Where
Not on the map yet.
- Held by
- Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
- Dates
- [Prior to 1946] (indexed as 1946)
- Level
- item
- Extent
- Letter : Paper : Handwritten : Ink : Beige, Blue, Black, Green, Red ; Ht: 8 in. x W: 5 3/4 in.
- Scope & content
- 1 page, single-sided. Folded 3 times horizontally, once verticaly. Document is an unsigned, undated letter addressed to 'dear Father'. Anna (probably Chana Bercovicz) is mentioned as sending her love, and an address in Herault. The last 3 lines of the letter are written in different inks and different handwritings. The final line is in French and states that 'the children will leave with me' (trad.) Narrative: Tuwja (Tuwyas, Tuwia, Tuvia, Tobias) Bercowicz (Berkowicz) was the father of the donor, Jack (Jacques) Berkowicz. Born in Vilna, Tuwyas immigrated to Belgium in 1933 and when Belgium fell to Nazi Germany in 1940, he fled to France, hoping to reach Morocco by boat from Marseilles. The donor's mother, Chana (Chane, Annie) (Trompeter) Berkowicz, born in Mielec, Poland, was living in Vienna, Austria with her parents and two sisters. In 1938, after the German annexation of Austria, the family fled, driving to France via Belgium. Tuwyas and Chana met in Lyon, France in 1941 and married. Their daughter Dorothée was born in 1942. The family attempted to flee France by boat in Marseilles, but were stopped by Vichy police. They fled Marseilles and went south, into the Pyrenees region, living in various small vilages. Their son Jack was born in Bernac-Dessus in 1944. The family survived the war and returned to Brussels from 1945-1948, and then immigrated to Canada with the help of the American Joint Distribution Committee. They were sponsored by Tuwyas' sister Luba, who was already living in Halifax. The Berkowicz family settled in Montreal.
- Location
No place found in this description yet.
- Genre / form
- textual record
- In the picture
- Court RecordDocumentHandwrittenLetterTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
- Text in the image
- Freitag(Herault)Les enfants partissent avec moiLes enfants partiront avec moi12 bis rue Jules-Ferry MontpellierRead automatically; may contain mistakes.
- Language
- German
- Harvested
- 2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot
Digital objects at the source
- imageOpen original at source ↗2005_1_33.jpg