André KANE

André KANE

André Kane was born at 9 a.m. on October 25 1939, at 68 rue Émile-Zola, in Saint-Quentin, in the Aisne department of France[1]. The Second World War had begun less than two months earlier[2].

André’s parents were Abram Fejbus Kane, born on January 25, 1903 in Czarkob, Poland, and Golda Szapsiowitcz[3], born on December 9, 1906 in Warsaw, also in Poland. They were married and their first son, Leib (later known as Léon in France), was born on February 9, 1929, in Lodz, a large textile manufacturing city in Poland.

France: the Alsace region, then Saint-Quentin

André’s parents were travelling salespeople: they ran a market stall and sold hosiery and knitwear). One record states that Golda Kane arrived in France in 1932, two years after Abram. Did they emigrate to escape the rampant anti-Semitism in Poland, or rather due to the Great Depression that shook the world, including the city of Lodz, in the 1930s?

When the Kane family first arrived in France, they set up home in the Alsace region of France, where there was a large, centuries-old Jewish community. André’s sister, Renée, was born on March 20, 1932 in Dambach-la-Ville, in Alsace. By the time André was born, they had moved to 40 Rue des Glatiniers in Saint-Quentin, in the Aisne department. They most likely fled Alsace to avoid the impending German invasion.

Saint-Quentin, around 100 miles from Paris, was easily accessible by train and rental prices were lower there than in the capital. Fairs had been held in the town since medieval times, as it was in an area well-known for its textile industry, which had grown larger since the Industrial Revolution. There was also a significant Jewish community in the town, the first recorded evidence of which dates back to 1234. The town’s first synagogue, built in the 19th century on rue Poiret, was destroyed by the Germans during the First World War. A new one was built on Rue Michelet between the wars. In the 1920s and 1930s, large numbers of migrants arrived in Saint-Quentin, and by 1939, there were 70 Jewish families in the town. Many of the new arrivals came from working-class backgrounds and were communists or left-wing activists, mainly from Poland. They founded a mutual aid society[4]. There was a strong sense of solidarity among the families, who all knew each other and met regularly at fairs and in the synagogue.

In the spring of 1940, many families fled Saint-Quentin as the German army advanced through the Ardennes. By May 17, 1940, there were only 4,500 residents left in the town, including four Jewish families[5]. The rabbi, David Zloty, told the Jewish community to leave town, after which he had to close the synagogue. We do not know what the Kane family did at that point. We know that only four families stayed behind, but we do not know who they were. Several families moved back to Saint-Quentin after the fighting was over.

On September 27, 1940, the Germans ordered the first census of Jews in the occupied zone and issued their definition of who was to be considered a “Jew.” Very few people from Saint-Quentin went to the town hall or the local police station to register themselves as Jews, but Abram and Golda were among them. Their names were put on the list of foreign Jews[6].

In accordance with a German decree dated May 29, 1942, which came into effect on Sunday, June 7, Jews in the occupied zone were required to wear a yellow star on their clothing, which was a deliberate discriminatory policy. Some Jews attempted to evade the Germans by obtaining false identity documents.

The wearing of the yellow star and the stamping of the word “Jew” on identity cards were imposed in addition to the Aryanization of Jewish-owned assets and the anti-Semitic restrictions that were already in place: Jews were banned from parks, theaters, movie theaters and other public places, and were no longer allowed to work in certain professions. They could only go shopping at specific times and also had to abide by a curfew, which began at 8 p.m., 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., depending on the town in question, and ended at 6 a.m.

André Kane did not have to wear the yellow star because he was under six. All Jews who were six years old or over had to wear the star sewn onto the left breast of their coats or jackets.

The Kane family was still in Saint-Quentin in July 1942: the parents’ names are on a list of foreign Jews in the town at the time of a roundup that took place in the town from July 18-20[7]. They were arrested at home, in front of their three children. Afterwards, the children were cared for by their uncle Aron Siapsiovicz[8], Golda’s brother, who lived at the same address but was not arrested because he had been naturalized as a French citizen[9]. Sick and disabled Jews were not taken immediately, so they came back a few days later for Golda, who was bedridden, and took her to Drancy by train from Tergnier, a town some 20 miles south of Saint-Quentin.

Abram, André’s father, arrived in Drancy camp on July 21 and was deported on Convoy 12 on July 29, 1942. The French military police took Golda away on August 25, first to their “barracks” and then on to Drancy[10]. She was deported on Convoy 26 on August 31, 1942.

1001 people were deported on Convoy 12, including 514 women and 270 men, whose names were only recorded after the convoy reached its destination. A total of 1000 Jews were deported on Convoy 26, including more than 200 children who were arrested during the Vel d’Hiv roundup.

The names of the three Kane children are included on a list of “Jews of foreign nationality living in St. Quentin and scheduled for evacuation”. This list includes many children and seniors. They were all arrested between October 8 and 9, 1942, and arrived in Drancy on October 16[11].

Léon/Leib, who was 13 years old, was handed over to the Germans on November 3 and deported to Auschwitz the following day on Convoy 40, along with 1,000 or so other people.

