Marius Fiche
A volunteer in the Foreign Legion, Marius fought in the First World War and was wounded three times. He was naturalized French in 1938, then denaturalized in 1941.
Under the Occupation, Marius, Catherine, their daughter Marie as well as her husband and three daughters take refuge at 22 rue de L'Harmonie in Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis). All were arrested and interned in Drancy.
Marius Fiche was arrested and interned at the Drancy camp on 8 December 1942. He was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on 11 February 1943 by convoy no. 47.
Catherine Fiche, Marie Zélinsky, her husband
On 25 January 2019, Sylvain Briano, great-grandson of Marius Fiche, presented the Memorial with two paintings by his great-grandfather, including one depicting a scene of agricultural work in the commune of Drancy, done on 14 August 1941.
By researching the letters written in Birkenau,
To read the article we devoted to this discovery and the transcript of H. Strasgogel’s letter, click on this link.
Mathilde Gosset was born on March 5, 1916 in Sofia (Bulgaria). She is the daughter of Aaron and Suzanne Samuel. All three live in Constantinople. In 1923, they moved to Bucharest because of the Greek-Turkish conflict. Mathilde began her medical studies there, but the wave of anti-Semitism forced her to interrupt them and leave Romania for France.
In Paris, she meets a medical student, Jean-Robert Gosset. They married in 1938 at the French consulate in Romania, then returned to France. Their daughter Françoise was born in 1940. They live in the 15th arrondissement. Following the census, Mathilde receives two yellow stars. A commissioner informs her of the danger she is now facing. Mathilde is not wearing her stars. The couple and their daughter move to Versailles with Jean-Robert’s mother, then in the 16th arrondissement.
A medical student, Jean-Robert does vacations on the railways and in various hospitals; he is part of a network that masks chest x-rays to avoid the Mandatory Labor Service for some French people. It was this group that falsified the identity documents that Mathilde Gosset, Jean-Robert’s mother, had declared as lost in order to make them available to Mathilde Gosset née Samuel, Jean-Robert’s wife.
After the war, Mathilde returned to her building in the 15th arrondissement and learned from the concierge that in July 1942 the police had come to arrest her during the Vell d'Hiv roundup. Mathilde and Jean-Robert also have a son, Christian born in 1944, and a daughter, Geneviève born in 1948. Mathilde brought her parents to Paris in 1948.
Geneviève Dulau née Gosset donated to the Shoah Memorial in early January 2019 the yellow stars of her mother (photo) that were never worn.
Born in Ukraine in 1909,
At the end of November 2018,
Preface of the diary kept by Henri Burg
To health on February 18, 1943
Preface
Today, after more than two months spent in the prison of the Health of Paris, I feel the need to write my impressions and my reflections. Solitude, so conducive to thought, invites me to this work. Occupied until today by the worries of daily life, I have hardly had time to reflect. The struggle for existence was hard and left me no leisure. It took imprisonment, isolation from the outside world, to put my ideas in order. Little loquacious by nature and even less inclined to confidences, I would like to fill this gap by putting in these pages a bit of myself. So I dedicate this newspaper to my beloved wife, who is fighting with such dedication for my liberation and who helps me through this very difficult time. It is to her that I owe my courage and willingness to overcome obstacles. Faith in her and in our love is the stimulus of my life.
The diary will not simply be the daily account of my stay at La Santé. It will also include feedback on my past and a review of my life. And finally, I will write down my thoughts and feelings about the people who are dear to me and also about the people around me.
Could I crystallize my character by the study of my past activity and my reactions to events and people?
Such will indeed be my desire so that I can then give a purpose to my life.
Born on February 22, 1912 in Paris,
Rudolph Grinberg was born in 1922 in
Jacob Knobel
The family was arrested on 5 December 1940.
Rifka and Bernard were interned at the Vauban fortress in Besançon until 7 February 1941, the date of their liberation and that of other British subjects. They were arrested again in January 1944 and interned in Drancy then in Vittel.
As for Jacob, after his arrest in December 1940, he was interned at the fort of Romainville until the end of 1940, then at Drancy from 30 December 1940 to 25 July 1941, finally at the barracks of Saint-Denis, because of his British citizenship, until the Liberation in August 1944.
In November 2017,
© Shoah Memorial.
On 22 January 1944,
In 2010, during a move to the lycée La Fontaine, letters and a photograph of Louise were found in a wardrobe. With the help of a journalist, a teacher at the school reconstructs Louise’s story. On 3 March 2017, in agreement with the high school, all documents were handed over to the Shoah Memorial to ensure their preservation.
