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André BLUMBERG
Photo of André Blumberg. Source: © family photograph belonging to Lionel Levha, Madeleine Blumberg’s son
André Blumberg was born on September 26, 1928 in the Rothschild Hospital in the 12th district of Paris. His parents were Rose Blumberg, née Krantzler, who was born in 1896 in Constantinople, Turkey, and Armand Iberz Blumberg a tailor born in 1895 in Warsaw, Poland. André was their third child and their first son. His parents were both Jewish and were naturalized as French citizens on March 6, 1929. André acquired French citizenship “in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of the Act of August 10, 1927” as he was born in France to naturalized parents.
When he was born, his parents were living at 17, rue de Clignancourt in the 18th district of Paris. Armand was a tailor, while Rose was a seamstress.
André had two older sisters: Anna, born in 1922 and Madeleine, born in 1926.
He also had a younger sister, Simone, who was born in 1932, who was sent to live in hiding in 1943, and two brothers: Serge, born in 1930, and Alain Louis, born in 1944.
According to his sister Madeleine (who passed on the information to her son), André got on very well with her. The siblings had a happy childhood even though their father was quite strict.
André went to school on rue Charles-Hermite and then to another on rue de la Guadeloupe, both of which were in the 18th district of Paris. He was 16 years old in 1944.
Ten-year register of births in the 12th district
Source: File on André Blumberg © Paris archives
André’s father Armand and his mother Rose
Source: © family photographs belonging to Lionel Levha
Anna and Madeleine
Source: © family photograph belonging to Lionel Levha
Simone and Serge Blumberg
Source: © family photograph belonging to Lionel Levha
Alain Louis
The only member of the family of whom we have no photos, because Alain was born in Drancy camp and murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was just two weeks old.
The arrest
The Gestapo arrested the Blumberg family in their apartment on rue Charles-Lauth during the night of July 7-8, 1944. The reason for the arrest was “as Israelites”, meaning Jews. The Grinberg family, who lived in the same building, were also arrested that night. The circumstances surrounding the arrest (which took place as a result of “a deliberate or unintentional tip-off by someone else who lived in the building”) are described in a record in Armand Ybersz Blumberg’s file.
André was taken away with his father, Armand, his pregnant mother, Rose, and his brothers and sisters (Madeleine, Serge, and Anna). They were all interned in Drancy camp, north of Paris, on July 8. Simone, the youngest daughter was not deported because she was being kept hidden in the countryside.
When he arrived in Drancy, André was assigned prisoner number 24,953.
The family remained in Drancy for 23 days. His mother gave birth to a baby boy, Alain Louis, on July 17.
Deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau
On July 31, 1944, the Blumberg family was deported on Convoy 77 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The baby, Alain-Louis was transported in a little box lined with muslin.
When the train arrived in Birkenau during the night of August 3-4, 1944, Rose and baby Alain-Louis were immediately put on a truck that took them to the gas chambers, where they were murdered.
16-year-old André was selected to enter the camp for forced labor, as were his father Armand, his 14-year-old brother Serge, and his sisters, Madeleine and Anna.
André had the number B. 3697 tattooed on his forearm. On January 4, 1945, his name was listed in the Auchwitz camp infirmary (“revier”) logbook[1] and he was given treatment of some sort on the 9th, This is the last trace we have of him while he was alive. The Auschwitz infirmary had no medication, and by that time, in January 1945, the Nazis had already evacuated the camp. Very few people were still there when the Red Army marched through the camp gates on January 27. Was André one of the people who, although very sick, witnessed the liberation of Auschwitz but did not live to tell the tale, or did the Germans simply not have time to record his death before the Soviet troops arrived? Either way, André never came home.
The Convoy 77 deportation list
Source: File on André Blumberg © Shoah Memorial, Paris
Notification of the granting of political deportee status
Source: File on André Blumberg © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n° 21 P 247 29274890
After the war
After the war, his father, Ybersz Armand, took the necessary steps to have André recognized as a political deportee and to have the courts pronounce him dead.
On October 5, 1954, André was granted the status of “political deportee” (meaning that he was deported for political reasons, and more specifically because he was Jewish)
On May 16, 1958, Ybersz Armand obtained court judgement that pronounced André dead.
The ruling was based on a request for “testimony” to the effect that André had never “returned home.” Only one witness was named, Mrs. Louisot, the widow of a Mr. Mathieu, who appears to have been living at 18 Charles-Lauth Street. Was Armand rebuilding his life with her, or was she just a neighbor? It is impossible to say.
André’s father was granted the sum of 12,000 francs as “payment for the heirs of deceased political deportees or internees.”
Declaration of death issued by the court
Source: File on André Blumberg © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n° 21 P 247 29274890
Statement confirming that André never returned home
Source: File on André Blumberg © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n° 21 P 247 29274890
Confirmation of payment
Source: File on André Blumberg © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n° 21 P 247 29274890
We would like to thank Mr. Lionel Levha, Madeleine Blumberg’s son, for sharing the Blumberg family’s memories with us. Thank you too for allowing us to publish the family photographs.
We would also like to thank Muriel Baude, a teacher at St Charles High School in St Pierre, Réunion, who began working on this biography in 2018, and a group of 12th-grade students from Camille Guérin High School in Poitiers who also contributed to the research.
[1] Available at the Bad Arolsen archives.
