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 ; Ht: 26,7 cm x W: 20,5 cm

Scope & content

One page. Typewritten in black ink. Personal letter from Serge Philipson to Marcel (?). 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

Clothing StoreDocumentFactoryFamilyGarment IndustryLetterSignatureTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

20thAug. '40M al des Lojes,M.Goldberg,Esq.,19th Train, 3 cie,Nerac, France.My dear Marcel,Yours sincerely,I have received your letter of the 7th July and I am glad to hear thatunder the circumstances you are as well as possible and I was also glad to hear that your parents are in good health.From time to time I receive news from my people and I think and hope that they are all in good health. If you have occasion to see my wife and Rachel give them my best regards and kisses and tell them that for the time being it is practically impossible to get permission for them to come over here, furthermore, I do not really see anyway for them to come but I hope this will be easier in a few months time.About your London office, I have left it as it was as I think it is quite all right.Regarding the Factory here I can only tell you that business is not too bad - we are doing our utmost to keep it running and we are succeeding very well. Of course it is difficult to see into the future but we have done very well in the last half year and we hope to do well the next six months also, of course our big problem is always variety.Wishing you and your parents and all friends all the best,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_42.jpg