+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Resources For Tracing Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust From France +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ A JewishGen InfoFile By: Bernard I. Kouchel bkouchel@jewishgen.org The book by Serge Klarsfeld, Le Memorial de la Deportation des Juifs de France, contains vital statistics of some 76,000 Jews deported from France. Together with his wife Beate, the Paris-based Serge Klarsfeld has published lists of Jews deported from France and Belgium over the last decades. He was the leading Nazi hunter in France. As a researcher of family Holocaust victims in France, I have often used the Klarsfeld book, "Memorial to the Jews Deported from France 1942-1944". It is of inestimable value, and is useful not only when searching for French victims, but also when searching for victims from other countries. France was one of the more liberal nations in opening its doors to Jewish refugees from Poland, Romania, and Germany. Some 350,000 Jews were living in France when the Germans invaded the country in June 1940. More than half of them were refugees from Germany who had arrived during the 1930s. Many were French citizens whose families had lived in France for centuries and who were fully assimilated. Others had come to France, often from Eastern Europe, to seek a better life and escape from antisemitism. Approximately 76,000 Jews were deported from France between 1942 and 1944. Most went to Auschwitz- Birkenau, where the vast majority were exterminated on arrival. Klarsfeld's book is a most startling document. Nearly the size of the Manhattan (NYC) telephone directory, it lists nearly 76,000 names of Jews deported to Eastern Europe or killed in France. Names are listed in alphabetical order, according to each of the 80 convoys. Family name, first name, birth date, place of birth, and nationality are recorded for every person. Klarsfeld also provides a detailed history of each convoy. The 67,693 deportees from the main transit camp at Drancy alone came from 37 countries including: 22,193 victims from France; 16,354 victims from 'Other'; 14,459 victims from Poland; 6,222 victims from Germany; 3,290 victims Russian refugees 2,958 victims from Romania; 2,217 victims from Austria; [Source: Table,p.xxxvi] The book has no overall alphabetical index. An essential research aid is an available microfiche index [1] which contains an alphabetic list of 50,000 unique surnames that appear in Memorial to Jews Deported From France. The microfiche will indicate which convoy lists you need to search. It shows surname and convoy number. For an online search, see 'Memorial de la Shoah' below. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing and Information Center. 4700 Mt. Hope Drive Baltimore, MD 21215 Contact Linda Klein Director, at (410) 764-5311; Website: http://www.redcross-cmd.org/Chapter/Services/holocaust.html o The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation 32, rue la Boetie Paris 75008 France Website: http://www.Klarsfeldfoundation.org o Memorial de la Shoah: The Memorial of the Unknown Jewish Martyr, Musee, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine' (CDJC), is the largest European information and research center dedicated to the history of the Holocaust. Wall of Names With name after name engraved on pale stone walls, this new monument in Paris pays tribute to the 76,000 Jews rounded up in France during the Holocaust and sent to Nazi death camps. One plaque notes that only 2500 people survived. (Opened Jan. 2005, 60 years after Auschwitz was liberated.) There is a name searchable database ((1)in French) that includes listings from: - Serge Klarsfeld's "Memorial to the Jews Deported From France, 1942-1944" - Jewish victims in the French internment camps. - Jewish dead in The Resistance. Search a person, a victim or resistant. The incorrect transcription of names at the camps was commonplace, so use spelling variants in your name search. Diacritical marks must be included with the name. An English version is under construction. Output includes | Surname | Given name | Date/place birth | Camp | Convoy # | Search here: http://www.memorial-cdjc.org/m_persons/searchResultsAction.do --- Civilité: TITLE: Date de naissance: BIRTHDATE: Nom**: SURNAME**: Prénom: FIRSTNAME: Nom de jeune fille: MAIDEN NAME: Lieu de naissance: BIRTHPLACE: Nationalité: NATIONALITY: Ville de naissance: TOWN OF BIRTH: Date de décès: DEATH DATE: Pays de naissance: COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Veuillez renseigner le champ "nom" ou "nom de jeune fille". PROVIDE SURNAME OR MAIDEN NAME Valide votre demande: CLICK HERE ** obligatory --- Contact information: Memorial de la Shoah 17, rue Geoffroy - l’Asnier (in the Jewish Quarter) 75004 Paris, FRANCE Tel : 33 1 42 77 44 72 Fax : 33 1 48 87 12 50 E mail: contact@memorial-cdjc.org Website: http://www.memorial-cdjc.org/ or http://www.memorialdelashoah.org/ NOTES: (1) Online searches in the CDJC online database can be