Discover the webdoc directed by Stéphanie Trouillard,
Abram Korenbajzer
Liba and Aline were arrested on
Liba and Aline were interned in
In September 2017,
Transcription of the letter from Liba Korenbajzer
My dear brother and sister-in-law.
We are talking about sending the children to public assistance; please have mercy on my dear child. Claim her and take her with you, she will be safe because you are French, and we mothers are talking about sending us to Poland. I certainly won’t survive it, but at least Aline will live. don’t refuse me, Aline it’s my only reason to live. Please, I beg you, here there are all kinds of diseases that she will catch. I’m already exhausted, I haven’t slept for five nights so much I think about Aline. My yellow face pities everyone, but they can’t do anything, because they have no order. Aron and Bella, dear ones, you love her, protect her like a mother because you have children and you understand what it is like for a mother. If she goes to the public assistance, she will die and this thought drives me crazy. She sleeps on the floor, not on wood in the morning; she asks me for a milk bottle and imagines my pain when I don’t have any. Do something for her, ask for it. I can’t write anymore, I’m too weak. Kisses to you and my little doll.
Régine and the kids are with me.
Kisses
(As part of the
Georgette Bensaid’s recipe book
Jules Bensaid
Following the anti-Jewish
All were deported
Left alone, Marc is welcomed by a neighbor, Germaine Combecave, until the
This document was discovered in Toulouse as part of the
Adolphe Gottschak
In September 1939, he was on duty at the time of the mobilization. He was wounded in December 1939 and was hospitalized in Rambouillet (Yvelines). He was demobilized in September 1940 at Lectoure (Gers). A
He went to different cities (Montluçon, Montpellier, Toulouse, Toulon, Nice...) where he was looking for a job and planned to enroll in the faculty. He uses false papers drawn up in the name of
On 28 October 1943, he left France via Spain and was
He returned to Paris in January 1945, where he was reunited with his wife
Ronit Atlan
In 2016,
On this object, it says "To my dear niece Rosette, from your uncle who loves you and always thinks of you. Simon."
On the second pen holder, which remained in the possession of Mr. Hanoune, the inscription is almost the same; only the first name changes. These pen holders must have been made at the Pithiviers camp by
Claude Ungar
pen holder: it could have been
Drawing by Guy Stern, submitted by Sylvie Ottié to the Memorial
Born on 30 August 1918 in Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne),
After being conscripted into the army at the beginning of the war, Guy and his future brother-in-law Jacques Frombaum dit "Jif" left France via Spain. Guy invents a fake name, Stervan. Guy and Jacques separate. Guy was part of the army of General de Lattre, participated in the landing in Provence, the Italian campaign, and the arrest of Romel’s son in Germany.
On his return, he will meet up with his parents, his fiancée Colette and Jacques Frombaum. Nathan Frombaum (father of Jacques and Colette) was deported from
Guy was a cartoonist. His daughter,
Drawing by Guy Stern, submitted by Sylvie Ottié to the Memorial
Drawing by Guy Stern, submitted by Sylvie Ottié to the Memorial
Karl (Charles) Michel was born on 22 December 1891 in Edeheim, Germany. In 1922 he married Georgette Caen and their daughter, Hilde, was born in Cologne in 1923. Karl is the manager of a department store in Darmstadt.
After a first arrest, he fled Germany in 1933 and joined his parents-in-law, Edmond and Mathilde Caen, in Moselle. In 1934, he moved to Marcq-en-Barœul (Nord) with his in-laws. His wife and daughter joined him. He ran a department store. He asks for French nationality in vain.
Arrested in 1939 as a German national, he was interned at Haubourdin and then released because he was married to a French woman.
During the occupation, the family fled to Limoges. They obtained false papers in Maret’s name.
Hilde was interned in the Gurs camp, then released after two months. Karl was arrested and interned in Saint-Germain-les-Belles (Haute Vienne), then at the Nexon and Gurs camps. He was transferred to Drancy, then deported by convoy no. 51.
In late 2015, Hilde’s daughter, Carole Malapert, entrusted to the Shoah Memorial original documents concerning the history of her grandfather Karl, including a naturalization application, a letter from the city of Limoges asking them to leave the city, and a fake identity card, a letter written by Georgette and Hilde addressed to Karl during his internment in Gurs and a label sent by Karl to Georgette from Drancy.
In June 2016, Perle Librati-Dechentinnes, sister of the survivor Maxi Librati, entrusted to the Shoah Memorial a drawing by Etienne Rosenfeld made at the Drancy camp dated April 1, 1942 and representing his wife Annette Mann. This drawing was discovered by Madame Librati-Dechentinnes at a flea market.
