Category:Izieu (subject)

Children's Home in Izieu, France (see Holocaust Children Studies)

Overview

In November 1942, Nazi Germany took control of the areas under the Vichy Regime. The children's home in Izieu was opened in April 1943 to serve as a refuge for Jewish children threatened with arrest and deportation. The home, part of the OSE's network of hiding places, was established in an empty farm house in a remote mountain village overlooking the Rhone River valley. It was run by Sabine Zlatin, Jewish nurse and OSE activist, with her husband Miron.

The original group of children that lived in the Izieu home were transferred from the Palavas-les-Flots OSE center and the Campestre à Lodève home (both in the Hérault), which had recently been closed. Some of the children who lived there were French, while others had come from Belgium, Austria, Algeria, Germany and Poland. Although the Izieu home was independently operated, the Zlatins received a stipend for each child from the OSE.

In September 1943, with the Italian surrender to the Allies, the Germans occupied the area of Nice in southern France formerly under Italian control, and started to hunt down Jews in the vicinity. Approximately one month later, the Germans carried out a raid on a children's home near Marseilles in southern France, sending the occupants to Drancy. News of the raid reached the other children's homes in southern France, further eroding their sense of security. The directors of the OSE made the decision to evacuate the children and gradually close down the children's homes. Georges Garel's rescue network ultimately took responsibility for the majority of the children, some of whom were smuggled into Switzerland.

Despite the fact that the children's home in Izieu was in an out-of-the-way place and didn’t attract attention, the decision was made to evacuate the children hidden there too. On 3 April 1944, Sabine Zlatin travelled to Montpellier to look for hiding places for the children in her care.

On the morning of April 6, 1944, one year after it opened, the home was raided in an operation planned by the Lyon Gestapo, under the command of Klaus Barbie. They had been tipped off by an informant. The raid, which took place on a French holiday, took everyone by surprise. Only one person, Léon Reifman, a medical student who took care of the sick children, managed to escape and hide in a nearby farm. Sabina Zlatin was still away at the time, in her mission at Montpellier.

In all, 44 children and seven adults were rounded-up in trucks and taken to the Fort Montluc prison in Lyon. The following day they were transported by train to Drancy, so as to preclude attempts by regional authorities to secure their release. From Drancy, Miron Zlatin and two children were sent to Tallin, Estonia, where they were taken to a fortress and shot to death. The others were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where all but Léa Feldblum were sent directly to the gas chambers, including Sarah Lavan-Reifman, who refused to be parted from her son Claude. Feldblum survived Auschwitz and immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1946.

In 1987, Klaus Barbie was put on trial in France, and convicted of crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to life-imprisonment.

The Children of Izieu and Their Care-Takers

These are the names of the 44 Jewish children of Izieu arrested on 6 April 1944, deported and murdered at Auschwitz:

