Lise PAPIN (1892-1944)

Lise Stekell was born in Odessa in present-day Ukraine, which was then part of Russia, on March 4, 1892. Her parents were Abraham Stekell (1855-1944), a polisher, and Chaïa / Anna (Vertsmann) Sakova.

The family must have arrived in France not long after Lise was born, as her sister Cécile was born in the 4th district of Paris on March 13, 1893. At that time, the family was living at 18, rue de l’Ave Maria.

Did Lise go to school in this district, in which Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the late 19th century? Or did she grow up in the 5th district, the other side of the Seine river, where her parents were living when she got married thirty years later?

MARRIAGE

On May 30, 1922, Lise married Marcel Papin, who was born in the 6th district of Paris on August 18, 1895. He was a French citizen, so Lise became a French citizen by marriage.

They were married at the town hall in the 6th district. At the time, Lise was living with her parents at 3bis, rue des Lyonnais in the 5th district, while he was living at 47, rue de Vaugirard. According to the 1926 census, this then became their marital home.

Lise was not working at the time, and Marcel was an insurance inspector[1]. Did he work at the same place as Lise’s sister Cécile, who was a shorthand typist with the Compagnie du Soleil insurance company?

Marcel had been seriously wounded during the First World War, and had to have some of the fingers amputated on his right hand. He was later awarded the French War Cross 1914-1918.

Lise and Marcel Papin did not have children[2].

In 1931, Lise was living at 1, villa Robert Lindet in the 15th district of Paris and both of them were living there in 1936.

Lise was still living at the same address when she was arrested.

THE WAR AND THE ARREST

Lise complied with the Vichy regime’s new legislation (decrees on the status of Jews dated October 3, 1940 and June 2, 1941) and went to register herself as a “Jew”, presumably at the local police station[3]. She also became a member the UGIF (Union Générale des Israélites de France, or General Union of French Jews), an organization founded to monitor Jews, which she, like all other Jews in France, was obliged to join.

In 1942, someone wrote an anonymous letter accusing her of spreading English propaganda. On August 4, 1942, the Department of Foreigners and Jewish Affairs launched an investigation into the matter, but took no further action.

By that time, Lise was separated from her husband, although he continued to support her financially as she was still not working. At least, that is what is noted in a police report dated January 14, 1943.

In March 1944, Lise lost her father, Abraham, who was 89. He was laid to rest in the Thiais cemetery, south of Paris. Her mother, who died in 1932, is also buried there.

Lise was arrested on July 8, 1944. One record states that she was arrested by a civilian and a German, while another says it was the French police. At 11:30 p.m. that night, she and a number of other Jews arrived at the Paris Police Headquarters depot. Her fellow prisoners were sent to Drancy camp on the afternoon of July 10, but Lise was held in the depot until the 11th, when at 2:30 p.m. she too was transferred to Drancy[4].

When she arrived in Drancy on July 11, she was assigned the serial number 25019. She was deported to Auschwitz on Convoy 77 on July 31, 1944.

As she was married to a non-Jewish man, Lise could have been deemed to be “non-deportable” (although this status was not-guaranteed). However, she was separated from her husband and Aloïs Brunner, the commander of Drancy camp, was in a hurry to fill the convoy as the Allied troops were approaching Paris. This may explain why the German authorities did not grant her such protection.

AFTER THE WAR

In March 1946, Lise’s sister Cecile, who also lived at 1 villa Robert-Lindet, filled out a form requesting that a search for her be carried out.

In June 1946, Marcel Papin, her husband, also began the necessary formalities. He completed a research request in order to obtain a death certificate for his wife. At the time, he was living at 52 avenue Bosquet, in the 17th district of Paris. On September 16, he received a certificate confirming that Lise had gone missing, but by April 1947, the courts had still not declared her dead.

He also submitted two photos of Lise to help identify her, just in case she was in another country waiting to be repatriated to France, and so that other deportees could be asked if they had seen her.

Lisa Papin © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, dossier ref. 21 P 522724  

In the midst of the post war confusion, it was not easy to confirm that a family member had died. Marcel also provided a description of Lise: “5’1” tall, brown eyes, curly greying hair, snub nose”.

Marcel Papin remarried in July 1948, and died on May 7, 1973, in Dijon, in the Côte-d’Or department of France.

Cécile Stekell died in December 1973, at Villiers-le-Bel, in the Seine-et-Oise department.

Lise’s name is inscribed on the Wall of Names at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, on slab n° 30, column n° 10, row n° 3

Source: The Convoy 77 deportation list

Sources:

RetroNews – The French National Library news site

Archives de Paris: viewed during our workshop there in December 2024

5M266: Lise Stekell and Marcel Papin’s marriage certificate, May 30, 1922

D4M2 686: Seine department electoral register

Census records:

• 1926, 05, Val de Grâce: D2M8 231 page 265
• 1931, 05, Val de Grâce: D2M8 375 page 253
• 1936, 05, Val de Grâce: D2M8 555
• 1926, 06, Notre-Dame des Champs: D2M8 232
• 1926, 16 rue Guisarde 75006 quartier Odéon: D2M8 233 ,
• 1931, 15, Saint-Lambert: D2M8 422
• 1936, 15, Saint-Lambert: D2M8 641

Death certificates

• 1944, death certificate, 055D 275
• 1947, death certificate, 1515D 412

Records provided by the Convoy 77 team:

Those from the Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, and from the Paris Police Headquarters archives (APP 77 W 501), including the depot record (APP CC2-8).

Shoah Memorial website, page on Lise Papin

Shoah Memorial, Paris:

• 1940 registration form: FRAN107_F_9_5656_065595_L
• 1941 registration form: French National archives, ref. FRAN107_F_9_5622_020231_L
• Internment record from Drancy camp: French National archives, ref. FRAN107_F_9_5720_205259_L et FRAN107_F_9_5720_205260_L
• Drancy camp transfer log: French National archives, ref. FRAN107_F_9_5788_0016_L

UGIF records (p. 1059) : https://digipres.cjh.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE14133506

The French newspaper Le Figaro, June 24, 1945 (Marcel Papin is searching for his wife, article about prisoners and deportees, source: gallica.fr)

Notes & references

[1] Marcel Papin had a sister called Louise, who was born in 1891. Their parents were Henry Louis Papin (who died prior to 1926), who worked in sales, and Barbe Schild, who was born in 1859.

[2] Paris Police Headquarters archives, ref. APP 77 W 501

[3] Ibid.

[4] Paris Police Headquarters archives, ref. APP CC2-8