Jacqueline STRAUSS née NADAUD

Photo courtesy of the Shoah Memorial in Paris, Elisabeth Strauss collection, reference MXII_24063.jpg.

This biography was written by Sigrid GAUMEL, Associate Professor of Geography

On 31 July 1944, Convoy 77, the last large convoy of deportees, left Drancy for Auschwitz-Birkenau, carrying 986 men and women and 324 children.  On arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 836 of the 1310 deportees were immediately sent to the gas chambers and 474 were selected for work. Only 250 survived[1]. Among them were 2 Jewish deportees from the same family, who lived in Colmar in the Haut-Rhin department in eastern France: Jeanne Nadaud, née Gensbourger, and her daughter Jacqueline Strauss, née Nadaud. In this biography we have attempted to retrace the personal history of Jacqueline Nadaud. We encourage the reader to refer also to the biography of her mother, Jeanne Nadaud on the Convoi 77 association website.
 

Jacqueline’s childhood and adolescence in Colmar (1920-1939)

Jacqueline Berthe Nadaud was born on December 30, 1920, in Colmar[2]. She was the only child of Marthe Jeanne Nadaud, née Gensbourger, born on  November 7, 1888, also in Colmar[3], and Pierre Jean Nadaud, born on December 8, 1888 in Colombes, in the Seine department[4].
Jacqueline’s parents were married in the 13th district of Paris on February 26, 1920[5] and lived on the first floor at 23, boulevard du Champ-de-Mars, Colmar[6], where they seem to have stayed until 1939. On her mother’s side, Jacqueline’s grandparents, Félix Gensbourger and Sara Berthe Gensbourger, née Dreyfus[7], were deceased. Jacqueline had an uncle, Jeanne’s brother, Georg Isidor Gensbourger, born on January 4, 1886 in Colmar[8], who witnessed Pierre and Jeanne’s marriage. Georg, an industrialist, lived at 19, avenue Foch in Colmar. On her father’s side, Jacqueline’s grandparents were Antoine Nadaud, who in 1920 was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the infantry, and Marguerite Nadaud, née David, who lived at 31 bis, rue de la Bastille in Nantes in the Loire-Inférieure department (now Loire-Atlantique)[9]. An Isabelle Nadaud, who was not working and who could have been Pierre’s sister, also lived at this address.
Jacqueline’s father, Pierre Nadaud, a Protestant[10], was a doctor in the Army, equivalent to a Lieutenant, in 1920.[11]. After the First World War, Jeanne and her brother Georg apparently took over the textile factory belonging to their father, Félix Gensbourger, a company that had been operating at 55, route de Turckheim in Colmar since 1909[12]. From 1913 to 1914, Jeanne owned a business in her own name “Firma Jeanne Gintzburger”[13] at 1 Clausgasse in Colmar[14], a store selling silk, wool, cotton, furniture fabrics, curtains, tablecloths, rugs, underwear, table linen, bed linen, and also socks, overalls, leathers and furs, pocket handkerchiefs, leather and fashion goods[15]. It is impossible to tell if Jeanne still owned this store after the war, but there are no advertisements referring to it in the Colmar city directories after 1915.
 

Jacqueline’s escape to the Free Zone, followed by her arrest and deportation to Auschwitz

