Letter
1 image
- Held by
- Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
- Dates
- February 17, 1941 (indexed as 1941)
- Level
- item
- Scope & content
- 1 page, single sided with the date in the upper right corner, and an address in the upper left 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.
- In the picture
- DocumentLetterLetterheadSignatureTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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More details
- Extent
- Letter : Paper : Ink : Beige ; Ht: 26,9 cm x W: 20,7 cm
- Genre / form
- textual record
- Format
- Document
- Text in the image
- 17thFeb.'41Messrs.Lion,24pp Fasteners,3/9 Southampton Row,London W.C.1My dear Leon,Yours sincerely,Zipp Fasteners,I have just received your letter of the 8th inst. for which I thank you. I was very glad to hear that you and your family are well.With reference to Wings Ltd., I would like to point out to you that Mr.Witztum is not much connected with this firm even though he is a Director, he is really only so connected in order to give them all the support he can. I do not agree with what you say Mr.W. did to you and if you look into it you will see that it was only human for him to save his brother-in-law. I have been working with him now for four years and I can tell you I have learned to appreciate him very much in every way and I would be very happy if you could forget this incident which did not mean much to you but a lot to Mr.W having thus saved four families and I still ask you to do all possible to help these people. Knowing you as I do I feel certain you will do your best.Will you please give your family my best wishes and the same to yourself. Hoping to see you soon,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_63.jpg