Joseph Schwartz, survivor of the Vel d'Hiv roundup and activist for the memory of the Shoah, comes to die at the age of 98.
Memorial of the Shoah/coll. Joseph Schwartz. Joseph on the right with Paul his little brother
Joseph Schwartz (born Szwarc) was born on February 18, 1927, at the Rothschild hospital, in the 12earrondissement of Paris. He lives in the 11e, then the 13e arrondissement, with his parents Lejbus and Ruchla, his little brother, Paul born in Paris on July 20, 1931. His parents had joined France in the early 1920s, fleeing pogroms and misery in Poland. They were naturalized in 1938.
The testimony of Joseph restores all the deprivations and humiliations imposed on the Jews of France during the Second World War. He notably evoked with intact strength the forfeiture of his family’s French nationality in 1941, the appointment of a provisional administrator for the paternal metal recovery company, the cut off of the telephone line, the confiscation of the family radio set and its bike, the imposition of wearing the yellow star.
On 15 July, the family is warned of an imminent raid. Thinking that only the men would be arrested, Joseph, 15 years old, is hidden at friends of his parents in Choisy-le-Roi. His father takes refuge in the garage of his company, adjacent to their pavilion. Only Ruchla and Paul stay in the family home, 25 rue de la Vistule in the 13e arrondissement of Paris. The French police arrest them both on the 16th in the early morning. When the father learns this, he immediately goes to the police in the hope of getting them released but he is arrested in turn. They are taken to the Vel d'Hiv, where Paul is 11 years old. Joseph remains alone, distraught.
Shoah Memorial/Joseph Schwartz coll.
Joseph with his parents and his little brother Paul, murdered at the Auschwitz Birkenau camp.
Arrested in turn a few hours later, he manages to escape thanks to the complacency of a police officer.
The whole family is transferred to the camp of Beaune-la-Rolande then deported to the camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau; Lejbus, aged 45, and Ruchla, aged 37, by convoy 15 of August 5, 1942 and Paul, by convoy 22 of August 21, 1942. Paul and his mother are gassed upon their arrival. According to the testimony of a survivor, Lejbus was shot shortly before release.
Joseph, ignoring the fate of his family, is taken in by his grandmother and then leaves for the southern zone. He joined a group of resistance fighters from the FTP-MOI in Lyon, then returned to Paris where he participated in the liberation of the capital. It is only at the end of the war, after spending days at the Lutetia hotel, that he understands that neither his parents nor his brother will return from the camps.
Joseph will never recover from the loss of his family. Discovering the Memorial of the deportation of the Jews of France by Serge Klarsfeld, he learns decades later the fate of his parents, his brother, his grandmother, arrested in February 1943, his aunts and his cousins, all deported and murdered.
Memorial of the Shoah/coll. Joseph Schwartz
Joseph, an activist from the very beginning alongside Serge Klarsfeld.
On the right in the photo, wearing dark glasses.
In 1979, he meets Serge Klarsfeld. Begins an uninterrupted companionship within the Sons and Daughters of the Jewish deportees of France as well as a deep and unwavering friendship.
Shoah Memorial/Joseph Schwartz coll.
Demonstration by activists of the Association of the Sons and Daughters of the Jewish Deportees of France, at the site of the camp of Pithiviers (Loiret), to remember the fate of the thousands of Jewish children rounded up at the Vel d'hiv, 13 May 1990.
His speech at the national ceremony commemorating the Vel d'Hiv roundup in July 2021 will generate a wide echo. Then aged 94, Joseph expresses all his revolt and emotion in the face of the diverted images of the yellow star that were circulating at the time to denounce the vaccination against COVID.
The Shoah Memorial paid tribute to him as part of Yom HaShoah in April 2025, on the occasion of the release of A Metaphysical Summer with Joseph Schwartz by Claude Bochurberg (Zinédi editions), and the release of Joseph Schwartz, the best friend of Serge Klarsfeld by Claude Bochurberg and Michel Rosenthal.
Joseph Schwartz is a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
The Shoah Memorial extends its most sincere condolences to his wife and family. He salutes the memory of a great activist for memory, faithful supporter of the Shoah Memorial.
Discover the film "Joseph Schwartz, the best friend of Serge Klarsfeld by Claude Bochurberg and Michel Rosenthal."