On September 1, 1939, the German army invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939, France and England declare declared war on Germany. In 1939, it appears that the Nadaud family was no longer living in Colmar. Pierre Nadaud’s residency record mentions that he was “unbekannt”, or unknown, on September 1, 1939[16]. Pierre, Jeanne and their daughter Jacqueline seem to have fled to the Free Zone, since by this time they were living at 28, rue Saint Genès in Clermont-Ferrand, in the Puy-de-Dôme department[17].
Jeanne Nadaud, then aged 55, was arrested in Clermont-Ferrand on February 15, 1944[18]. Pierre and Jacqueline were most likely arrested on the same day. Jeanne arrived at the internment camp in Drancy on March 15, 1944[19], as did Pierre, and probably Jacqueline. Pierre was given a receipt on March 15, 1944 for valuables confiscated by the French authorities: 10 francs in cash, a gold and pearl brooch and a gold tooth. The receipt was signed by the Drancy camp “chief of police”[20].
Drancy was a transit camp, where Jews were held prior to deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Jeanne, aged 55, and her daughter Jacqueline, who was 23, were deported to Auschwitz on July 31, 1944 on the last of the great convoys, Convoy 77[21]. They arrived in Auschwitz at night, three days after their departure from Drancy. It is not clear whether Pierre Nadaud, who was 55, was also deported on this convoy or not. Jacqueline did not mention him in her letters[22]. She wrote only: “My mother and I were deported to Auschwitz”.
On the night of their arrival in Auschwitz, Jeanne and Jacqueline were separated. Jacqueline, with the serial number 16776 tattooed on her left arm[23], remained in the camp at Auschwitz for two months [24]. She was then taken to the Kratzau camp in the Sudetenland, a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. She worked in an armaments factory in Kratzau until its liberation on May 10, 1945[25]. Kratzau is now known as Chrastawa, in the Czech Republic.
 

From the Liberation to the present day

Jacqueline, holding a Czech pass issued in Kratzau[26], was repatriated to Metz, in the Moselle department, on May 25, 1945 by train, truck and ambulance[27]. At the health center in Metz, she was given a medical examination[28]. Aged 24, she weighed 45 kg, or just under 100lbs, so was underweight for her height of 1.59m, or 5’3”. Her general condition was deemed to be “average”, and a chest X-ray was to be carried out. She was not suffering from any parasitic or infectious diseases. It seems that she was then sent to hospital, since on July 18, 1945, a letter was sent to her at the St Joseph Clinic, on rue Roesselmann in Colmar. On that date, the Ministry for Prisoners of War, Deportees and Refugees informed Jacqueline: “As regards your mother, to our great regret, we do not yet have any specific news”[29]. As for Jacqueline’s father, Pierre Nadaud, he was liberated, but was killed in a bombing raid[30].
At the end of July 1945, Jacqueline was living at 55, route de Turckheim in Colmar, which was the address of the fabric factory of her late grandfather, Félix Gensbourger. She sent a letter to the Ministry for Prisoners of War, Deportees and Refugees asking for information about her mother, about whom she had no news since their separation at Auschwitz[31]. In December 1945, in a letter to the Prefecture of Mulhouse, she asked for a certificate attesting to the fact that her mother had not returned[32]. The Prefecture of Mulhouse replied to Jacqueline, at 23 boulevard du Champ-de-Mars, Colmar, sending only a certificate confirming her mother’s arrest on March 14, 1944[33] and her deportation on July 31, 1944[34]. “Died in Auschwitz, Poland, on August 5, 1944. Record transcribed in Colmar on March 6, 1947”[35]. Jeanne Gensbourger thus died on August 5, 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau, presumably in the gas chambers.
On April 14, 1947, at Puteaux in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Jacqueline, aged 26, married Raymond Moïse Strauss, aged 31, a wool worker, born on April 16, 1915 at 11 boulevard Gergovia in Clermont-Ferrand[36]. Both spouses’ parents were deceased. Raymond’s parents, who in 1915 were living at 31 rue Cérès in Reims, were the wool merchant Léopold Strauss, who was born in about 1874 and Gabrielle Strauss, née Bloch, born in about 1890[37]. According to the marriage certificate, Jacqueline was a pharmacist and was living at 112 rue Jean Jaurès in Puteaux, in the west of Paris[38].
Jacqueline’s uncle, Georg, died at the age of 62 on April 6, 1948 in Colmar[39]. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Colmar[40].
Jacqueline’s husband, Raymond, died on April 25, 1988 in Versailles, in the Yvelines department[41] at the age of 73. Jacqueline died on August 2, 2000 at Rueil-Malmaison in the Hauts-de-Seine department[42],  at the age of 79.
 