Born on 25 August 1920 in Budapest, Etienne Rosenfeld was arrested and taken to Drancy on 20 August 1941. He made many drawings during his internment. He was deported to Auschwitz on 14 September 1942 by convoy no. 32. During the evacuation of the Auschwitz camp, he participated in a "death march". He survived and was repatriated to France on 15 June 1945.
The Shoah Memorial has just received four new archival collections from the
The Shoah Memorial signed
These acquisitions are part of a
We will soon receive collections from the state archives of Pisa, Rome and Turin.
Overview of these collections
Liliana Bucci, known as "Tatiana", was deported on 29/03/1944 by convoy no. 25T from the Risiera San Sabba (Trieste). On 04/04/1944, at the age of 7, she found herself in Auschwitz with her little sister Alessandra "Andra" Bucci (aged 5), her mother Mira Perlow, her grandmother Rosa Farberow, her aunt Gisela Perlow and her cousin Sergio De Simone. Tatiana and Andra are destined for the Kinder Block (the children’s block) and kept apart for medical experiments because they are considered twins. The two sisters manage to escape without suffering physical violence, however; Mira and Gisela Perlow also survive in the camp. On the other hand, little Sergio De Simone was murdered in Bullenhuser Damm, near Hamburg, after undergoing medical experiments at the Neuengamme concentration camp. Grandmother Rosa, aunts Sonia and Paula, uncles Aron Ernesto and Giuseppe Yossi, and cousins Mario and Silvio Perlow also died at Auschwitz or Ravensbrück.
Released on 01/27/1945 by the Red Army, Tatiana and Andra Bucci were first placed in an orphanage in Prague, then in a Jewish educational center run by Alice Goldberger in Lingfield (England). Finally, after a long search carried out by their parents Mira and Giovanni, in December 1946 the family was reunited again and settled in Trieste.
It was from the 1980s that the Bucci sisters began to bear witness and actively engage in the memory of the Holocaust in Italy, participating in commemorations and trips to Auschwitz organized by Italian institutions. Their story is told among others in the book by Titti Marrone entitled
Portrait of the Bucci sisters with their cousin Sergio De Simone (Fiume, 29/11/1943), – Shoah Memorial/Bucci Coll.
From the archives of the Prefectures of Milan and Varese, this collection includes numerous documents (92,100 views) on
The period of deportations under the Nazi occupation is also well documented: between December 1943 and January 1945,
The Jewish community of Milan has 896 deportees, only 50 of whom have survived.
Originating from the archives held at the
Between December 1943 and August 1944,
From the archives of the Union, this collection includes numerous documents (about 17,000 views) on the enforcement of
There is also a very rich documentation concerning the activities of the Jewish assistance organization
All these documents are now accessible in the reading room of the Shoah Memorial
Partners:
© Shoah Memorial
In 1975, Serge Mogère, author of comics, visited a house threatened with destruction in Choisy-le-Roy and discovered a magnificent album of old photos, visibly abandoned by former owners. Troubled by these family photos, the faces and period costumes he discovered in this album, he decided to keep it. A few months ago, Mr. Mogère handed over this photo album to the photo library of the Shoah Memorial.
A long research work carried out by documentalists and archivists of the Shoah Memorial finally revealed that these were actually photos of the Punski family, originally from Warsaw, dating from the 1920s1930, among which were those of a well-known actress, Franya Winter, performed by the Germans in 1942 in the city of Ashmyany (now located in Belarus).
Meryl Frank gives Serge Mogère’s daughter the earrings of Malka Punski
How did these photos end up abandoned in France, in this pavilion of Choisy-le-Roy and rediscovered 70 years later?
The documentalists of the Documentation Center of the Shoah Memorial conducted the investigation and finally found a member of the Punski family in the United States: Meryl Frank.
This woman, who is also the US ambassador to the UN for women’s rights, sent a family tree that allowed the documentalists to understand that one of Franya Winter’s brothers had emigrated to France in the 1920s and unfortunately was deported by Convoy No. 5, leaving behind a wife and a child whose, to date, we have not found the trace.
Meryl Frank decided to make the trip from the United States to visit for the first time the Shoah Memorial on Thursday, February 18, 2016. On this occasion, she met Serge Mogère, the person who discovered the album of photographs. Both came with their respective daughters and Meryl Frank wanted to give the daughter of Serge Mogère a pair of earrings that belonged to Malka Punski, Franya Winter’s mother-in-law, who was also a victim of the Holocaust.
