Berthe DOLLFUS, née LAZARD (1867-1944)

Berthe Lazard was born on April 12, 1867 in rue des Allemands in Metz, in the Moselle department of France. Her parents were Salomon Lazard, a butcher born in the Metz area and Rosine Weiler, who originally came from Prussia. Berthe had one brother, Henry, and two sisters, Cécile and Lucie [1].

After Prussia defeated France in 1870, the Alsace and Moselle regions were annexed into the German Empire. In common with many other families, the Lazard family decided that they would prefer to become French citizens (as evidenced by the Official French law gazette on July 1, 1872 [2]) and moved to France, probably to the Paris area. In fact, the first trace we found of Salomon Lazard and his wife was in the 1886 census of Vincennes, in the eastern suburbs of Paris [3]. Rosine Weiler’s name is spelled wrongly on the census form, which may suggest that she had a strong German accent that the census taker did not quite understand. The family appears to have been quite poor at that time. In 1891, Salomon was working as a butcher’s boy and Henry, who was also living with his parents on rue Massue, was a travelling salesman [4].

 

On June 5, 1888, Berthe Lazard married Justin Auguste Roux in Vincennes [5]. The marriage did not last long, and Justin seems to have left without a trace. The French newspaper Le Radical, dated July 24 1890, reported that a divorce judgement had been pronounced “in favor of Berthe Lazard” and that at that time, her husband was living “at an unknown address” [6].

Berthe Lazard, at the age of 23, thus found herself divorced and alone. We found very little information about what she did from 1890 to the end of the First World War other than that she lost both of her parents. Her mother, Rosine Weiler, died in 1899 and was buried in the Jewish section of the Montparnasse cemetery [7]. Her father died ten years later, in 1909 [8]. What then can we make of the advertisement for a dress and jacket boutique by the name of “Berthe Lazard”, at 24 rue Louis-le-Grand in Paris, which ran in a upmarket magazine called Beaux-Arts Illustrés (Fine arts illustrated) in 1905 [9]? The boutique appears to have been aimed at a more affluent, discerning clientele, which seems at odds with some of the earlier records we found. This was definitely “our” Berthe Lazard, however, as we can trace the existence of the store back to her second marriage in 1920. Perhaps her brother Henry, who apparently made his fortune in real estate on the Côte d’Azur, on the south coast of France, helped her to finance it.

 

From the 1920s onwards, more details are available about Berthe Lazard’s life. On February 1, 1921, she married Lucien Antoine Dollfus in the 9th district of Paris [10]. It was a double wedding: her sister Lucie married Henri Wel on the same day. Lucien Antoine Dollfus had previously been a journalist [11], but at the time of the marriage, he was a “bank manager”. He also appears to have been a businessman, who invested in a number of companies, including one called Perbalum, which planned to operate a thrill ride [12]. The couple set up home on rue de Berri, and according to 1926, 1931 and 1936 census data, they employed a live-in maid [13]. Lucien and Berthe were also very active on the social scene. There was a newspaper article about them attending Berthe’s niece’s wedding in Nice in 1923, and in May 1937, the French daily Le Figaro named them as one of Deauville’s most popular couples [14]. In 1939, Lucien Dollfus was tried for fraud and embezzlement as manager of the Pathé movie theater chain, but was acquitted[15]. Berthe Dollfus, from humble beginnings, had gone up in the world.

But then, when the Second World War broke out and the Germans invaded France, the couple’s lives were turned upside down. Lucien and Berthe had to endure the persecution and comply with the anti-Semitic legislation, in particular the requirement to wear the yellow star. Lucien died in 1942. The apartment at 50 rue de Berri was confiscated on May 27, 1942 [16]. We were unable to find any further records about Berthe’s life between 1942 and her arrest in July 1944. She was arrested at 113 rue de la Faisanderie in Paris, along with her sister Lucie and three other people, Marthe Deutsch and Richard and Marianne Hirsch [17]. When she arrived in Drancy camp, on July 19, 1944, she had some valuables with her, mainly gold jewelry [18]. They were confiscated and she was given a receipt for them.

