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The paintings of Marius Fiche

Marius Fiche was born on 24 April 1883 in Elisabethgrad (Russia). he is the son of Khassie Durtosvnik and of Temchine Sheet. He arrived in France in 1904 and married Catherine née Dourbinskaïa with whom he had two daughters: Louise married Fridman, born in 1906, and Marie married Zélinsky, born in 1908. The family lives at 8 rue l'Encheval in Paris (XIX^th Borough). Marius is a painter and decorator in different film houses (Gaumont, Pathé...).

Marius was a volunteer in the Foreign Legion, fought during the First World War and was wounded three times. He was naturalized in 1938, then denaturalized in 1941.

During the Occupation, Marius, Catherine, their daughter Marie and her husband and three daughters took refuge at 22 rue de L'Harmonie in Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis). All are 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 Rachmil Zélinsky and their three daughters, Denise, Jacqueline and Louise, were deported on September 2, 1943 by convoy no. 59. Only Rachmil Zélinsky survives deportation.

On 25 January 2019, Sylvain Briano, great-grandson of Marius Fiche, presented to the Memorial two paintings by his great-grandfather, one of which depicts a scene of agricultural work in the commune of Drancy and was painted on 14 August 1941.

the letter found of H. Strasfogel (sonderkommando)

By researching the letters written to Birkenau, Karen Taieb, the head of the Holocaust Memorial’s archives, recently made a important historical discovery which has led to the identification of the author of the only testimony left in French by a member of the Sonderkommando.

To read the article we have dedicated to this discovery and the transcription of H. Strasgogel’s letter click on this link.

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The yellow stars of Mathilde Gosset, née Samuel

Mathilde Gosset was born on 5 March 1916 in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is the daughter of Aaron and Suzanne Samuel. All three live in Constantinople. In 1923, they moved to Bucharest due to 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 now faces. Mathilde does not wear her stars. The couple and their daughter move to Versailles, to Jean-Robert’s mother, then to the 16th arrondissement.

As a medical student, Jean-Robert worked at the railways and in various hospitals; he was part of a network that made up lung x-rays to avoid the Service du Travail Obligatoire for some French. It was this group that disguised the identity papers that Mathilde Gosset, Jean-Robert’s mother, had declared as lost 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 raid on the Vél d'Hiv. Mathilde and Jean-Robert also have a son, Christian born in 1944, and a daughter, Geneviève born in 1948. Mathilde brings her parents to Paris in 1948.

Geneviève Dulau née Gosset donated to the Holocaust Memorial in early January 2019 yellow stars from her mother (photo) that were never worn.

THE DIARY OF HENRI BURG

Born in Ukraine in 1909, Henri (Hersch) Burg he studied in a rabbinical school until the age of 16. In 1926, after obtaining the Romanian baccalaureate, he arrived in France to study the medicine to Tours for two years, then to Paris. He became a doctor. He married Hélène Coiffard in 1935. Both live at 26 rue Baudin in Argenteuil. In 1936, he visits his family in Romania and, following his trip, brings back his little sister Malvina who is 15 years old in France. He is French naturalized in 1937. He was a reserve officer in 1937, mobilized in 1939-1940 and then returned to his profession. He obtains from the council of the Ordre des médecins de la Seine-et-Oise the licence to practise medicine. In 1941-1942, he treated communist resistance fighters and hosted resistance meetings. Suspected of resistance, it is stopped and interned in Colombes then to the Health Prison. He holds a newspaper during this period. Released a few months later, he resumed his activities in hiding. In 1945, he resumed his legal practice of a doctor general practitioner in Argenteuil. He is also a municipal councillor. He died a few months before his retirement in a car accident in Normandy.

At the end of November 2018, Françoise Werba, one of the daughters of Henri and Hélène Burg, allowed the Shoah Memorial to digitize the diary kept by her father during his imprisonment.

