Joseph Dortort (M / Germany, 1928), Holocaust survivor

From left to right: Rudi Oehlbaum, Egon Berlin, and Joseph Dortort at Chateau de la Hille

Joseph Dortort (M / Germany, 1928), Holocaust survivor

< Martha Dortort (F / Germany, 1922-1942), Holocaust victim >

Emil Dortort (M / Germany, 1924-194?), Holocaust victim

• KEYWORDS : <Germany> -- <Refugees, Belgium> <Home Speyer> -- <Refugees, France> <Seyre> <Chateau de La Hille> <Partisans>

Biography

Martha (1922), Emil (1924), and Joseph (1928) were the children of Julius Dortort (1891-1945). They lived in Bottrop, Germany. In 1939 Emil and Joseph went to Belgium on a Kindertransport. They were hosted as refugees at Home Speyer. When Germany invaded Belgium in 1940, they fled to France. They spent the winter in Seyre before finally settling at Chateau de La Hille in the Pyrenees.

Joseph was the only member of the family to survive. Emil was arrested and deported; he perished in Majdanek. Father Julius and sister Martha, who had remained in Germany, were deported in 1942. Julius perished in Dachau in January 1945, Martha in Stutthof.

With his friends, Rudi Oehlbaum and Egon Berlin, Joseph Dortort joined the French Maquis resistance fighters in 1944 at age 16 and fought in a battle at Roquefixade in July 1944. Egon and 16 young French fighters were killed in this battle. Oehlbaum and Dortort survived the war.

Sources

• AJPN USHMM -- confirmed