spot, there are notably the victims of the raid of the department of the Seine on 10 and 11 February, operated by the French police at the initiative of the German authorities. For many, these are elderly people and children in homes and hospices, particularly those of the Rothschild Foundation.

Of the 86 Jews rounded up in Lyon, 80 are deported to the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor and Bergen-Belsen. The youngest is 13 years old. Among them is Simon Badinter, the father of Robert Badinter.

In 1945, there are still 4 survivors including Gilberte Jacob and Malvine Lanzet who testify during the trial against Klaus Barbie in 1987. A plaque is affixed at 12 Rue Sainte-Catherine in 2011 by the association of Sons and Daughters of the Jewish deportees of France.

Photos:
– Robert Bloch and Henriette Brunswick photographed on the day of their engagement and posing with Emmanuel and Rosine Bloch and young Arlette Bloch, Rue de Lunaret, Montpellier (Hérault). France, summer 1933
Credit: Memorial of the Shoah/Roselyne Bloch Coll.

– Henriette Brunswick, Robert Bloch, Rosine Bloch, Emmanuel Bloch with the young Arlette Bloch

– Portrait of Henri Rosensweig
Credit: Memorial of the Shoah/ Coll. Henry Bulawko

– Portrait of Aurélie Gottlieb née Polturak. France, pre-war.
Credit: Memorial of the Shoah/Coll. Esther Charrin