Roger MOHA

Family photo taken in 1934, showing Roger’s parents, Charles and Zina, and their children, from left to right: Berthe, their eldest, Marcel, Félicie Jeanne and Roger.

 

This biography of Roger Moha was written by Augustin Bled, Romane Bichet, Constance Bouyer, Tessa Chevaliez, Adriana Comelli, Apolline Crespo, Jeanne Espagne, Noé Epin, Leïla Evora Mouhssine, Bérénice Jamal El Din, Izoenn Houeix, Maé Laage, Léontine Lagarde Cech, Anaëlle Méric, Dinh Khanh Phan, Iris Pignaud, Ariane Pimpaneau, Chiara Terrazzoni and Sarah Tordjeman, 9^th grade students at the Lakanal middle school in Sceaux, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of France.

The Moha family, which hailed from Algeria, was made up of Charles and Zina, the parents, and their four children: Berthe, Marcel, Félicie and Roger. Roger was the youngest child, born on April 13, 1927 in rue des Nonnains d’Hyères in the Marais district of Paris

We do not know exactly when the Moha family arrived in Paris, but we do know, based on children’s school enrolment records, that in 1925 they were living at 6 rue du Figuier in the Marais district, where there had been a large Jewish community since the 13th century. This district is home to numerous synagogues and Jewish businesses, which make up a neighborhood known as the Pletzl. The Moha family ran a grocery store on rue du Roi de Sicile, but the business did not last long. Roger grew up in Paris in a low-income family: his father was a house painter who drew a disability pension for having fought in the First World War, and his mother was a housewife.

In the spring of 1928, the family moved from the Marais to rue Abel in the 12th district of Paris. This remained the family home throughout the war. We have found no records relating to Roger’s education. However, later records reveal that he was an apprentice mechanic and then a qualified mechanic. Before the war, there was a training center for apprentice mechanics on rue de Charenton, not far from the family home, so he may well have trained there.

The Police Headquarters Jewish file contains a record for Roger and Félicie Jeanne, but not for the other members of the family. We do not know whether theirs were destroyed, or whether the adults in the family did not take part in the census.

Roger was arrested together with his sister, Félicie Jeanne, on July 3, 1944. They were taken to the local police station, where they arrived at 7.10pm, and left early the following afternoon, when they were transferred to Drancy internment camp.

Michèle Monet, their elder sister Berthe’s daughter, told us that when she was a child, the family used to say that Roger and Félicie Jeanne had been arrested in the street on their way home from an afternoon at the pool. This implies that the two youngsters had flouted the 1942 German order that banned Jews from many public places, including pools.

When they arrived at Drancy, Roger was assigned the number 24865 and Félicie-Jeanne the number 24864. From the camp search logs, we know that Roger had 612 francs in cash on him at the time, which he had to hand over the Germans. This was a significant sum of money for a young apprentice mechanic, equivalent to about half the monthly wage of a factory worker. Roger was interned in room 4 on staircase 19 while Félicie was in room 3 on staircase 19, so they stayed fairly close to each other.

Charles and Zina, his parents, his brother Marcel and his fiancé, Colette, were arrested later, on July 27, 1944. They too were taken to Drancy. Berthe, the oldest child, miraculously avoided being arrested. Her daughter, Michèle Monet, told us: “Life is amazing, because while my grandfather and the Gestapo were on their way to the station, my mom, who was pregnant with me (I was born in November of that year), had bought herself a small bar of chocolate and, not wanting to meet anyone on the way home, she decided to take a different route to savor the chocolate. A neighbor warned her what was happening and hid her for a while in her home. Her life was saved by a little bit of chocolate.”

Life in Drancy was very tough. Charles and Marcel were placed in room 4 of staircase 18, while Zina and Colette were in room 2. According to the testimony of Yvette Lévy, who was deported on the same convoy, word in the camp was that the prisoners held at Drancy were going to be sent to Germany to work. Convoy 77 left Drancy for Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 31, 1944, with were 1309 Jews on board, including Roger and his family (except for Berthe and Marcel’s fiancée Colette, who was released a few days later). A number of people protested, but when they set off at 8 a.m., everyone was happy enough and they sang on the 5-minute bus ride to Bobigny station. The atmosphere in the rail cars soon turned gloomy, however, due to the appalling travelling conditions, which were exacerbated by the July heat. The survivors later described how hungry and thirsty they were, and how overcrowded it was.

The convoy arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the early hours of August 3. During the « selection », Roger, Félicie-Jeanne and Marcel were deemed fit to go into the concentration camp to work. Roger was only 17 years old, and in theory should not have gone into the camp. Later records compiled by the Nazi authorities give the wrong date of birth (1925 instead of 1927). Roger must therefore have lied about his age, thus avoiding being sent to his death. Charles and Zina, however, were almost certainly murdered as soon as they arrived.

For several months after he arrived at Auschwitz, we lose track of Roger. Sometime later, although we do not know exactly when, he was transferred to Gross Rosen in the west of present-day Poland, a huge industrial complex comprising almost a hundred subcamps. In January 1945, as the Soviet troops were approaching (they liberated the main camp on February 13, 1945), the Germans evacuated it and other subcamps. Some 40,000 prisoners, including Roger, had to face the terrible ordeal of the death marches towards the west. He arrived in Buchenwald on February 10, 1945.

Founded in July 1937 near Weimar, Germany, the Buchenwald camp was originally intended to house opponents of the Third Reich. Roger was registered there as prisoner number 124949. On March 6, he went to the “Revier”, the camp infirmary, for the first time. His medical report states that he was suffering from severe diarrhea. He went again on March 11 and 13. The report also says that some of his teeth were missing and that he weighed only 105 pounds with his clothes on, although he was 5’7” tall. He must therefore have been extremely weak, which would explain why he went to the infirmary at all, given that it had such a notoriously sinister reputation.

The American army liberated the camp on April 11, 1945. Roger’s name is included on a list drawn up at the time, although the exact date is not mentioned. He probably died shortly after the Americans arrived, as he was so very weak. He had just turned 18.

Sources

• Michèle Monet’s testimony
• Bad Arolsen archives
• Shoah Memorial archives
• French Defense Historical Service archives
• Jean Laloum, “Des Juifs d’Afrique du Nord au Pletzl ? Une présence méconnue et des épreuves oubliées (1920-1945) ”, (North African Jews in the Pletzl? A little-known existence and forgotten hardships (1920-1945)), Jewish Archives.