Martha SCHMELZER

BIRTH AND FAMILY

Martha Schmelzer’s parents were called Emma Woods and Léopold Blumenfeld. She had one sister, Hélène.

Martha was born Gotha, in Thuringia, on February 19, 1895 but she lived in Cologne, in North-Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany. She was Jewish and although born a German citizen, she became stateless in 1938.

We do not know what became of her father, Léopold, during the Second World War, but her mother Emma, and her sister Hélène, were both deported from Cologne to Riga, which is now in Latvia but was then under German occupation.

MARRIAGE

Martha Schmelzer married Joseph Schmelzer in Cologne in August 1934. They then moved to France, where they lived at 19, boulevard de la Somme in the 7th district of Paris. Ernest worked in sales.

RESIDENCE

The couple moved house several times. On November 23, 1934, they were living at 38, avenue des Termes in the 17th district of Paris[1] and then, according to the records, they moved to 189, Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

As of August 13, 1940, after she was released from the Gurs camp[2], near Bearn, in what is now the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of France, Martha lived alone in Royat, in the Puy-de-Dôme department. She was interned in Gurs from May to July 1940, together with 7000 other women who were “of German nationality” and thus deemed by the Nazis to be “undesirable”. They were interned during the widespread turmoil that occurred after French army was defeated and the armistice was signed on  June 22, 1940.

During the long months she spent alone in Royat, Martha set about trying to arrange for her husband, Ernst Schmelzer, who was a volunteer in the army and was based in Camp Morand in Boghari, Algeria, to be allowed home.

In order to for this to happen, she had to prove to the chief of the gendarmerie (French military police) in Clermont-Ferrand that she had sufficient funds to support her husband. The prefect of the Puy-de-Dôme department had also asked the gendarmerie to check that Martha’s accommodation was large enough and suitable to house her husband. Once these checks had been carried out and her application approved, Ernst was allowed home and moved in with Martha at 50, Avenue Anatole France on 17 June 1941.

When Martha first moved to Royat and was living there alone, the gendarmerie monitored her movements and wrote reports about her behavior and activities in order to decide if they had any objections to her living there. The prefect of the Puy-de-Dôme department and the chief of the gendarmerie in Clermont-Ferrand had requested these reports on February 2, 1941.

Martha then requested official permission to stay in Royat and provided statements from some of her neighbors. Her application was approved, so she stayed on in the town.

Some time later, Martha and Ernst were listed as “idle” Jews, because they were not working. As a result, the prefect of Puy-de-Dôme in Clermont-Ferrand decreed that they be placed under house arrest, and they were sent to live in Châteauneuf-les-Bains on February 4, 1942. They stayed in an apartment belonging to a Mr. Faugère in a hamlet called Lavaux or Lachaux. According to the people of Châteauneuf-les-Bains, they were of “good moral character” and their behavior was beyond reproach, but they were nevertheless accused of “leading idle lives”[3] , which was somewhat contradictory given that during the German occupation, Jews were banned from working in so many occupations.

ARREST

On July 2, 1944, the Germans carried out a roundup in Châteauneuf-les-Bains. It began at 5 a.m. that morning and went on all day, finally ending at 7 p.m. The purpose of the operation was to check residents’ identity cards and arrest Resistance fighters, Jews and anyone else deemed to be breaking the Nazi regime’s rules. Among the people checked that day were Mr. and Mrs. Schmelzer, who, in an attempt to avoid persecution, produced false identity cards.

Unfortunately, their forged ID cards were not good enough to fool the German authorities. Either the Gestapo or the Wehrmacht, who suspected the couple of either being involved in the Resistance or of being Jewish, arrested them on the spot. According to a record in the Clermont-Ferrand archives dated July 17, 1947, Mr. and Mrs. Schmelzer were then transferred to the notorious Drancy transit camp, where people were interned prior to being deported to concentration camps.

DEPORTATION

On July 15, 1944, Martha Schmelzer was transferred to the Drancy internment camp north of Paris, where she was assigned the serial number 25141. After spending sixteen days in Drancy, she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 31, 1944, aboard Convoy 77. The journey lasted three days, and the train arrived in Auschwitz on August 3, 1944.

DEATH

As soon as Convoy 77 arrived in Auschwitz, the selection process began. We do not know exactly when or how Martha died, but it was probably either on the journey or in the gas chambers. Martha was later officially declared to have died on August 5, 1944, which is used in France as the date of death for anyone who was not selected to go into the concentration camp to work.

Martha’s death certificate was sent to the town hall in Châteauneuf-les-Bains, where her death was entered into the civil register.

SOURCES:

• Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, ref. SCHMELZER_Martha_nee_BLUMFELD_21_P_536_555_53518_DAVCC
• The Gurs camp (website in French only)
• Puy-de-Dôme departmental archives (website in French only)

Notes & références

[1] According to the date of issue of her identity card (C.I No. 34-AE58522) by the Prefect of Paris, Mr. de Bolue.

[2] According to the Puy-de-Dôme archives and our own conclusions (the Gurs camp archives relating to people interned prior to the summer of 1940 were destroyed as a result of a decision made on June 25, 1940, so we had to make assumptions based on the information we already had about Martha and the detailed history available on the camp’s website).

[3] According to a record in the Clermont-Ferrand archives dated July 17, 1947.