Conclusion

We do not know if Jacqueline Nadaud ever recounted her experiences, and we have been unable to locate any of her family’s descendants. The Nadaud family seems to have been forgotten: there are no family testimonies for the Nadaud family on the Yad Vashem website[43], and Jacqueline is not included in the list of Jewish deportees from the Haut-Rhin department[44].
On the Wall of Names at the Shoah Memorial in Paris are the names of Jacqueline Nadaud and Jeanne Nadaud [45]. The memorial monument in the Jewish cemetery in Colmar mentions the names and ages of the Jewish deportees who lived in Colmar, and includes that of Jeanne Nadaud-Gensbourger, aged 55.
The memories of Jeanne Nadaud, née Gensbourger, and Jacqueline Strauss, née Nadaud, could be further commemorated by the laying of Stolpersteine, which are small paving stones conceived by the German artist Gunter Demnig, outside their former home at 23, boulevard du Champ-de-Mars in Colmar[46].
 

Editor’s note:

A photograph of Jeanne Nadaud, née Gensbourger, and a photograph of Jacqueline Strauss, née Nadaud, can be viewed on the website of the Shoah Memorial in Paris. They are included in this biography since the Memorial is one of the sponsors of our project.
 

References

[1]  Convoi 77 association website.
[2] Birth certificate of Jacqueline Nadaud, Colmar Municipal Archives.
[3] Birth certificate of Marthe Jeanne Gensbourger, Colmar Municipal Archives.
[4] Birth certificate of Pierre Jean Nadaud, Hauts-de Seine Departmental Archives, online, reference E_NUM_COL_N1888.
[5] Marriage certificate of Pierre Jean Nadaud and Marthe Jeanne Gensbourger, Archives of the 13th district of Paris, online, reference 13M253. Jeanne was married in 1920, not in 1928 as is stated in the book by Jacky Dreyfus and Daniel Fuks, Le Mémorial des Juifs du Haut-Rhin, Martyrs de la Shoah, Strasbourg, Jérôme Do Bentzinger, 2006.
[6] Address record for Pierre Nadaud, Colmar Municipal Archives, reference 173MURB-NA; Colmar town directories 1920 to 1938; Colmar Municipal Archives; marriage certificate of Pierre Jean Nadaud and Marthe Jeanne Gensbourger, Archives of the 13th district of Paris, online, reference 13M253.
[7] Address record for Félix Gensbourger, Colmar Municipal Archives, 173MURB-NA.
[8] Birth certificate of Georg Isidor Gensbourger, Haut-Rhin Departmental Archives, 2MiEC70.
[9] Marriage certificate of Pierre Jean Nadaud et de Marthe Jeanne Gensbourger, Archives of the 13th district of Paris, online, reference 13M253.
[10] Address record for Pierre Nadaud, Colmar Municipal Archives, reference 173MURB-NA.
[11] Marriage certificate of Pierre Jean Nadaud and Marthe Jeanne Gensbourger, Archives of the 13th district of Paris, online, reference 13M253.
[12] Colmar town directories of 1905, 1907-1908, 1909-1910, 1911-1912, 1914-1915 and 1920, Colmar Municipal Archives.
[13] Advertisements for “Firma Jeanne Gintzburger”, Colmar town directories of 1913-1914 (p. 52) and 1914-1915 (p. 444), Colmar Municipal Archives.
[14] Now rue Saint-Nicolas.
[15] “Stets grosse Posten. Seiden, Woll- und Baumwollstoffe, Möbelstoffe, Gardinen, Tischdecken, Teppische, Linoleum, Leib-, Tisch- u. Bettwäsche. Grosse Gelegenheitskäufe in Strümpfen, Blousen, Costümröcken, Pelzen aller Arten, Taschentüchern, Leder- und Galanteriewaren usw.”
[16] Address record for Pierre Nadaud, Colmar Municipal Archives, reference 173MURB-NA.
[17] File marked “provisional” dated 05.01.1946 in the name of Nadaud Jeanne née Gensbourger. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association); receipt for Mr. Nadaud’s property, Drancy search record no. 109, receipt no. 802, available on the website of the Shoah Memorial in Paris.
[18] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud to the Prefecture at Mulhouse, dated December 3, stamped as arrived on December 6, 1945, n°329298. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[19] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud to the Prefecture at Mulhouse, dated December 3, stamped as arrived on December 6, 1945, n°329298. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[20] Receipt for M. Nadaud’s property, Drancy search record n° 109, receipt n° 802, available on the website of the Shoah Memorial in Paris.
