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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
October 07, 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.
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DocumentImmigrationJewish CommunityLetterLetterheadSignatureTypewrittenWarTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.
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Extent
Letter : Paper : Ink : Beige ; Ht: 26,6 cm x W: 20,7 cm
Genre / form
textual record
Format
Document
Text in the image
7thOct. '41M. Wheal,Esq.,12 Burlington Rd.,Dore, Sheffield.Dear Mr.Wheal,Yours sincerely,Owing to my absence from Galway for the last fortnight I only received your letter a few days ago for which I thank you sincerely.I cannot tell you how glad I was to get some news about my family even though they were not 100%. I can assure you that I have made every possible effort to bring them over here but so far I have not succeeded as the difficulties are tremendous. I have made immediate arrangements to have the visa for my wife extended and I have made a lot of enquiries here as to what would be the best way to go about getting them over but it seems to me not to be very easy. However, I have not despaired yet and I still hope that some day in the near future we will be together here.I was very happy about one thing and that is to know they have money to live on as it is practically impossible to send anything from here.Looking at things as they actually are it is unbelievable to think that humanity could fall to such a low level but there is no other solution only to be resigned and to suffer.I was very happy to receive the picture of my child and I may tell you that I got the same one from my wife.If my family succeed in coming over here I shall of course let you know and maybe sometime after the War we shall meet on the bed of circumstances again.I thank you again very sincerely for your interest and kindness and wishing you and your family all the best of luck,I remain,Read automatically; may contain mistakes.
Language
English
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2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

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