Preface to the journal by Henri Burg

To the Health on 18 February 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 think. The struggle for existence was hard and left me with no leisure. It took imprisonment, isolation from the outside world, to put my ideas in order. Not a talkative by nature and even less inclined to confidences, I would like to fill this gap by putting in these pages a little of myself. So I dedicate this journal to my beloved wife, who is fighting with such dedication for my release and helping me through this very difficult time. It is to her that I owe my courage and my willingness to overcome obstacles. Faith in her and our love is the stimulus of my life.
The diary will not be simply a daily account of my stay at Santé, but also a review of my past and my life. And finally I will note 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 studying my past activity and reactions to events and people?
This will indeed be my desire to be able to give a purpose to my life.

Letters from Isaac Kon

Born on 22 February 1912 in Paris, Isaac (Jacques) Kon is the son of Faivel and Bluma Kon, both arrested during the Vél d'Hiv raid and deported by convoy no. 9. Isaac is a metal worker, he is married to Lucienne, a non-Jewish French woman with whom he had a son, Michel, born 18 September 1935. Isaac will be arrested, interned in Drancy and then in Beaune-la-Rolande. He was then transferred to Saint-Péravy-la-Colombe (Loiret) where he worked in farms before being interned again in Drancy. Finally, he was deported to Auschwitz on 20 November 1943 by convoy 62. He did not return from deportation. During his internment in France, Isaac was able to send many letters to his wife. In May 2018, his grandson Nicolas Loyer lent the Memorial 125 pieces of correspondence written by Isaac so that good quality copies could be made and kept by the institution.

Rudolph grinberg

Rudolph Grinberg was born in 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents fled Romania in the early 1900s. During the war, he was in the U.S. army, in the Signal Corps unit. He was stationed in France at the end of the war. He attended the Seder in March 1945, as shown by the document given by his daughter, Michèle Grinberg, at the Shoah Memorial on 20 March 2018.

Illustrated maps by Jacob Knobel

Jacob Knobel and Rifka Sachs were born in Poland in 1905. They met in Warsaw, then around 1930, they were sent by their parents to Palestine to escape antisemitism. They married in Haifa in 1937 and became British citizens. In 1937, they went to Paris to visit the Universal Exposition. They moved in; their son, Bernard, was born on 20 June 1940.

The family is arrested on 5 December 1940.

Rifka and Bernard are interned at the Vauban fortress in Besançon until 7 February 1941, the date of their release and that of other British subjects. They are arrested again in January 1944 and interned at Drancy then at Vittel.

Jacob, after his arrest in December 1940, 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, Bernard Knobel and his wife Linda Knobel-Bastide gave the Memorial de la Shoah the documents relating to the internment of the Knobel family, including illustrated correspondence cards sent by Jacob to his wife and son from the barracks of Saint-Denis.

               

louise pikovsky

On 22 January 1944, Louise Pikovsky, a pupil at the Lycée La Fontaine in Paris, was arrested with her family. Before being transferred to the camp of Drancy, Louise leaves a last message with her teacher, Miss Malingrey, to warn her of her departure and leave some books. Louise, her parents, brother and two sisters were deported on 3 February 1944 by convoy no. 67.

In 2010, during a move to the Lycée La Fontaine, letters and a photograph of Louise were found in a cupboard. With the help of a journalist, a teacher from the school recreates Louise’s story. On 3 March 2017, in agreement with the school, all the documents are handed over to the Holocaust Memorial to ensure their preservation.

Discover the webdoc by Stéphanie Trouillard, France24.

The letter from liba

Abram Korenbajzer and Liba Korenbajzer, née Sztejnfeld, are the parents of Aline Korenbajzer, born on 31 August 1939.

Liba and Aline are arrested on 16 July 1942. They are interned at the Vélodrome d'Hiver with Liba’s sister, Rywka (Régine) Knop, and her sons, Maurice and Simon. At the Vél de Hiv, Liba writes a letter to her brother Aron asking him to come and get Aline.

Liba and Aline are interned in Beaune-la-Rolande, transferred to Drancy and then deported to Auschwitz by convoy no. 25 on 28 August 1942.

