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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
June 01, 1940 (indexed as 1940)
Level
item
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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DocumentHandwrittenHotelLetterResidential AreaSignatureTravelTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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Extent
Letter : Paper : Beige, blue ; Ht: 26,8 cm x W: 20,8 cm
Genre / form
textual record
Format
Document
Text in the image
Pau, le 1. VI. 40Paris, le 1. VI. 40Mon tout cher! C'est seulement aujourd'hui que j'ai reçutes lettres du 15 et 21 mai. C'est bien pénible de restersi longtemps sans nouvelles et certainement tu n'as pasen des lettres de moi non plus. J'espère que ta santésoit tout à fait rétablie si je pourrais venir auprèsde toi et te soigner! Je ne pense pas que tu demandessérieusement que je fasse ce voyage en ce momentce n'est qu'un désir non réalisable, soyons fous etimaginais ton ennui; je pense comme toi. Ne m'écris plus rien sur la situation, seulement deschoses personnelles. Tu as raison ce que nous concerne,c'est si peu important en comparaison ce qu'il sepasse actuellement. Pour aller dans les Pyrénéesil faut en réfléchir. On trouve nulle part des logementsen ce moment et c'est très difficile de voyager.Madame Clavin se trouve à Biarritz. Si elle noustrouvait quelque chose? et puis je ne sais pas sielle y pourrait séjourner. Pour le moment noussommes tranquilles ici, c'est seulement très ennuyantque j'ai donné congé. Maintenant je trouveraisdifficilement un appartement et je dois payer bienplus cher pour être bien mal logé. Tant pis!Read automatically; may contain mistakes.
Language
French
Harvested
2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

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