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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
August 20, 1940 (indexed as 1940)
Level
item
Scope & content
One page. Typewritten in black ink. Personal letter to Julien Wilczur from Serge Philipson. 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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DocumentLetterMoneySignatureTelegramTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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Extent
Letter : Paper : Beige, black ; Ht: 26,7 cm x W: 20,6 cm
Genre / form
textual record
Format
Document
Text in the image
20thAug. '40Julian Wilzeur,Esq.,c/o Pensao,Rodrigues,Rua Braamcamp,Lisboa, Portugal.My dear Julian,Yours sincerely,Julian Wilsour, Esq.,Rodriguez,I have received your letter of the 10th inst. and I thinkyou are doing right in going to Brazil - if it is possible. Iassure you I have answered every letter you sent me and I amsurprised that you have not received them.In regard to your request that I help you, this is not nowa personal business as it is necessary to have permission to sendout money from this country and I can tell you frankly that thedifficulties are tremendous otherwise I would have sent you theamount you asked for without fail. I have made an applicationfor permission to send the money and if I receive this youYou will understand how great the difficulties are when I tellyou that I cannot even send money to my wife and I cannot obtainpermission to bring her over here. If the application is granted,however, I shall let you know by sending you a telegram but do notbe too optimistic, otherwise always at your disposal and I hope tosee you in better times and wishing you good luck,I remain,Read automatically; may contain mistakes.
Language
English
Harvested
2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

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