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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
July 15, 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.
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DocumentFamilyHandwrittenImmigrationLetterMilitarySignatureTypewrittenWarTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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Extent
Letter : Paper : Ink : Beige ; Ht: 27 cm x W: 21,2 cm
Genre / form
textual record
Format
Document
Text in the image
15thJuly'41My dear Robert,YoursI have just received your letter sent by Rosner and I was very sorry and upset to hear that Mother was ill. I am in a most unfortunate position here as I cannot do anything to help them and as you know I would be only too willing to do anything that would help them in any way. I will take your advice and ask the people you suggest if they can do something. Unfortunately you did not send me the address of our parents but I will get this from Sala. I wrote several letters to Goldie asking her to do everything in her power to help our parents but I see now by your letter they have received nothing. This is terrible.I was glad to hear that you are all in good health and will you please give my love to your wife and mother-in-law.Everything is all right here, business is going well and we have plenty of supplies for the time being, I am in good health myself also. You can imagine how I would like to see you and the family but the only thing we can do is hope that the war will be over soon.If you are writing to Henri tell him that there is a good chance of getting his visa but so far we have not received final notice about it, we are expecting it any day now and I shall send him a telegram when I get word.Joe, Schaga and Isaacs are all well. I should be glad to get more letters from you telling me how you all are.I send my love to everybody, especially to Esther as I forgot her in my last letter anhoping to see you soon,I remain,Read automatically; may contain mistakes.
Language
English
Harvested
2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

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