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

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Held by
Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
Dates
January 26, 1942 (indexed as 1942)
Level
item
Scope & content
One page. Narrative: In the 1920’s Serge and Sophie Philipson (nee Orbach) left Berlin for Paris due to rising antisemitism. On July 15, 1930 their daughter Rachel was born. Serge, Sophie and Rachel were Polish citizen, they never got either the German or the French citizenship. In Paris, Serge worked for Les Modes Modernes, the hat factory of his brother-in-law, Henri. When an opportunity to expand the business in Ireland arose, Serge moved to Galway. The new factory opened in July 1938. In August 1939, Sophie, Rachel, and 4 other family members (Rachel’s cousin Stéphane, his maternal grandmother Néné, Serge’s sister Esther and Serge’s sister-in-law Choura) left for Cabourg, in Normandy. After the winter 1939-1940 it became difficult to communicate with Ireland but Rachel and Sophie could still send and receive letter from Serge. At the end of winter 1940, the group moved to Néris and in July 1940, after the occupation of France by Germany, they settled in the zone libre in the village of Cauterets, on the border with Spain. They were reunited with Robert, Serge’s brother. In August 1942, 4 family members (Sophie’s sister Ella and her husband Ernest, their daughter Ruth, Serge’s siblings Robert and Esther) were arrested by local police and deported. They were not seen again. At the beginning of 1943, Sophie, her mother Augusta and Rachel moved to Maubourguet. In April 1943, they moved to Cannes in Hotel Victoria with Henri, Stéphane and Néné. Henri, Sophie and Augusta went into hiding together while cousins Stéphane and Rachel were taken care of by Néné and returned to Maubourguet. In January 1944, Henri, Sophie and Augusta were denounced and arrested. They were transferred to Marseille before being sent by train to Drancy transit camp from where they were deported. It is believed they were killed in a Polish killing centre. In 1944, Rachel moved from one place to another – under a non-Jewish identity - and continued to correspond with her father. In June 1945, she reunited with her father Ireland. They had not seen each other for 6 years. In 1951, Rachel got married. In 1954, she immigrated to Montreal.
In the picture
DocumentFactoryHatJewish CommunityLetterLetterheadMilitarySignatureTax RollTypewrittenWarTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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Extent
Letter : Paper : Beige, black ; Ht: 26,5 cm x W: 20,7 cm
Genre / form
textual record
Format
Document
Text in the image
26th Jan. '43Hermann Arnet, Esq.,Wohlen,Argovie.My dear Mr.Arnet,26th Jan. '42I have received your letter of the 3rd Sept. 1941 and I sent you a telegram telling you that everything is well here, I hope you have received this.I was very happy to hear that my family and Henri and Marcel are all well as I have not had news from them for quite some time. I will enclose a letter which, perhaps, you would be so kind as to send to my wife.Senator McKellin, Mr.Witztum, Mr.McDermott and all the others thank you very much for your regards which they heartily reciprocate, this also includes Herley who they all remember very well. I am glad he is now in your business and I think he will make a good business of it.Now to come to business, I shall tell you in a few short what the position is. Since Marcel joined up I have not touched any of the merchandise lying here for reasons which I will explain to you when we meet sometime. Of course, the merchandise is at your disposal but I think it would be very difficult to send them to Switzerland as an export licence would be necessary and this, I may tell you, is very difficult to obtain. At any rate the whole thing is lying here and so much for that.The Hat Factory is still working with full pressure, in other words we are still producing between 2,000 and 3,000 hats per day in the season and we have still sufficient supplies to keep us going without difficulties for the next 12 months maybe longer. Of course it is very difficult for me to tell you everything in a letter concerning the business but so much I can tell you and that is that there is every reason to be satisfied so far. I would like you to see the Factory going, we have extended it of course, and I am sure you would be very pleased to see it. All the rest I think I shall have to leave over until it is possible for us to meet again.I would be very glad if you would write to Henri and Marcel and let them know that they should not worry about anything as things are going as well as possible. I only hope that it may please God to let us meet again, a happy family, after this war is over.Wishing yourself and Herley all the best,Yours,Read automatically; may contain mistakes.
Language
English
Harvested
2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

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