Letter

Held by

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

Dates

January 1946 (indexed as 1946)

Level

item

Extent

Letter : Paper : Beige, black, blue ; Ht: 33,7 cm x W: 21,2 cm

Scope & content

One page. Double-sided 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.

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Genre / form

textual record

Format

Document

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AffidavitDocumentIdentity CardJudgmentLegal DocumentMilitaryPoliticsSealSignatureTaxationTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

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Dated the day of January 1946I, Szulim Philipson of 8 Anglesea Road, Donnybrook, Dublin, Company Director do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:-Declared before me by Szulim Philipson who is personally known to me at 6 Dawson Street in the City of Dublin the day of January 1946A Commissioner for oaths(1) I was born on the 23rd of January 1902 in the City of Warsaw in Poland. My parents were Abraham Philipsohn of that City and Hannah Philipsohn (née Reichmann) his wife.(2) I had in my possession prior to and in the year 1937 an official copy of the entry of my birth appearing in the proper Register in the said City of Warsaw, but left it with other papers in my flat in Paris when leaving that City in 1937. During the recent war my flat was seized by German troops and all my papers removed. It is not possible for me to obtain another copy of the said entry by reason of the present state of Europe.(3) I make this declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act 1938Read 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_191b.jpg