Germaine ISRAEL née JOSEPH

 

This biography was written by the 12th grade students of class ST2S3 class at the Rosa Parks high school in Thionville, in the Moselle department of France, during the 2023-2024 school year. They worked with a collection of material compiled by their teacher, including various types of records, such as administrative documents, newspaper clippings, extracts from the UGIF archives, testimonies from the girls who survived after having been deported on Convoy 77. These sources are listed at the end of the biography. The students and their teacher would like to thank Jan Altshool, a descendant of Germaine Israël-Mortier, for both the information she provided and for allowing us to use her photographs of Germaine, and also Becky Imhauser for putting us in touch with her.

Family background

Germaine Joseph was born in Sarreguemines, in what is now the Moselle department of France, on November 20, 1889 (1). Her parents were Félix Joseph, a master butcher, and Mélanie Borg. In common with many other municipalities in the region, Sarreguemines was annexed to the German Empire from 1871 to 1919. Félix Joseph, her father, was born in 1839 and fought in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 (2). Germaine had several siblings (3), including two brothers, Paul Joseph and Camille Joseph, and a sister, Clemence Joseph Kahn, who went on to marry Arthur Kahn, who lived in Sedalia, Missouri, USA (4).

Germaine’s first marriage and the First World War

At some point, the young Germaine left France and set off across the Atlantic. The first evidence of this dates back to November 11, 1910, when The Sedalia Democrat newspaper published a marriage announcement reporting that Germaine Joseph, a young Frenchwoman much admired in social circles in Sedalia, Missouri, was to marry to George Press, the son of the owner of the “Palace Clothing” company. The newlyweds were to go on honeymoon in the Eastern U.S., visiting Washington, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Chicago and various other cities (5).

By August 3, 1914, when Germany declared war on France, Germaine was back in Sarreguemines, together with her baby, Madeline.

A few days before September 20, 1914, Germaine received a telegram: it said that there had been an explosion and a fire at the family firm on August 30, 1914, and that her husband George Press had died as a result of horrific burns (6). She wrote a letter to her family in America, which was published in The Sedalia Democrat on October 20, 1914 (7). In it, she said she was distraught by this terrible news, and explained that she would like to go to Sedalia to be with her in-laws, but that there were no trains in the Sarreguemines area of France, and that the government had requisitioned all the automobiles for the war effort. Germaine did her best to overcome her grief, and to take her mind off it, she joined the Red Cross, where she helped the nurses to care for wounded soldiers (8).

Her second marriage

Around two years later, Germaine, who was still a young woman, a widow and the mother of a young daughter, got married again.

On August 28, 1916, in Sarreguemines, Germaine married Lucien Israël-Mortier, a horse trader who was born on July 19, 1874 in Louvigny, in Normandy (9). The couple had four boys: Raoul Eugène, born on February 2, 1917, Jean, born on July 10, 1918, Jacques, born on August 1920 and Guy, born on July 17, 1931 (10).

In February 1919, Germaine’s father, Félix Joseph, died at the age of 79 at his home in Sarreguemines, where he had lived all his life. It was thought that he died as a result of health problems caused by the harsh living conditions during the First World War (11).

 

Germaine must have had her work cut out raising her daughter and four sons, as on November 21, 1924, when she and her family were living at 1 rue Vauban in Metz, she placed a classified ad in the Le Lorrain newspaper, looking for a home help (12).

The family then moved to 2 rue Saint-Charles in Metz, where Lucien Mortier took over a butcher’s shop (the reopening was advertised in the Le Lorrain newspaper on August 18, 1932 (13).

Germaine was still very busy. In March 1933, she put an ad in the Metzer Freies newspaper looking for someone to do housework and to care for Guy, her youngest son, who was 20 months old at the time (14).

A few years later, Lucien fell sick with an “insidious disease” (15) and was no longer able to work in the butcher’s shop. On September 4, 1937, Germaine sold the business to Albert Collignon, who originally came from Strasbourg (16).

Lucien finally succumbed to his illness and died on May 30, 1938: a Jewish funeral service was held at the Jewish Cemetery in Metz (17).

Germaine found herself a widow once again.

Germaine and her family caught up in the turmoil early in the Second World War

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which sparked off the Second World War in Europe. On September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Two of Germaine’s sons were called up to defend their homeland: one went off to fight on the Maginot Line, while his brother joined the air force. For several weeks, Germaine had no news at all from her two boys, who were swept up in the war (18).

On May 20, 1940, Jean Israël-Mortier, one of Germaine and Lucien’s sons, was killed in action at Oramont in the north of France. The young soldier was just 21 years, 10 months and 10 days old (19).

What happened to Germaine during this period remains a mystery.

Germaine Joseph in Paris

In January 1944, Germaine took a job with the UGIF (Union Générale des Israélites de France, or General Union of French Jews). She worked as an accountant at the Vauquelin center, at 9 rue Vauquelin in Paris (20). It was around this time that she began to use the name Germaine Mortier. She probably used only the second half of her surname to disguise the fact that she was Jewish.