1. Sami Adelsheimer (M / Germany, 1938-1944)
2. Hans Ament (M / Austria, 1934-1944)
3. Nina Aronowicz 11 Belgium
4. Jean-Paul Balsam 10 France
5. Max-Marcel Balsam 12 France
6. Elie Benassayag 10 Algeria
7. Esther Benassayag 12 Algeria
8. Jacob Benassayag 8 Algeria
9. Jacques Benguigui 12 Algeria
10. Jean-Claude Benguigui 5 Algeria
11. Richard Benguigui 7 Algeria
12. Barouk-Raoul Bentitou 12 Algeria
13. Albert Bulka (M / Belgium, 1939-1944)
14. Marcel Bulka (M / Poland, 1930-1944)
15. Lucienne Friedler 5 Belgium
16. Egon Gamiel 9 Germany
17. Liliane Gerenstein 11 France
18. Maurice Gerenstein 13 France
19. Henri-Chaim Goldberg 13 France
20. Joseph Goldberg 12 France
21. Claudine Halaunbrenner 5 France
22. Mina Halaunbrenner 8 France
23. Georges Halpern 8 Austria
24. Arnold Hirsch 17 Germany
25. Isidore Kargeman 10 France
26. Liane Krochmal 6 Austria
27. Renate Krochmal 8 Austria
28. Max Leiner 8 Austria
29. Claude Levan-Reifman 10 France
30. Fritz Loebmann 15 Germany --Fritz LOEBMANN, born on March 12, 1929, in Mannheim, Germany, was one of the 44 children from Izieu. His mother, Mathilde, was deported on convoy 20 of August 17, 1942. Fritz had a forged ID in the name of François Loban and worked in a farm near the Izieu home. He was deported on convoy 71 of April 13, 1944.
31. Alice-Jacqueline Luzgart 10 France
32. Marcel Mermelstein 7 Belgium
33. Paula Mermelstein 10 Belgium
34. Theodor-Théo Reis 16 Germany
35. Gilles Sadowski 8 France
36. Martha Spiegel 10 Austria
37. Senta Spiegel 9 Austria
38. Sigmund Springer 8 Austria
39. Sarah Szulklaper 11 France
40. Herman Tetelbaum 10 Belgium
41. Max Tetelbaum 12 Belgium
42. Charles Weltner 9 France
43. Otto Wertheimer 12 Germany -- Otto WERTHEIMER, was also at Izieu and was deported on convoy 71. He was born on February 5, 1932, in Baden-Wurtenberg. His parents, Wilhelm and Hedwig, were deported on convoy 20, having been transferred to Drancy from Gurs in the Vichy Zone.
44. Emile Zuckerberg 5 Belgium -- Emile ZUCKERBERG est né le 15/05/1938 à Anvers en Belgique. Rassemblé à Lyon, il est déporté à Auschwitz le 13/04/1944 par le convoi n°71. Fils de Zygmund et de Serla, tous deux déportés le 14 septembre 1942 par le convoi n°33 après avoir été internés à Rivesaltes. Séparé de sa monitrice, Léa Feldblum il fut "sélectionné" pour la chambre à gaz.

7 adults were arrested on 6 April 1944, deported and murdered. They also perished at Auschwitz with the only exception of Laja Feldblum:

1. Lucie Feiger 49 France
2. Mina Friedler 32 Poland
3. Sarah Levan-Reifman 36 Romania
4. Eva Reifman 61 Romania
5. Moïse Reifman 63 Romania
6. Miron Zlatin 39 Russia
7. Laja Feldblum 26 Poland

A member of the adult staff was the only to escape arrest:

1. Léon Reifman 29 Romania

in addition to Sabine Zlatin who was not at Izieu at the moment of the raid.

Source: Serge Klarsfeld, The Children of Izieu – A Human Tragedy (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1985), 6.

French Children of the Holocaust

Nina Aronowicz was born on November 28, 1932, in Brussels, Belgium. She was one of the 44 children of Izieu. Her parents, Szyja-Leib and Mieckla, fled Belgium and found themselves in southern France at Palavas-les-Flots (Hérault). Sensing that their arrest by the Vichy police was imminent, the parents entrusted Nina to a non-Jewish French family, the Regnats, who took the child into their home in nearby Lunel ... After leaving the Regnats, Nina lived for a short time in the Jewish children's home in Campestre, from where, along with other children, she was transferred to Izieu ... Nina's mother was deported on September 11, 1942, on convoy 31. Nina's father met the same fate on December 7, 1943, on convoy 64. Nina was deported on convoy 71 of April 13, 1944.

Max-Marcel Balsam was born on May 15, 1931, and his brother Jean-Paul Balsam, on June 6, 1933, both in Paris (12th arr.). They were among the 44 children from the Izieu home. Their father, Salomon, was born in Warsaw; he was deported on March 27, 1942, on the first convoy from France, and was murdered in Auschwitz on April 24, 1942. The Balsam family lived in Paris. In addition to the two boys, there were two girls, Hélène, born on January 16, 1921, in Paris, and Berthe. The mother, Selma, went with Berthe to Villeurbanne (Rhône), rue Henri-Rolland; in the meantime, the three other children and their grandmother, Tauba, were arrested during the big roundup of February 1943. The children, liberated from Drancy and transferred to the UGIF children's center in the rue Vauquelin, managed to rejoin their mother in Villeurbanne. Jean-Paul was sent to Izieu and Max to the Catholic school in Belley. For Easter vacation of 1944, Max went to visit Jean-Paul in Izieu. Léon Reifman, the brother of the Izieu doctor, picked Max up at the Belley school and accompanied him by bus early in the morning of April 6, the day of the roundup at Izieu. The two brothers were deported on convoy 71 of April 13, 1944. Three days after the roundup, their sisters, ignorant of the tragedy, came to visit their brothers and learned what had happened.

