Letter
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- Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
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- item
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- Two pages. Typewritten in black ink. Letter to Senator McEllin about business. 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.
- In the picture
- DocumentHatLetterManufacturingMarketRibbonTypewrittenWholesaleTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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- Letter : Paper : Beige, black ; Ht: 25,5 cm x W: 20 cm
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- textual record
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- Document
- Text in the image
- London, September 27th, 1939As I know that you have Friday a meeting with thewholesalers to fix the new prices for the month of October,I should like to give you in this respect some informationabout the position and situation here. I am now here sinceFriday and my impression is that we will have very bigdifficulties in getting raw materials. The reasons arevarious and the main reason is that England cannot get anyforeign hoods and the whole actual stock is in the hands ofthe manufacturers and they don't sell them, because theyneed them for their own business. The wholesale has notany stock and the hood manufacturers are more than busy.The only way to get hoods is to find out people who havesome and would like to sell them, but that takes a lot oftime. For instance, today I have bought from one wholesaler540 dozens hoods in chocolate only. Now I have to find outanother man who has navy to sell etc.etc. Further I am innegotiations for another 1000 dozens black navy nigger whichwill be decided Friday. In conclusion,I am trying to makeas many connections as possible and I do my best to find asmany hoods as I can. The prices are various, some ask 14/-a dozen, another 13/-. I feel that either they don't know whatprice they have to ask for. The 540 dozen nigger I havepaid cash 11/3 a dozen and the 1000 dozen in question whichis a better quality shall cost 12/3. I have sent to Mr.Goldberg a letter which I have received from Hubbard, and Iwould like you to read it. So far, that is about hoods.Now the other materials are for the moment easierto get, in comparison with hoods, but the prices are terrifichigh. Take for instance the shellack which we have paid53/- is now between 100 and 150/-. I bought in a house about10,000 yards of cire ribbon which I have paid about 80% morethan before the war. It was the only house in London whereI could get this kind of ribbon and in such a large quantity.things which we need for making hats. I am very glad totell you that we will get from Charles Cooper about 4 tonsof lime wood at 7/6 which will help us for the next eightmonths for shape making. The actual price is about 10/-.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_37-1.jpg
- imageOpen original at source ↗2002_08_37-2.jpg