In September 2017, Armand Portnoy, husband of Liba Korenbajzer’s niece, allowed the Holocaust Memorial to digitize Liba’s letter in order to preserve the memory of this family.

Transcript of letter from Liba Korenbajzer:

My dear brother and sister-in-law.

We talk about sending the children to public assistance, please have mercy on my beloved child, claim it and take it with you she will be safe because you are French, and us mothers talk of sending us to Poland, I probably won’t survive it but Aline at least will live, do not refuse me, Aline is my only reason to live. Please, I beg you, here are all sorts of diseases that she will catch. I am already exhausted, 5 nights that I do not sleep so much I think of Aline. My yellow face is pitiful to everyone, but they can’t do anything because they have no order. Aron and Bella love you, protect her like a mother because you have children and you understand what it is for a mother. If she goes to public assistance, she will die and this thought makes me crazy. She sleeps on the floor not on wood in the morning she asks for a bottle of milk and imagine my pain when I do not have one. Do something for her, claim it. I can’t write anymore, I’m too weak. I kiss you and my little doll.

Regine and the kids are with me.

Kisses

Georgette Bensaid’s recipe book

(As part of the #MuseumWeek2017)

Jules Bensaid was born in 1901 in Relizane (Algeria) and his wife, Georgette Berrino, in 1903 in Mascara (Algeria). They married in 1925, before leaving for France in 1927. They then moved to Toulouse where they run a bar on rue Denfert-Rochereau. The couple will have three children: Reine, born in 1925, Roger, born in 1929 and Marc, born in 1932.

Following anti-Jewish laws, their bar is aryanised and sold to the waitress. At the same time, Jules obtains «real» fake papers and decides to hide from Seysses. But in December 1943, while the parents are away, two of the children, Reine and Roger, are arrested at the bar. Marc, the cadet, manages to escape. Shortly after, Jules Bensaid is also raflé on denunciation. Georgette, who was hiding in Seysses, is also arrested while Marc is at school.

All are deported: Jules by the 73 convoy, the children by the 67 convoy and Georgette by a political convoy. Only Georgette survived. She is released on 23 April 1945 in Ravensbrück, from where she wrote many recipes on a notebook and on flying sheets.

Left alone, Marc is welcomed by a neighbour, Germaine Combecave, until the Liberation. He then returns to his family in Mascara, Algeria, where he will later join his mother.

This document was discovered in Toulouse as part of the national collection of archives conducted by the Memorial in major cities of France.

The archives of adolphe Gottschak

Adolphe Gottschak was born on 26 August 1910 in Liepaja (Latvia). He arrived in France in the 1930s to study medicine in Paris. On 25 April 1936, he married Simone Coste and obtained French nationality by marriage a few months later. He was incorporated into the French army on 26 December 1937 as a soldier in the 22nd S.I.M. (military nursing section), then became an auxiliary doctor and then an aspirant.

In September 1939, he was on duty at the time of mobilization. He was wounded in December 1939 and was hospitalized in Rambouillet (Yvelines). He was demobilized in September 1940 in Lectoure (Gers). Military doctor, he was stripped of his nationality and expelled from the French army in 1941 because he was a Jew.

He goes to different cities (Montluçon, Montpellier, Toulouse, Toulon, Nice...) where he looks for a job and plans to enroll in the faculty. He uses false papers made out in the name of Adolphe Gonchat and obtains a certificate of catholicity.

On 28 October 1943, he left France via Spain and was interned in the Lérida camp for two months. He then went to Morocco, then to Algiers. He participated in the campaign of Italy, the landing in the Midi, then went up to Belfort and Besançon.

He returned to Paris in January 1945 where he met his wife. He was demobilized on 23 October 1945. All of his family died during the Holocaust. Adolphe died in 2010.