The two youngest siblings were spared deportation for the time being. Shortly after they were interned in Drancy, they were transferred to a hospital and then handed over to a Jewish welfare organization called the U.G.I.F. (Union Générale des Israélites de France, or General Union of French Jews). The Vichy government, at the behest of the Germans, had founded the U.G.I.F. in 1941, supposedly to represent Jews in their dealings with the authorities and to provide assistance and welfare services. The U.G.I.F. also ran a number of children’s homes, and took in children who had been arrested but not deported with their parents, among others.

André, who was 3 years old at the time was thus “liberated”[12] from Drancy along with his sister Renée, who was 11. They were moved between various U.G.I.F. children’s homes until André was sent to the La Varenne orphanage and Renée to the home in Saint-Mandé. The Nazi authorities kept track of where such children were staying,

André was a fragile child and was admitted to hospital several times. He was taken to the Claude-Bernard Hospital in Paris[13], on February 13, 1943, and then again on July 12. After that, on August 21, 1943, and then on October 4, 1943, he was admitted to the ear, nose, and throat department of the Rothschild Hospital, where he had surgery[14].

While André was staying at a nursery in Neuilly, a woman named Mrs. Cazzanica, who lived at 14 Rue de Santeuil in the 5th district of Paris, sometimes picked him up on Sundays and took him to visit his sister. A voluntary worker with the U.G.I.F. she devoted her time to helping children who had lost their parents to regain some semblance of family life. There are records of five such Sunday outings[15]. André was then transferred to the Varenne-Saint-Hilaire orphanage in Saint-Maur, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, not far from the one where his sister was staying.

It was there, during a roundup on July 22, 1944, that he was arrested for the second time,. His sister was also arrested again, as the raids on the U.G.I.F. children’s homes in and around Paris all took place at around the same time. They met up later in Drancy, where some 250 other children were also being held.

On July 31, 1944, André was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz-Birkenau aboard Convoy 77. The travelling conditions on the journey were appalling. The1,306 deportees of all ages spent three days and three nights shut in cattle cars, before arriving in the early hours of the morning on the night of August 3-4, 1944. Some people died along the way. One can only imagine how anxious and frightened those poor children must have been.

There were 342 children aboard the train. André was only 5 years old, so there was no possibility of him being selected to enter the camp to work. Along with all the other little children, he was sent straight to his death in the gas chambers in Birkenau.

Andre’s name is inscribed on memorial plaque on the site of the children’s home in Saint-Maur.

We were unable to find a photo of little André, sadly.

We are among a group of 9th grade students from the Les Blés d’Or middle school in Bailly-Romainvilliers, in the Seine-et-Marne who signed up for the Convoy 77 program, which involves writing biographies of Jewish deportees. 

We are Lou, Kiara, and Swane. We wrote this biography over the course of the 2024-2025 school year, during which we met once a week to work on historical records research André Kane’s life story. We researched online and also visited the Camp des Milles, where we saw Serge Klarsfeld’s exhibition dedicated to children, and the Shoah Memorial, where we had the opportunity to study records in the archives.

We would like to thank the Convoy 77 project team and our teachers for helping us to undertake this memorial project.

Some of our classmates researched the story of Andre’s sister, Renée, who was also deported on Convoy 77. We urge you to read her biography as well.

Notes & references

[1] See the work of Damien Bressolles and the 12th grade ST2S students from the Jean-Bouin High School: “Ici non plus, on n’oublie pas… Histoire de la communauté juive de Saint-Quentin sous l’Occupation” (Here too, we shall never forget… The history of the Jewish community in Saint-Quentin during the Occupation) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XBTQQ1egNGXqkOFB0U60sCrFq8_7Rlfg/view

[2] Ibid.

[3] The spelling is unclear.

[4] Damien Bressolles op. cit., p. 3. and Icek Goldring’s report dated September 1945, “Les Juifs à Saint-Quentin” (The Jews of Saint-Quentin), CMXXV/10/2/1: report by the Saint-Quentin branch of the UJRE (Sept. 1945), Shoah Memorial.

[5] Damien Bressolles op. cit.

[6] Aisne departmental archives, cited by Daniel Bressolles, op.cit.

[7] Aisne departmental archives ref. 984 W 139.

[8] Spelling uncertain, possibly Siapsioviez. Damien Bressolles notes that this uncle Aron did not live in Saint-Quentin and is not listed in the Saint-Quentin census records. He previously lived in Paris, where he was a tailor.

[9] Damien Bressolles, op.cit. He too was later deported.

[10] “French military police report to the prefect. “Report on the capture of the Jewish woman Golda Kane, née Siapsioviez, to be deported,” Aisne departmental archives, ref. 984 W 139, in Bressolles, op. cit., p. 23. All records pertaining to arrests in this town are contained in this file.

[11] Ibid. List of Jews arrested in Saint-Quentin, October 16, 1942.

[12] They were classified as “blocked children”: they were no longer in the Drancy camp, but were nevertheless kept under Nazi control. The rest of their story confirms this.

[13] The Claude-Bernard Hospital, which was in the north of Paris, has since been demolished and merged with the Bichat Hospital in the 18^th district.

[14]  Yivo Institute for Jewish Research archives, RG 210-59, Microfilm 490-43_0097, Shoah Memorial, Paris.

[15]  Yivo Institute for Jewish Research archives, RG 210-59, Microfilm 490-43_0097, Shoah Memorial, Paris.