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Letter
Montreal Holocaust Museum · small copy hosted here (www.cjhn.ca blocks its images elsewhere)
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Letter

1 image

Held by
Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
Dates
December 28, 1939 (indexed as 1939)
Level
item
Scope & content
One page. Typewritten in black ink. Narrative: In the 1920’s Rachel Levy’s parents, Serge and Sophie Philipson decided to move from Berlin to Paris due to anti-Semitism. After a few years, Serge started to be part of his brother-in-law’s, Henri, company Modern Fashions / Les Modes Modernes. An opportunity to expand the business in Ireland made Serge move there while Sophie and Rachel stayed in France. It was at the beginning of the war that that the family was divided. In July 1938, the factory opened in Ireland, Rachel and Sophie went for the opening and came back to Paris. In August 1939, Sophie, Rachel, and other family members (Stéphane, Esther, Choura and her mother) went to Cabourg, in Normandy, while Augusta, Ella and Ruth went to Neris-les-bains. Rachel was nine years old and started school. They decided to stay in Cabourg and rent a small house since Paris wasn’t safe anymore. After winter 1939-1940 it was difficult to communicate with Ireland but still could send and receive letter from Serge. At the end of winter 1940 Rachel moved to Neris-les-Bains where the rest of the family was. (Ella, Ruth, grandmother, Esther, Robert, Choura, etc.). In July 1940, they left for Cauterets where Robert, Serge’s brother, was. They rented an apartment owned by Madame Noebès on rue Richelieu (close to the Spanish frontier). In 1940, Henri and Stéphane returned to the Riviera. Stéphane, Néné and Henri moved to Hotel Victoria on the rue Antibes in Cannes. In August 1942, Mr. Kleinman (a friend from Paris) arrived in Cauterets to tell that Jews that arrived after 1933 in France would be deported. Ella, Ernest, Ruth, Robert, Esther were arrested by local police and would die later on. At the beginning of 1943, they left Cauterets to move to Maubourguet In April 1943, they moved to Cannes in Hotel Victoria (Sophie, Oma, Rachel, Henri, Stéphane, Néné). On July 15 1943, Rachel was 15 years old. Mr. Borello offered to hide Henri, Sophie and Grandmother Augusta while Stéphane and Rachel were taken care by Néné and returned to Maubourguet. In January 1944, Henri, Sophie and Augusta were betrayed, arrested transferred to Marseille and then sent by train to Drancy (they did not survive). Jean (in a relationship with Rachel’s aunt Suzanne) came to Maubourget, gave Rachel his daughter identity, Jacqueline and Rachel left for Juan-les-Pins. In 1944, she moved from one place to another and still continued to correspond with her father. At the end of the war, Rachel met uncle Shaja at the Polish Consulate in Lyon. He offered to help Rachel to get papers to go to Ireland. On June 14 1945, she went to London for two-three days with some family members and then took a boat-train for Dublin and then met Serge, her father, which she had not seen for 6 years old. In 1951, Rachel got married. She had four sons and has been living in Montreal since 1954.
In the picture
DocumentImmigrationLetterSignatureTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
Location
  • rue Richelieu · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “rue Richelieu”
  • rue d' Antibes · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “rue Antibes”

Where

rue RichelieuCorrect the locationNearby on the big map

More details

Extent
Letter : Paper : Beige, black ; Ht: 25 cm x W: 20,5 cm
Genre / form
textual record
Format
Document
Text in the image
28th Dec. '39I.Philipson,Esq.,119 Castellain Mansions,London.My dear fellows,Yours sincerely,cjhn.caI thank you for your last few letters which I have received and I have noted all your remarks.I have already made an application here for the four people but of course Christmas time has delayed things a bit, I hope, however, to have some news within the next ten days. It is very difficult for me to say whether I shall be successful or not but at any rate I am doing everything possible to hurry up the matter. It was very good to hear that you had made every possible effort to send them money and if it is necessary I shall help myself as much as I can.If you get news from Mr.Gleckson will you please let me know immediately.The amount of £80 per person is a very high amount of money to have to pay to bring them to Brussels and I shall wait until I know the decision here and then we can see what we shall have to do.I was very sorry not to be in a position to cross over for the Christmas and I cannot even say now when I shall be able to go over, however, I wish you all a very prosperous and healthy New Year and please give my regards to all.Read automatically; may contain mistakes.
Language
English
Harvested
2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

Digital objects at the source

Original metadata

As harvested (andornot)