[21] Neither Jacqueline Nadaud nor Pierre Nadaud are mentioned in the book by Jacky Dreyfus and Daniel Fuks, Le Mémorial des Juifs du Haut-Rhin, Martyrs de la Shoah, Strasbourg, Jérôme Do Bentzinger, 2006.
[22] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud to the Prefecture at Mulhouse, dated December 3, stamped as arrived on December 6, 1945, n°329298 ; Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud to the Minister of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees, not dated, stamped June 29, 1945 ; Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud to the Minister of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees, dated June 13, stamped June 19, 1945. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[23] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud , not dated, stamped “letter arrived 28 July 1945, n° 171402”. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[24] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud to the Minister of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees, not dated stamped June 29, 1945. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[25] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud to the Minister of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees, dated June 13, stamped June 19, 1945. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[26] Ministry of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees medical file. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[27] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud, not dated, stamped “letter arrived 28 July 1945 n° 171402”. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[28] Ministry of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees medical file. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[29] Letter from Eveline Garnier to the Minister of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees, dated July 18, 1945. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[30] Letter from Micheline Bloch 5, rue Lafayette, Metz addressed to M. François Rosenauer, dated March 24, 1946. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[31] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud, not dated, stamped “letter arrived 28 July 1945, n° 171402”. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[32] Letter from Jacqueline Nadaud, dated December 3, to the Prefecture of Mulhouse, stamped letter arrived on 6 December 1945, n°329298. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[33] This date does not match the arrest date given by Jacqueline Nadaud in her undated letter to the Minister of Prisoners of war, deportees and refugees, stamped June 29, 1945. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[34] Certificate from the Prefecture of Mulhouse addressed to Madame Jacqueline Nadaud, dated January 7, 1946, n°230605. Victims of Contemporary Conflicts dept., Historical Service of the Department of Defense, Caen (document obtained through the Convoi 77 association).
[35] Birth certificate of Marthe Gensbourger, Colmar Municipal Archives.
[36] Marriage certificate of Jacqueline Nadaud and Raymond Strauss, Puteaux Town Hall; birth certificate of Raymond Strauss, Clermont-Ferrand City Hall.
[37] Birth certificate of Raymond Strauss, Clermont-Ferrand City Hall.
[38] Marriage certificate of Jacqueline Nadaud and Raymond Strauss, Puteaux Town Hall.
[39] Birth certificate of Georg Isidor Gensbourger, Haut-Rhin Departmental Archives, 2MiEC70.
[40] According to the website of the Jewish community of Alsace and Lorraine: http://judaisme.sdv.fr/.
[41] Birth certificate of Raymond Strauss, Clermont-Ferrand City Hall.
[42] Birth certificate of Jacqueline Nadaud, Colmar Municipal Archives.
[43]  Yad Vashem website: www.yadvashem.org.
[44] Jacky Dreyfus and Daniel Fuks, Le Mémorial des Juifs du Haut-Rhin, Martyrs de la Shoah, Strasbourg, Jérôme Do Bentzinger, 2006.
[45] Inscription on the Wall of Names. Website of the Shoah Memorial in Paris.
[46] Such as the laying of the first Stolpersteine on April 30, 2019 in Muttersholtz and May 1, 2019 in Strasbourg and Herrlisheim-près-Colmar, which was initiated by the association Stolperteine 67.
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Contributor Sigrid GAUMEL, Associate Professor of Geography