Adolphe Gottschak’s niece, Ronit Atlan, and her husband, Jean-Louis Atlan, recently entrusted the Shoah Memorial with documents describing his journey.

the feather holders of pithiviers

In 2016 Roger Hanoune bought at a garage sale in the 20th arrondissement of Paris two feather holders made at camp de Pithiviers. Mr Hanoune finally decided to entrust one of the two feather holders to the Holocaust Memorial.
On this object it is written «To my dear niece Rosette, of your uncle who loves you and always thinks of you. Simon».
On the second pen holder, which remained in Mr. Hanoune’s possession, the inscription is almost the same, only the first name changes. These feather holders had to be made in the camp of Pithiviers by Isaac Schonberg (who will be deported later) for other internees.

Claude Ungar, a volunteer at the Memorial, did some research on the internee Simon mentioned on the
pen holder: could be Simon Szwimer, deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on May 30, 1944 by convoy no. 75.

Drawings by Guy Stern

Born on 30 August 1918 in Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne), Guy Stern is the son of Georges Stern and Germaine Stern née Levin.

After being drafted into the army at the beginning of the war, Guy and his future brother-in-law Jacques Frombaum called "Jif" left France via Spain. Guy invents a false name, Stervan. Guy and Jacques split up. Guy is part of the army of General de Lattre, participates in the landing of Provence, the campaign of Italy, and the arrest of Romel’s son in Germany.

When he returns, he will meet his parents, his fiancée Colette and Jacques Frombaum. Nathan Frombaum (father of Jacques and Colette) was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on 11 February 1943 and died in deportation.

Guy was a cartoonist. His daughter, Sylvie Ottié, entrusted the Memorial de la Shoah at the end of August 2016 with correspondence pieces written by Guy and illustrated with cartoons.

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Original documents of karl michel

Karl (Charles) Michel was born on 22 December 1891 in Edeheim, Germany. In 1922 he married Georgette Caen. Their daughter, Hilde, was born in Cologne in 1923. Karl is the director of a department store in Darmstadt.

After his first arrest, he fled Germany in 1933 and joined his parents-in-law, Edmond and Mathilde Caen, in the Moselle. In 1934, he moved to Marcq-en-Barœul (Nord) with his parents-in-law. His wife and daughter joined him. He ran a department store. He asks for French citizenship in vain.

Arrested in 1939 as a German national, he was interned in Haubourdin and then released because he married a French woman.

Under the occupation, the family fled to Limoges. They obtained false documents in the name of Maret.

Hilde is interned in the camp of Gurs, then released after two months. Karl is arrested and interned in Saint-Germain-les-Belles (Haute Vienne), then at the camps of Nexon and Gurs. Transferred to Drancy, then deported by convoy 51.

At the end of 2015, Hilde’s daughter, Carole Malapert, entrusted to the Shoah Memorial original documents concerning her grandfather Karl’s story, including a naturalization application, a letter from the city of Limoges asking to leave the city, a false 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.

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THE DRAWING BY ETIENNE ROSENFELD

In June 2016, Perle Librati-Dechentinnes, sister of the survivor Maxi Librati, entrusted to the Memorial de la Shoah a drawing by Etienne Rosenfeld made at the camp of Drancy dated 1 April 1942 and representing his wife Annette Mann. This drawing was discovered by Madame Librati-Dechentinnes in 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 Auschwitz camp, he participated in a “death march”. He survived and was repatriated to France on 15 June 1945.

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THE ITALIAN ARCHIVES AT THE SHOAH MEMORIAL – MAY 2016

The Shoah Memorial has just received four new archive collections from the State Archives of Milan, the Archives of the Jewish Community of Venice, the Archives of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) and a private collection, the collection of Liliana Bucci, a former deportee to Auschwitz and one of the last witnesses of the Italian Holocaust.

The Holocaust Memorial has signed conventions with these institutions and Ms. Bucci to digitize documents relating to the persecution of Italian Jews between 1938 and 1945.
These acquisitions are part of a Larger project for Italy. Indeed, since June 2015, the Memorial has launched partnerships with several state archives and Jewish archives across the Alps, in order to facilitate researchers access to the sources of the Italian Holocaust.

We will receive very soon collections from the State Archives of Pisa, Rome and Turin.

