In Montpellier, staying with my friend Francois, I got stuck into his genealogy, into his maternal lineage, he having had a Russian Bessarabian Jewish grandmother Anna Roitman, originally Shperberg. Her husband Felix alias Ephim Roitman was gassed in Auschwitz by the Nazi's. He was a lovely man, an artist, and Francois had some decorative paintings of his, flowers upon trays and on a lampstand. Felix's wife, Anna, and daughter Lucile escaped but 15 minutes before the Nazi's would have taken them away, warned by the concierge of their building, for which they took flight to free France, far from Paris. They took refuge in a monastery and there converted to Christianity. Anna's conversion was simply for survival, she and Felix having been athiests, whereas Lucile (Francois's mother) took the Christian experience deeply into her heart. In Bessarabia, modern Moldova, the family came from Kishinev where they were petit bourgeois. It took a while of detective work and some stamina, to then discover much upon the Shperberg line. Annas's parents had run a paint shop. Her father Bentsion appears to also have been a victim of the holocaust. His own father, Shimon, son of Avram, died in his 50's of a lung infection. A couple of days later I worked even more on Francois's genealogy. Up till now I'd looked only at his Bessarabian side, which did fascinate. Now I got to look at his French side, for which we visited his elderly father Pierre Joly who produced a whole grand tree of his ancestry which was from Burgundy, German Switzerland and the Jura. Besides I was able to inspire Pierre to talk of family stories. As a boy, Pierre had been so close to his Swiss granny Julia Joly née Kuhn, who eventually would die from asthma. She had previously worked as head chef for the nobility and one day there had arrived a handsome hussar, who on delivering a package of money to the countess was rewarded by being sent to the kitchen for a meal. It was on setting eyes upon this good looking man, Charles Felix Joly, that Julia fell in love. As she would later say 'The devil tempted me into loving this man'. Having taken her to her room and become pregnant they would marry and this she would regret, for she was from a good Swiss family and he was a poor 'good for nothing'. There was no work for him at his home in Burgundy, so Julia brought him to Switzerland so her family could find him work, only for his mother, Marie Claudine, to get furious and make such a fuss that they returned to France. He was her only son. His father had died when he was but 11 years of age. Even Pierre would say of his Hussar grandfather Charles Felix Joly, he was 'not a pleasant man and wasn't often at home.' Whereas Pierre loved his Swiss granny and even lived with her for some years when he was a small boy. Pierre's father Arthur Jean Auguste Joly was a miller, mechanic and mender of bikes. He was hard working and wasn't at home much either. He died from a heart attack, while in recovery from an appendicitis operation. Pierre's mother Aimée née Lamy was a discreet woman, always exhausted with her six children who she announced would bring her to her death for all their noise and naughtiness, and yet she would live a long life, as would Hussar Charles Felix Joly. Aimée's maiden name, Lamy, was as common a surname in the Jura as Smith was in England. Aimée's mother Leonie, Pierre would never know as she died before he was born, aged 55, from breast cancer. Louis 'Old man' Lamy, Aimée's father, was stately and pompous, with a little moustache. He had a machine factory, where Arthur Joly worked from the age of 12, and on there meeting Louis's daughter, Aimée, he'd fallen in love. When they wanted to marry, Louis said he would never accept his daughter marrying a worker, so they had to wait till they were of age, marrying against his will, for which Old Man Lamy was forbidden to come to their house (though he would when his son in law was at work and besides, Pierre often met him when returning from school and would sit on his knees chatting with him and liked him a lot). So there was the tale of a French Swiss family. Pierre himself was good looking and a ladies man. He met Lucile Roitman when they were both students at the Sorbonne. He was a village boy and she was a sophisticated Parisian and an adept organiser, for which he admired her. They were both religiously active in converting people to catholicism, both devout, although in later life Pierre became an athiest. Despite her Jewish origins, from a young age Lucille had loved Christianity, which she always remained true to. I'd heard the story from Francois and now heard of this from Pierre, that the parish vicar who had been hiding Lucille and her mother Anna from the Nazi's, whom Anna had worked for as his servant, converted Lucile when she was aged 11. I emotionally connect with the ancestors I research, and felt it deeply, the loss of their beloved kind Felix to the Nazi holocaust. When the concierge had warned Anna that Jews in the area were being rounded up, thus enabling their escape, Felix was in hospital getting a check up for a minor ailment and he was taken prisoner from there. All these French Jews were put in a camp near Paris called Drancy, whole families with their children being crowded in there and some famous Jews. Anna would send parcels of provisions for him. Even she'd recieve his dirty laundry, wash it and send it back clean. Felix occupied himself while there in doing portraits. There was ever hope in those days, illustrated in their letters to one another, which Francois showed me later; a hope that the war situation would reverse and they would be reunited. Their photographs I got to see, visions of a lovely family. But under SS Nazi dominion, they suddenely having taken over command of Drancy, wagons of inmates began to be sent far away to Auchwitz, most of the occupants to be gassed immediately on arrival. It breaks ones heart to read of this and that Felix was one of those sent to Auchwitz himself. He was part of convoy number 32, journeying in a convoy of 1,000 Jews to Auschwitz on September 14th 1942, 893 of them who were gassed at the end of their journey, dear Felix being one of them. Anna was a single mother now, considered to be a Christian. She would be quite well off ultimately, being compensated by the Germans for them having killed her husband. It was Francois who cleared Anna's Montpellier apartment when she died, selling her furniture and paintings. He never found any documents of hers or Felix's Bessarabian origins. As a genealogist this to me is tragic, the loss of such papers. Like, in regard to Felix, I can find nothing of his own Roitman ancestry, there being no birth record, or of his marriage to Anna, nothing; a complete standstill.
3 Comments
François Joly
12/18/2019 05:35:09 am
Many thanks for Susie for this research, which I find faithful to my father's and my own answers to her skillful questions. The new information she gleaned on the Internet and then drafted in such a deft resumé is a great contribution to my family's memory, and the only one in English that I know of. Thanks a million Susie !
Reply
11/30/2020 05:26:40 am
Hello,
Reply
Susie Harrison
11/30/2020 05:50:04 am
Dear Cloe,
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
All
|