Letter
1 image
- Held by
- Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
- Dates
- June 10, 1941 (indexed as 1941)
- Level
- item
- Scope & content
- 1 page, single sided with the date in the upper 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.
- In the picture
- DocumentLetterSignatureTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
- Location
No place found in this description yet.
Where
More details
- Extent
- Letter : Paper : Ink : Beige ; Ht: 26,7 cm x W: 21 cm
- Genre / form
- textual record
- Format
- Document
- Text in the image
- 10th June'41My dear Siemion,YoursEncl.I have just returned to Galway to-day and that is the reason I have not answered your letter of the 23rd May before now. I noted all you had to say in it and I feel with you in all these matters but we can do nothing, we can only make the best of things. Of course as you know my responsibilities are very many and also I have to think of the future.I am enclosing £10 for your brother-in-law and £13 for your-self.Now about your going to take a job, I do not know what to say to this as you must decide yourself what is good for you, at any rate I hope it will be only temporary and that times will come soon when I will be able to help you have things your own way but for the time being we have only to stick it out.I have received a letter from my wife to-day in which she tells me that everything is all right, they are all in good health and I really do not ask for any more.I wish you the best of luck and remain.cjhn.caRead 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_77.jpg