The Vauquelin center was a children’s home for girls. Some of them were orphans, but others had been placed there by Jewish families in the hope of hiding them and keeping them safe from the Nazis.

On July 8, 1944, Germaine Mortier was appointed ” head of section “, meaning the she was in charge of the Vauquelin center (21). On July 11, 1944, Georges Edinger, the chairman of the UGIF, authorized her to take “all necessary steps” to keep the home’s police register (22), which meant she had the authority to record all the residents’ and visitors’ comings and goings.

Arrest and deportation

The war was already drawing to a close when the commandant of Drancy internment camp, Aloïs Brunner, ordered that all the children in the UGIF homes in and around Paris be arrested.

During the night of July 21-22, 1944, at 5 a.m., the SS descended on the children’s home and took the girls, still in their nightgowns, to Drancy. Yvette Lévy, another victim of the roundup, remembers that all the girls sang songs on the way to pluck up courage (23).

Again, according to Yvette Lévy, Germaine went back to the home a few days later to fetch some things for the girls who were interned in Drancy (24).

Germaine Wagensberg, another girl from the Vauquelin center, later testified (25) that during their time in Drancy, Germaine, who spoke German, probably because she was originally from Moselle, acted as their interpreter.

The journey to Auschwitz began on July 31, 1944 at the Bobigny train station, where the deportees and their belongings were crammed into cattle cars. Convoy 77, the last major transport of Jews from France, was ready to leave. Germaine’s name is on the original deportation list for Convoy 77 (26).

According to Germaine Wagensberg’s testimony, Germaine “did not pass” the selection (27), meaning that she was not deemed fit enough to work in the concentration camp. When it came to her turn, a young girl from the children’s home, Rachel Honigmann, clung to the principal’s arm, refusing to let her go. However, Germaine Wagensberg said that neither Germaine nor Rachel made it through the selection process. They were sent straight to the gas chambers.

Germaine Joseph died in Auschwitz when she was 54 years old (28).

Sources:

1. French Defense Historical Service: AC 21 P 464447 (birth record).
2. “Parent died in Lorraine”, The Sedalia Democrat, March 28, 1919, p. 3.
3. The Sedalia Democrat, March 28, 1919, p. 3.
4. “Home of kin of Mrs. Kahn in Lorraine confiscated”, The Sedalia Democrat, October 1 1940, p. 1.
5. “George Press is to wed”, The Sedalia Democrat, November 11, 1910, p. 15.
6. “Fatal explosion”, The Sedalia Democrat, August 31, 1914, p. 1-8.
7. “A letter from Mrs. Press”, The Sedalia Democrat, October 20, 1914, p. 7.
8. The Sedalia Democrat, October 20, 1914, p. 7.
9. AC 21 P 464447 (marriage record); “Sedalian weds in France”, The Sedalia Democrat, June 24, 1917, p. 1.
10. AC 21 P 464447 (family civil status record).
11. “Parent died in Lorraine”, The Sedalia Democrat, March 28, 1919, p. 3.
12. Le Lorrain, November 21 1924.
13. “Réouverture de la boucherie populaire” ( Popular butcher’s shop reopens), Le Lorrain, August 18, 1932.
14. Metzer Freies Journal, March 1, 1933, p. 12.
15. Le Lorrain, June 2, 1938 (Lucien Mortier’s obituary).
16. Le Lorrain, September 5, 1937.
17. Le Lorrain, June 2, 1938.
18. “Home of kin of Mrs. Kahn in Lorraine confiscated”, The Sedalia Democrat, October 1, 1940, p. 1.
19. “Johann Israël”, French Defense Historical Service: AC 21 P 49218, https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/ark:/40699/m00523ceba640278
20. “Réponse à la note du 10 mars 1944. Personnel régulièrement employé” (Response to the memo of March 10, 1944. Regular staff”,), Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, UGIF Archives, Series 5, 46, Report of section 21, Nov.1943 – July 1944 (Box 44, Folder 3, Reel MK 490.42 (RG 210)
21. “Rapport du 15 juin au 15 juillet 1944” (Report from June 15 to July 15, 1944) Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, UGIF Archives,, Serie s5, 46, Report of section 21, Nov.1943 – Jumy 1944 (Box 44, Folder 3, Reel MK 490.42 (RG 210)). This document probably includes Germaine’s original signature.
22. Shoah Memorial, CDXI-102.
23. Yvette LEVY née DREYFUSS, Convoy 77 project.
24. Yvette LEVY née DREYFUSS, Convoy 77 project.
25. Germaine WAGENSBERG, Convoy 77 project.
26. From the original deportation list, Convoy 77.
27. Germaine WAGENSBERG, Convoy 77 project.
28. Another biography of Germaine Joseph: J. Altshool, “Germaine Press. Heartache & Heroism”, in B. Imhauser’s, All Around Dowtown. Sedalia, Missouri, vol.2, 2023. p. 74-75.