Anna RIBAULT, née BLUMBERG

Enlargement of the photo of Anna Blumberg
Source: © photo belonging to Mr. Lionel Levha, Madeleine Blumberg’s son

Anna Blumberg was born on January 2, 1922 in the 12th district of Paris.

Anna’s birth certificate
Source: File on Anna Blumberg © Paris archives

Anna Léone was her parents first child. They were Armand (Ybersz) Blumberg, a tailor, and Rose Blumberg, who was not working at the time. According to her birth certificate, when Anna was born on January 2, 1922, they were living at 9 rue Baudelique in the 13th district of Paris. They were both naturalized as French citizens on March 6, 1929.

Armand et Rose Blumberg, her parents
Source: © photos belonging to Mr. Levha

She had two younger sisters: Madeleine born in 1926, Simone, born in 1932 and three brothers: André born in 1928, Serge, born in 1930, and Alain Louis, born in 1944.

Anna, along with her sister Madeleine, went to the school on rue de Torcy in the 13th district of Paris.

Photo of the Blumberg family
Anna, her father Armand, Simone and Madeleine

André and Serge
Source: © Photos belonging to Mr. Levha

Alain Louis
Little Alain is the only member of the Blumberg family of whom we have no photo. Born in Drancy camp, he was murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau when he was just two weeks old.

On December 14, 1943, Anna married André-Robert Ribault, who had previously worked in the rubber industry. He was not actually present at the wedding, however, as he was a private in the 77th Infantry Regiment of the French army, and was a prisoner of war in Germany at the time. The marriage certificate states that the marriage “will be deemed to have taken place on June 16, 1943”.

Marriage certificate
Source: File on Anna Blumberg © Paris Archives

The marriage certificate also reveals that Anna was a rope-maker and was living with her parents. She was still living with them in 1944, when she and the rest of the family were arrested.

Anna
Source: © Photo belonging to Mr. Levha

Anna was 21 years old in 1944.

In 1952, the building’s concierge, Mrs Putmans, testified to having witnessed Anna’s arrest.
Source: File on Anna Ribault © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n°21P 647 69948378

The arrest

The Blumbergs were arrested in their home at 18 rue Charles Lauth during the night of July 7-8, 1944. They were taken to Drancy internment camp, north of Paris, on July 8. The Grinbergs, who lived in the same building, were arrested at the same time. 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.

Anna, her father, Armand, her pregnant mother, Rose, and three of her siblings (Madeleine, André and Serge) were taken to Drancy camp.

When she arrived in Drancy, Anna was assigned the number 24.951. The family were interned there 23 days. It was during that time, on July 17, that Rose gave birth to Alain Louis.

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 little Alain-Louis were immediately put on a truck that took them to the gas chambers, where they were murdered. Armand, Madeleine, Anna, Serge and André were all selected to stay in the camp to work.

There is a record of Serge, aged 14, being held in the Sachsenhausen camp in December 1944. André was admitted to the Auschwitz infirmary in January 1945, shortly before the camp was liberated. We found no further trace of him after that.

Anna, Madeleine and their father Armand all survived their time in the camps and returned to France.

In Auschwitz, Anna had the number A 16787 tattooed on her forearm.

We know that Anna kept in touch with the Renée Grinberg, who was arrested in the same building and at the same time. In 1952, Renée testified to the fact that she had been deported with Anna. Anna also cited Renée as a witness to her arrest.

Together with her sister Madeleine and Renée Grinberg, and a large number of other women deported on Convoy 77, Anna was sent to the Kratzau concentration camp in the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia on October 21, 1944. The Russian army liberated the camp on May 8, 1945.

Renée Grinberg’s witness statement
Source: File on Anna Ribault © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n°21P 647 69948378

Medical report
Source: File on Anna Ribault © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n°21P 647 69948378

The return to France

Anna survived her time in the camps (as did her sister Madeleine and her father Armand). She was repatriated to France on May 28, 1945.

Her medical records reveal that Anna had lost around 26 pounds in weight and was suffering from amenorrhea and diarrhea, which was the case for many of the women deportees. She also had dental problems.

After the war

Anna was granted the title of political deportee in 1955 and as such was eligible for compensation. She received 13,200 francs in 1956. Two official records show that Anna was still living in the apartment where she and her family were arrested, at 18 rue Charles-Lauth. This was also her father’s official address.

She does not appear to have kept in touch with her sister, Madeleine, after the war.

Anna’s marriage certificate was updated in 1978 to reflect the fact that she was separated from her husband. She had several children, including a daughter, Josiane Ribault (married name Pessan), with whom Madeleine’s son, Lionel Levha, managed to re-establish contact.

Anna died on November 11, 2001 in Eaubonne, in the Val-d’Oise department of France. She probably died in hospital or a nursing home, as her death certificate still lists her address as 18 rue Charles Lauth, in Paris.

Notification of the granting of Political Deportee status
Source: File on Anna Ribault © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n°21P 647 69948378

Confirmation of deportees’ compensation payment.
Source: File on Anna Ribault © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n°21P 647 69948378

Anna’s death certificate
Source: Eaubonne town hall death register

 

We would like to thank Mr. Lionel Levha, Madeleine Blumberg’s son and Armand’s grandson, for sharing with us his memories of his mother and 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.