[[Esther BENASSAYAG], born on April 29, 1931, Elie BENASSAYAG, born on November 20, 1933, and Jacob BENASSAYAG, born on September 1, 1935, were from Oran, Algeria. There were six children in the family. The father, David, was born in Reibell Chellala, Algeria; the mother, Fortunée, in Mostaganem. The family lived in Marseilles and their father was deported on March 23, 1943. Three of the children were sent to the children's home in Izieu. They were deported with all the other children from Izieu on convoy 71 of April 13, 1944.

Jacques BENGUIGUI was born on April 13, 1931, Richard BENGUIGUI on March 31, 1937, and Jean-Claude BENGUIGUI on December 26, 1938, all in Oran, Algeria. They were three of the 44 children from Izieu. Their mother, Fortunée Messaouda, née Chouraki, was born on April 30, 1904, in Oran. Arrested in Marseilles, she was deported on July 31, 1943, to Auschwitz on convoy 58. She was used as a guinea pig on Block 10 for medical experiments and, while she was there in the camp, learned that her three boys had been deported and killed. On her liberation, she weighed only 84 pounds, but her humanity was an inspiring example: she spent some time taking care of a paralyzed German woman (non-Jewish), the mother of two children. When she returned to France, she had the after-effects of the suffering she had endured, but she also had her young child, Yvette, who had escaped arrest. Born on March 2, 1941, Yvette had had to leave Izieu because she was too young; she had been entrusted to neighboring farmers. Fortunée Benguigui's participation in a hunger strike with Beate Klarsfeld in Munich in 1971 has become legendary. This is what Jacques wrote to his mother on May 30, 1943, from Izieu: O Maman, my dear Maman, I know how much you've suffered on my account and on this happy occasion of Mother's Day I send you from afar my best wishes from the bottom of my little heart. So far from you, darling Maman, I've done everything I could to make you happy: when you've sent packages, I've shared them with the children who have no parents. Maman, my dear Maman, I leave you with hugs and kisses. Your son who adores you. The three boys were deported on convoy 71 of April 13, 1944, Jacques's 13th birthday. Fortunée Benguigui died in 1988 on the day that she received the Legion of Honor medal.

Barouk-Raoul BENTITOU was born on May 27, 1931, in Palikao, Algeria. He was one of the 44 Izieu children. In this family of eight children, the father and three boys were murdered by the Nazis. The father, Abraham, was arrested during the big roundup of January 23, 1943, in Marseilles, with his sons Maurice, born March 24, 1922, in Palikao, and André, born October 28, 1923, in Palikao. All three were deported to Sobibor on March 23, 1943. Barouk-Raoul (second from the right) was arrested in Izieu and deported on convoy 71 of April 13, 1944.

See also:

Charles Baron was 16 years old when he was deported on convoy 34 of September 18, 1942. His parents, Anna and Moritz, had preceded him on convoy 10. They lived at 38 rue Fessart in Paris (19th arr.). Charles Baron survived and became an activist devoted to keeping alive the memory of those who were deported.

Yad Vashem

Liliane Gerenstein was born in 1933 to musician Alexandre Chapse-Gerenstein and his wife Chendlia Entine. Alexandre and Chendlia, both from Odessa, immigrated to France and settled in Paris. Liliane's brother Maurice was born in 1931. In November 1943, Alexandre and Chendlia were deported on Convoy 62 from Drancy to Auschwitz.

It is not known exactly when Liliane came to live in the children's home in Izieu. On the morning of the raid , her brother arrived there too as his boarding school had closed for Easter. Leon Reifman, one of the staff, brought him to the home together with his friend, Max-Marcel Balsam, whose brother Jean-Paul was also living there. All four children were arrested in the raid, and deported from Drancy on 13 April 1944 to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.

Alexandre, who played in the orchestra at Auschwitz, survived and immigrated to the US. In 1983, he submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem in memory of his children, Maurice and Liliane, and his wife Chendlia.