complex and unproductive. Also search Klarsfeld's book where you can more easily recognize spelling variants. (2) The Paris Police Department has signed an agreement with the CDJC that each will share their respective archives on the occupation and collaboration during World War II. According to Serge Klarsfeld, the police archives contain "tens of thousands" of priceless documents, including arrest warrants classifying Jews by name, address, profession and nationality taken during the roundups in 1941. There are also records of the day-to-day running and accounts of the Drancy transit camp through which most of the 76,000 Jews deported from France to Nazi death camps passed; long lists of confiscated possessions; and the plans and reports relating to many other police operations, including further mass round-ups of Jews. [June 2005] o International Tracing Service (ITS) It has been reported that the ITS, which stores information about inmates of Nazi concentration camps, will open its vast archives to researchers in about 2007. The Arolsen Germany organization has information relating to 17 million deportees, including Jews and non-Jews. The data includes details of people's arrest, deportation, the camp or camps they were sent to, and, if known, their date of death or liberation. (ITS Arolsen files can be viewed at Yad Vashem on microfilm.) The International Tracing Service Grosse Allee 5-9 34444 Bad Arolsen, Germany Telephone: +49 5691 629 0 Fax: +49 5691 629 501 E-mail: itsdoc@its-arolsen.org (documents division) itstrace@its-arolsen.org (tracing section) http://www.its-arolsen.org o United States Holocaust Memorial Museum List of Jews Deported from France A searchable online database containing a listing of Jews deported from France 1942-44. http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_form/frdeport o Legifrance (in French). Official French Government list of over 19,000 persons (and growing), mostly Jews, deported to their deaths from France during WII. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/RechercheSimpleJorf.jsp See English instructions for use of this database at http://www.jewishgen.org/french/links.htm#anchor2 o 'Jewish Traces' has several searchable lists of internees in French camps as St Cyprien Les Milles and Rivesaltes and one Italian camp(most were non-French Jews). http://www.jewishtraces.org/search.php o Deportation Lists combined by Daniel Carouge into a single database. (in French). Lists are organized into a single database, in two separate arrangements: According to place of birth (still incomplete), and alphabetically (complete). http://perso.wanadoo.fr/petit-chemin/Histoire/Accueil.htm See English instructions for use of this database at http://www.jewishgen.org/french/links.htm#anchor2 o Fondation pour la Memoire de la Deportation (in French) http://www.fmd.asso.fr/ o Museum of the French Resistance and the Deportation (in English) http://www.besancon.com/musees/anglais/resist.htm o Yad Vashem (Israel) The Holocaust Martyrs'and Heroes' Remembrance Authority http://www.yad-vashem.org.il In the Hall of Names you can display Pages of Testimony on their computer and also print copies for NIS 2 or 43 cents US. One of the search options is by surname of the person who filed the testimony. Perhaps that can lead to living descendants. ITS Arolsen files can be viewed at Yad Vashem on microfilm. Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names- Their entire database is on the Internet (Since Dec 2004). It includes all names from Pages of Testimony as well as other sources (such as the memorial books by Sarge Klarsfeld and others). [ITS Arolsen files can be viewed at Yad Vashem on microfilm.] http://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Welcome o Join the French SIG, hosted by JewishGen, a forum for questions, exchange of information and discussion of matters involved in doing Jewish genealogical research in France, and other French-speaking areas. http://www.jewishgen.org/french/ ISRAEL MONUMENT: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o In Roglit Israel, near moshav Neve Michaël, a monument to the Jews deported from France was built by the Sons and Daughters of the Deportees (Les Fils et Filles des Deportes Juifs de France). Embedded on its face are the pages from the French memorial book, including the lists with the names of the deportees. Nearby, 80,000 trees are planted as a Forest of Remembrance. See website with photos of the monument. http://www.sdv.fr/judaisme/histoire/shh/roglit/roglit.htm BIBLIOGRAPHY: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Klarsfeld, Serge, 1935- Le mémorial de la déportation des juifs de France / Serge Klarsfeld. Paris : Klarsfeld, [1978] ca. 600 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. A revised French edition to be published by "Editions Fayard" is in the works. It will include, as the previous one, the name, first name, date and place of birth, but also the maiden name of the spouses. It will also include the last