Introductory note by Leon Zamosc
The following material comes from Serge Klarsfeld's MEMORIAL TO THE JEWS DEPORTED FROM FRANCE 1942-1944 (published in English in 1983). This massive work (the size of a telephone book) contains very complete listings of the Jews who were deported from France in train shipments, most of which went to Auschwitz. More than 70,000 names are listed, with data about birth dates and places and citizenship. For each convoy, there is information about how many people were gassed on arrival, how many were selected for work, and how many were still alive at the end of the war.
Klarsfeld's book on the French deportees is important for Gombiners. Until WWI, most Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe had flocked to America. Between the wars, however, anti-immigrant sentiment and legislation made it very difficult for them to come to this country. France, which also had been absorbing Jews from the East since the 19th Century, became one of the main destinations. Over 150,000 Jewish immigrants and refuges entered France between the wars, about 60% of them from Eastern Europe. On the eve of WWII, the Eastern European Jews (legal and illegal) had come to represent about two-thirds of the Jewish residents of Paris.
There were many Gombiners among these Jewish immigrants in Paris, and also among the 77,320 Jews who were deported from France to the extermination camps of the East. Scrutinizing the lists for each train convoy in Klarsfeld's book, I found the names of twenty-two persons who had been born in Gombin. They are listed in the table below. The original Klarsfeld listings include some additional data about these deportees, and I will be very glad to share the information with anyone interesed (write to The Gombin Society, P.O. Box 503052, San Diego, CA 92150).
GOMBINERS DEPORTED FROM FRANCE
Name of Gombiner (birthdate), date of departure, place of departure/destination
Bernard, Macha (1907), SEP1942, Drancy/Auschwitz
Bursztejn, Maryem (16 JUL 1914), AUG1942, Beaune Rol/Auschwitz
Finkelkraut, Zoner (4 JUN 1932), SEP1942, Drancy/Auschwitz
Frenkel, Zylberszte (3 MAY 1883), SEP1942, Malines(Belg)/Auschwitz
Fuksa, Max (16 JUL 1900), MAR1943, Drancy/Maidanek-Sobibor
Goldszmidt, Jacob (15 MAY 1885), SEP1942, Malines(Belg)/Auschwitz
Krachevitch, Feiga (15 MAR 1885), JUL1944, Drancy/Auschwitz
Makarowsky, Nuchka (26 DEC 1897), SEP1942, Drancy/Auschwitz
Makovoski, Idel (23 SEP 1903), JUN1942, Pithiviers/Auschwitz
Rafal, Chaim (16 FEB 1886), FEB1943, Drancy/Auschwitz
Rosenblum, Chaja (1917), JUL1942, Pithiviers/Auschwitz
Rozanska, Hodys (4 MAY 1902), AUG1942, Beaune Rol/Auschwitz
Sender, Icek (6 FEB 1916), JUL1942, Pithiviers/Auschwitz
Zajak, Israel (5 MAR 1907), JUL1942, Pithiviers/Auschwitz
Zawierucha, Riwka (10 JAN 1919), JUL1942, Drancy/Auschwitz
Zawierucha, Fajga (22 MAY 1924), JUL1942, Drancy/Auschwitz
Zawierucha, Perla (1890), JUL1942, Drancy/Auschwitz
Zawierucha, Mordka (27 OCT 1921), JUN1942, Drancy/Auschwitz
Zielonka, Leon (17 FEB 1913), MAR1943, Drancy/Auschwitz
Zylberberg, Szrul (8 DEC 1905), MAR1943, Drancy/Maidanek-Sobibor