DENISE CAHN

Denise, Josette, Félicité Cahn, was born in Paris on August 27, 1908. She was a French citizen and Jewish. Her parents were Salomon Cahn and Caroline Lévy, who were married on July 4, 1901. Divorced from Gaston Frédéric Levy on June 23, 1927, Denise’s last address was 4, rue Turgot in the 9th district of Paris. Her life was tragically cut short during the Second World War. She was first arrested and interned in the Drancy transit camp on January 27, 1944 but was later released, only to be arrested again later. The next time, she was deported to Auschwitz on July 31, 1944, where she died. Her official date of death was later declared to be August 5, 1944.

Working for the UGIF at the Lucien de Hirsch School

The Lucien-de-Hirsch school was founded in September 1901, to provide schooling for Jewish children from Europe. During the Second World War, in April 1944, the school became a UGIF center for children who, until then, had been staying in the bomb-damaged Lamarck home. 125 children and 52 supervisors were transferred to the Lucien-de-Hirsch School.

Acting on Nazi orders, the French Vichy government founded the UGIF (Union Générale des Israélites de France, or General Union of French Jews) on November 29, 1941. Its role was, at least in theory, to represent Jews in their dealings with the public authorities. All Jews in France, whether French or foreign, were required to join. At the same time, all Jewish organizations were closed down. Unfortunately, this led to a large number of Jews being grouped together, particularly children, which in turn made it easier to keep track of them and subsequently deport them. The UGIF was widely criticized for this. In the occupied zone in the northern half of France, the UGIF was unable to put up any resistance whatsoever, but in the free zone in the southern part of France, it was able to act more effectively, at least until November 1942. The UGIF did, albeit to a limited extent, help a few people to survive by contributing to their basic needs and providing essential medical care.

Of the 1306 deportees on convoy 77, 324 were children, many of them from UGIF centers.

Denise Cahn worked for the UGIF in the northern zone. She was one of a group of women who ran the kosher canteen and worked alongside social workers. She also took care of the children at summer camps and monitored their health. In a UGIF record dated March 16, 1944, she is listed as a general supervisor. It also says that she stayed overnight at the Lucien de Hirsch as well as working during the day. We also discovered that she asked for four Jewish stars for two people, but we do not know who the second person was.

Interned in Drancy for the first time

We found out about the first time Denise Cahn was interned through Hélène Berr’s diary. Hélène Berr was born on March 27, 1921 in Paris. She too was Jewish and was a student at the Sorbonne university. She was arrested in March 1944 and died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. Hélène Berr wanted to find out more about Drancy, and in her Journal(1942-1944 ) she described how Denise Cahn was interned for the first time. For what she referred to as a “report”, she approached Denise Cahn because she was one of the few people who had been released after being interned in Drancy. Almost everyone was sent to a deportation camp or killing center after being interned. In Hélène Berr’s journal, Denise surname is spelled Kahn, rather than Cahn. There was indeed another Denise Kahn but Hélène could not have been writing about her because she was younger, had never worked for the UGIF and was deported on Convoy 70.

The building where Hélène Berr lived, taken during a field trip on March 6, 2024

Denise Cahn was first arrested at Orly, in the Val-de-Marne department of France, in February 1944. She was then interned for 8 days at the Drancy camp. The other Jews who were arrested at the same time as her were deported in cattle cars, with around 60 people crammed into each car. There were both men and women in the cars and they had to share just sixteen straw mattresses between them. There were between one and three buckets in each car for them to relieve themselves. When they left, they were given a food parcel to last them for the entire six-day journey, which contained: 4 boiled potatoes, a pound of beef, about 4 ounces of margarine, some Gruyere cheese, a few dry biscuits and a stick of bread.

 

A cattle car outside the former Drancy internment camp.
Photo taken during a field trip on February 6, 2024

Denise said that the internees she met in Drancy came from towns as far afield as Bordeaux, Grenoble and Nice, and even from the Ardennes region. One of the first things she noticed when she arrived at the camp were the mixed-sex showers. The women tried to hide their bodies as best they could, but shower time was always unpleasant due to the lack of privacy. Denise shared a room with a family of 13, and said they were “mutilated and ornamented” (p.291). The children ranged in age from 15 months to 20 years.

The day before she was due to be deported, Denise was released, probably following a request from the UGIF home where she worked. Initially, UGIF employees were issued with a “legitimization card”, which meant that they should not be arrested so could go in and out of the internment camp safely. However, this entitlement was soon revoked. We therefore assume that the UGIF intervened to have Denise released. In fact, the UGIF attempted to secure the release of numerous Jewish internees, but with very limited success: only 817 were freed, mostly children who were later arrested again and deported. For Denise, being released from the camp made more of an impact on her than when she went in: “I wasn’t surprised when I was sent to Drancy; the real shock was when I was told I was being released (p. 293).

Deported and murdered in Auschwitz

The Gestapo arrested Denise again on July 21, 1944, on the grounds that she was an “Israelite”, meaning Jewish. She was interned again in Drancy on July 22. She had 374 confiscated from her when she arrived. Living conditions in Drancy were deplorable. The internees were all crammed in together, were rarely given anything to eat and what food they did have contained little nourishment. They could only shower once a week, men and women together.

On July 31, 1944, Denise Cahn and 78 children from the Lucien de Hirsch school were deported on Convoy 77 to the Auschwitz killing center. This was the last of the large deportation transports to leave France. There were 1,306 deportees on board, 847 of whom were exterminated in the gas chambers as soon as they arrived.

It was said that Denise Cahn stayed with some of the children from the Lucien de Hirsch school, and either carried one of them in her arms or held their hand when they got off the train in Auschwitz. Some supervisors refused to let go of the children during the selection, and were murdered along with the children. The selection process only took place in Auschwitz, the Third Reich’s largest concentration camp and killing center. Denise must therefore have been sent to the gas chambers as soon as she arrived. The French authorities later declared her to have died on August 5, 1944 in Auschwitz, although this date may not have been accurate.

Denise Cahn was exterminated in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Her story has given us a better understanding of what life was like for Jews at the time, and of the genocide itself. Working with historical records also involved filling in the gaps: we had little information about the second time she was arrested, so we used what we did know and what we learned during our field trip to the Shoah Memorial in Drancy and the Bobigny station. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photo of Denise Cahn.

SOURCES

• Deported person’s file on Denise Cahn, Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen.
• UGIF archives at the Secrétan center.
• YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Joseph Berg, “L’Ecole Lucien de Hirsch de 1901 à 1940” (The Lucien de Hirsch School from 1901 to 1940) from the Lucien-de-Hirsch school.
• Helène Berr’s Journal, published by Points, Paris, 2009, p.290-293
• André Kaspi, “Les résistances juives en France face à la Shoah” (Jewish resistance to the Shoah in France) from Alexandre Bande, Pierre-Jérome Biscarat and Olivier Lalieu, Nouvelle Histoire de la Shoah, (New History of the Shoah) published by Passés composés, Paris, 2021, p.186-190

WEBSITES

• Histoire et composition du convoi (History and make up of the convoy) – Convoy 77

FIELD TRIPS

• Visit to the Shoah Memorial at Drancy and Bobigny station, February 6, 2024.
• Following in the footsteps of Hélène Berr, March 6, 2024.

Photos taken by Jennifer Ghislain