known address of each deportee and the camp where they were sent before leaving France. o Klarsfeld, Serge, 1935- Memorial to the Jews deported from France, 1942-1944 : documentation of the deportation of the victims of the Final Solution in France / by Serge Klarsfeld. Mémorial de la déportation des juifs de France. English New York, N.Y. : B. Klarsfeld Foundation, c1983. xxxix, 663 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. [2] o L'Histoire de la Shoah: [History of the Holocaust] CD-ROM De la persécution à l'extermination des Juifs d'Europe [From the persecution to the extermination of European Jewry] Published by Centre De Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC) 17 rue Geoffroy l’Asnier 75004 Paris France. The CD-ROM also contains a searchable list of Jews deported from France, carrying the name, surname, place of birth, date of birth, place of deportation, date of deportation and convoys' number, as well as a special chapter related to France during the Second World War. More at: http://www.memorial-cdjc.org/en/publications.htm o Mémorial de la déportation des juifs de Belgique / présenté par Serge Klarsfeld et Maxime Steinberg. Bruxelles : Union des déportés juifs en Belgique et filles et fils de la déportation ; New York, NY : Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, [1982] ca. 600 p. : ill. ; 29 cm. o Index to Memorial to the Jews deported from France [microform]. [Teaneck, N.J.] : Avotaynu, Inc. c1989. 1 microfiche : negative. o How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust by Gary Mokotoff http://www.avotaynu.com/Holocaust/index.html o Swastika over Paris Jeremy Josephs / Arcade Publishing, Inc. / November 1990. The story of French Jewry under the German occupation of Paris (with forward by Serge Klarsfeld) o Nous sommes 900 Francais, a la memoire des deportes juifs du convoi 73 dirigés sur Kaunas et Reval 5 volumes, 1999-2004, self-published, Eve Line Blum Cherchevsky. [3] ["We are 900 Frenchmen", in memory of the Jews deported in Convoy 73, directed towards Kovno (Kaunas Lithuania) and Reval (Tallinn Estonia)] The volumes are dedicated to the memory of those who died in Convoy #73 (one of whom is the author's father), one of the few convoys which did not end up in Auschwitz. The author found survivng family members, telling the stories of their lives and families, including pictures and other documents for each one. It is less a "memorial" as a testament to their lives, so that they will not be forgotten, or remain just names and numbers on a list. o Le Livre-Memorial des Deportes de France Arretes Par Mesure de Repression et Dans Certains Cas Par Mesure de Persecution - 1945-1945. [The memorial book of deportes from France, arrested as repressive measures and in certain cases as a method of persecution...] (Fondation pour la Memoire de la Deportation, 2004) 4 vols, 1500 pages each. [4] During WW II about 76,000 Jews, including 11,000 children, were deported from France. 85,000 more were deported as Resistance, hostages, etc., among which were included many Jews. These volumes list the 85,000 missing for over 60 years. On each page there is a table that lists for each deportee, the number in the camp (when known), family name, first name, sex, date of birth, place of birth, nationality, entire route (camps in which interned), status (deceased, survivor, unknown) date of release or date of death, place of release or death, comments. Many names have never been published before, and may provide a clue to those who are still seeking some information about missing family. Contact: Fondation pour la Memoire de la Deportation 30, Boulevard des Invalides 75007 - Paris France E:mail:: communication@fmd.assoc.fr -- GENERAL NOTES: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [1] The microfiche index may be available in Jewish genealogical society library collections. For purchase info: http://www.avotaynu.com/microf.html [2] The Klarsfeld book may be obtained via Interlibrary loan. Book purchase info: http://www.interfaith-scholars.org/memorial.html [3] Book purchase info: Eve Line Blum Cherchevsky, eve.line.blum@libertysurf.fr [4] Book purchase info: Mr Cyrille Le Quellec, internement.centredoc@fmd.asso.fr> This is not a publication by Serge Klarsfeld, or his organization. [5] French law of 15 May 1985 requires that assumed dates on war victim Death Certificates be corrected. The death date must be listed as five days after the departure from France (for all the people of a same convoy) and the place to be the town where the train arrived (mostly Auschwitz Poland for the Jews). Be cautious in your research, many published lists still have arbitrary, inaccurate dates. [6] Acknowledgments: Special thanks to individuals who contributed their time to this article: Rosanne Leeson; Eve Line Blum. ---------------------- filename- FR-klars.txt Last revised 24 Nov 2006 Copyright 1998-2006 JewishGen, Inc. http://www.jewishgen.org +----------------------------------------------------------------------+