Letter

Held by

Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Dates

August 20, 1940 (indexed as 1940)

Level

item

Extent

Letter : Paper : Beige, black ; Ht: 26,7 cm x W: 20,6 cm

Scope & content

One page. Typewritten in black ink. Personal letter to Julien Wilczur from Serge Philipson. 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.

Location

• rue Richelieu · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “rue Richelieu”
• rue d' Antibes · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “rue Antibes”

Correct the location

Genre / form

textual record

Format

Document

In the picture

DocumentImmigrationLetterLetterheadMoneySignatureTelegramTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

20thAug. '40Julian Wilzeur,Esq.,c/o Pensao,Rodrigues,Rua Braamcamp 9Lisboa, Portugal,My dear Julian,Julian Wilsour, Esq.,Rodriguez,I have received your letter of the 10th inst. and I think you are doing right in going to Brazil - if it is possible. I assure you I have answered every letter you sent me and I am surprised that you have not received them.In regard to your request that I help you, this is not now a personal business as it is necessary to have permission to send out money from this country and I can tell you frankly that the difficulties are tremendous otherwise I would have sent you the amount you asked for without fail. I have made an application for permission to send the money and if I receive this you shall get it otherwise I cannot do anything for you. You will understand how great the difficulties are when I tell you that I cannot even send money to my wife and I cannot obtain permission to bring her over here. If the application is granted, however, I shall let you know by sending you a telegram but do not be too optimistic, otherwise always at your disposal and I hope to see you in better times and wishing you good luck,I remain,Yours sincerely,Read automatically; may contain mistakes.

Language

English

Harvested

2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗2002_08_41.jpg