Berthe and her sister Lucie were deported on Convoy 77 on July 31, 1944. They were 77 and 82 years old respectively, and at that age, they were no doubt sent to the gas chambers and murdered as soon as they arrived in Auschwitz. Lucie’s death certificate says that she died on August 3rd, while Berthe’s says she died on August 15.

Notes & references

[1] All four were born in Metz. Berthe was the youngest. Cécile was born in 1860, Lucie in 1861 and Henry in 1863. Their birth certificates are in the civil registers held at the Metz municipal archives (Refs.: 1E/b616; 1E/b619; 1E/b625; 1E/b637).
[2] French official law gazette, July 1, 1872, p. 2764-2765.
[3] 1886 census of Vincennes, Val-de-Marne departmental archives, ref. 1NUM080 102, p. 344.
[4] 1891 census of Vincennes, Val-de-Marne departmental archives, ref. D2M8 35, p. 176.
[5]  Berthe Lazard and Justin Auguste Roux’s marriage certificate, Val-de-Marne departmental archives, ref. 1MI 2549, p. 172.
[6] Published in Le Radical, July 24, 1890, p. 4. A divorce notice was also published in Le Droit: journal des tribunaux, (The Law: Court Journal), on July 18, 1890, because the judgement could not be served on Justin Auguste Roux, who was “defaulting”.
[7]  Paris archives, Montparnasse cemetery daily burial register, (ref. MTP_RJ18991900_01), July 14, 1899, p. 77.
[8] Salomon Lazard’s four children placed an obituary notice in the newspaper Le Temps on October 3, 1909 (p. 3). it reveals that Salomon was living in Raincy. Henry Lazard was married and living in Nice. Cécile and Berthe do not appear to have been married.
[9] Les Beaux-Arts illustrés, March 14, 1905, p. 16. The same advert appeared on March 19, 1905, p. 16.
[10] Paris archives, marriage registers for the 9th district, ref, 9M 310, Certificates n°189 (Dollfus-Lazard) and 190 (Wel-Lazard).
[11] His military service record lists him as a journalist (Paris Archives, Military Recruitment Register, 1892, D4R1 722). He is also listed several times under the pseudonym Ferville in the French Journalists’ Trade Union newsletter (e.g. 1899, p. 37).
[12] Published in La Loi, on May 9, 10 and 11, 1937 p. 181-182. The Perbalum ride was in fact in operation at the 1937 Exhibition. It was described by Jacques Reyliane in the May 1937 issue of Le Figaro illustrated as “ two steel discs weighing 150,000 kilos, spinning in an inverted rotary motion, turning like a Ferris wheel, completely upside down, but without the riders being upside down”.
[13] Paris archives, 1926 census, ref. D2M8 241, p. 100, 1931, D2M8 386, p. 33, and 1936, D2M8 571, p. 85.
[14] The L’Éclaireur du dimanche newspaper reported that Berthe Dollfus was a guest at her niece Marcelle Lazard’s wedding in Nice (May 27, 1923, p. 7). Report on the season in Deauville: “La saison hors Paris” (The season outside Paris), Le Figaro, May 19, 1937, p. 2.
[15] The case was widely reported in the press at the time. It made the front page of the daily newspaper Le Journal on May 6, 1939, for the trial of Bernard Natan, Jean-Simon Cerf and Lucien Dollfus. A photograph of the accused was featured on the front page.
[16] French official gazette, laws and decrees, December 26, 1942, p. 368.
[17] The original Convoy 77 deportation list, Shoah Memorial, Paris. The 1936 census reveals that Marthe Deutsch was already living at this address before the Second World War (Paris archives, 1936 census, ref. 1936, D2M8 651, p. 234).
[18] Drancy search log, book n°158, receipt n°6612, Shoah Memorial, Paris.