Overview of these collections:

LILIANA BUCCI FUNDS

Liliana Bucci, known as «Tatiana», was deported on 29/03/1944 by the convoy n. 25T from the Risiera San Sabba (Trieste). On 04/04/1944, at the age of 7, she was 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 to the Kinder Block (children’s block) and kept apart for medical experiments because they are considered twins. The two sisters manage to escape without physical violence. Mira and Gisela Perlow also survive in the camp. On the other hand, the young Sergio De Simone is murdered in Bullenhuser Damm, near Hamburg, after undergoing medical experiments in the concentration camp of Neuengamme. Grandmother Rosa, aunts Sonia and Paula, uncles Aron Ernesto and Giuseppe Yossi, and cousins Mario and Silvio Perlow also died in Auschwitz or Ravensbrück.
Released on 27/01/1945 by the Red Army, Tatiana and Andra Bucci were first placed in an orphanage in Prague, then in a Jewish educational reception center run by Alice Goldberger in Lingfield (England). Finally, after a long search by their parents Mira and Giovanni, in December 1946 the family was reunited and moved back to Trieste.

It was in the 1980s that the Bucci sisters began to witness and actively engage themselves for the memory of the Shoah in Italy, participating in commemorations and trips to Auschwitz organized by Italian institutions. Their story is told in the book by Titti Marrone entitled Meglio non sapere, published in 2006 by Laterza.

STATE ARCHIVES OF MILAN

This collection, which is a result of the archives of the Prefecture of Milan and Varese, contains a very large number of documents (92,100 views) on the implementation of racial laws in Lombardy from September 1938.

The period of deportations under Nazi occupation is also well documented: between December 1943 and January 1945, 14 convoys of Jewish deportees from Platform 21 of the Milan Central Station to Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbrück and Flossenbürg.
The Jewish community of Milan has 896 deportees, of whom only 50 have survived.

ARCHIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF VENICE

This collection, which is a result of the archives kept by the Biblioteca-Archivio "Renato Maestro", contains a very large number of documents (approximately 56,000 views) on the implementation of racial laws and on the period of Nazi occupation in Venice.

Between December 1943 and August 1944,246 people were deported. Among them, many elderly people from the community retirement home, including Grand Rabbi Adolfo Ottolenghi.

ARCHIVES OF THE UNION OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF ITALY (UCEI)

From the union archives, this collection contains numerous documents (about 17,000 views) on the implementation of racial laws as early as September 1938, and on the internment and deportation of Italian and foreign Jews living in Italy.

There is also a very rich documentation concerning the activities of the Jewish organization for assistance DELASEM (Delegation for assistance to emigrants).

All these documents are now available in the reading room of the Holocaust Memorial

Davide Mano
Memorial Archives Service

Partners:

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THE PUNSKI FAMILY PHOTO ALBUM – FEBRUARY 2016

In 1975, Serge Mogère, author of comics, visited a house threatened with destruction in Choisy-le-Roy and discovered a beautiful album of old photos, apparently abandoned by former owners. Disturbed by these family photos, the faces and the 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 Shoah Memorial’s photolibrary.

The long research work of documentalists and archivists at the Holocaust Memorial has finally revealed that these were in fact photographs of the Punski family, originally from Warsaw, dating back to the 1920s-171930, 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).

How could these photos have been abandoned in France, in this pavilion of Choisy-le-Roy and rediscovered 70 years later?
The documentary specialists of the Centre de documentation du Mémorial de la Shoah conducted the investigation and eventually found a member of the Punski family in the United States: Meryl Frank.

This woman, who is also the US ambassador for women’s rights at the UN, 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 was unfortunately deported by convoy no. 5, leaving behind a woman and a child, To date, we have not found the trace.

Meryl Frank decided to make the trip from the USA to visit the Shoah Memorial for the first time on Thursday, February 18, 2016. On this occasion, she met Serge Mogère, the person who discovered the album of photographs. Both came accompanied by their respective daughters and Meryl Frank wanted to offer the daughter of Serge Mogère a pair of earrings that belonged to Malka Punski, the mother-in-law of Franya Winter, who was also a victim of the Shoah.