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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
May 26, 1943 (indexed as 1943)
Level
item
Scope & content
1 page, typed in the center of the page, with the date in the top right corner. 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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DiplomacyDocumentGovernmentImmigrationJewish CommunityLetterLetterheadOffice WorkSignatureTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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Extent
Letter : Paper : Ink : Black, Beige ; Ht: 26,8 cm x W: 20,7 cm
Genre / form
textual record
Format
Document
Text in the image
M/MB26th May'43The Secretary,Department of External Affairs,St.Stephens Green,Dublin.Re. Mrs.Sophie Philipson and daughter Rachel.A chara,Sinne le meas,Some time ago you were good enough to report on the position in Fr[ance] of the above named wife and daughter of our General Manager and your efforts and consideration in this behalf were very much appreciated both by him and by my Board.As, however, the report indicated that the people were very uneasy about their position our General Manager was very worried and this worry continues to grow as he has had no communication with them either directly or indirectly and his anxiety has become practically unbearable owing to the position existing on the Continent at the present time.I am, therefore, once again to ask your kind assistance in this case and to request that, if at all possible, you would please be so good as to get into telegraphic communication with Mrs. Philipson at Cauteret and find out how she and her daughter are faring.We shall be only too pleased to reimburse you for any expenses you may incur in the case and anything you can do will indeed be appreciated.Read automatically; may contain mistakes.
Language
English
Harvested
2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

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