Letter

Held by

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

Dates

March 10, 1943 (indexed as 1943)

Level

item

Extent

Letter : Paper : Beige, black ; Ht: 25,5 cm x W: 20,5 cm

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.

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Genre / form

textual record

In the picture

DocumentFactoryGovernmentImmigrationLetterLetterheadSignatureTaxationTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

)French.Austrian origin.Department of External Affairs.Dublin.Les Modes Modernes, Ltd.Ref. 202/285.The Secretary.10th March, '43.Dear Sir,We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter from Feb.25th., and express our regret that we did not reply at an earlier date owing to the illness of Mr. Philipson.We thank you for your decision to grant Irish visas to Mrs. and Miss Philipson on their expired passports, and we fully understand that you have done everything within your power for them.We sincerely appreciate the consideration and kindness which you have shown throughout this difficult case and we wish to convey to your Department our gratitude for the assistance you have so generously given us.We are enclosing herewith a cheque for £ 3.1.2 in accorance with your request.Yours faithfully,Secretary.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_195.jpg