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Rose BLUMBERG, née Krantzler
Photo of Rose Blumberg née Krantzler. Source: © family photograph belonging to Lionel Levha, Madeleine Blumberg’s son
Rose Krantzler was born in Constantinople, in what was then the Ottoman Empire, on October 7, 1896.
A Jewish family living in Constantinople
Rose was the eldest of her siblings, which were made up of three brothers (Ménachem Mima, known as Marcel, (1897 in Constantinople-1975), Henri (1901 in Constantinople-1918) and Marc (1903 in Constantinople-1909)) and four sisters (Esther Suzanne (1900 in Constantinople-1942, Auschwitz), Ida (1904 in Paris-1926), Régina (1905-2000) and Marie, known as Marguerite (1910-2009).
Maurice Krantzler (1871-1943), birthplace unknown, died in Paris, worked as a tailer
Louba (Louise) Weinstein Krantsler (1877-1943), born in Odessa in the Russian Empire, died in Paris
Rose’s parents, Maurice and Louba Weinstein (daughter of Haïm), left the Ottoman Empire sometime between 1903, when Marc was born in Turkey, and 1904, when Ida was born in the 18th district of Paris. They lived at 40 rue Championnet in the 18th district of Paris. On Rose’s marriage certificate, they are listed as storekeepers, but by 1905, when Régina was born, they were both working as tailors.
Both died in Paris: Louba on July 7, 1943 in the Tenon hospital in the 10th district and Maurice later that same year.
Rose and one of her sisters
Source: © photo belonging to Mr. Kerselion
Photo taken at Rose’s sister Marie Krantzler and Moszko Pachulski’s wedding on April 16, 1932
Source: © photo belonging to Mr. Kerselion
Rose and Armand’s wedding
Rose, who was a seamstress at the time, married Ybersz (Armand) Blumberg, a Jew born in Warsaw, Poland, and tailor by trade, in Paris on July 13, 1920.
Their witnesses were Minisha Lipson and José Davidel, both of whom lived in the same street as the Krantzler family.
The couple lived firstly at 57 rue des Cloys in the 18th district of Paris, then at 74 rue de l’Arbre sec in Gennevilliers, then at 9 rue Baudelique in the 18th district, and, from 1935 onwards, at 18 rue Charles-Lauth, which was part of a newly-built low-cost housing complex on the boundary of the 18th district.
The ten-year birth registers for the 12th district of Paris, held in the Paris archives, list the births of three children (Anna in 1922, Madeleine in 1926 and André in 1928) all of whom were born in Rothschild hospital, which was where the majority of French women went to have their babies at those days.
Marriage certificate
Source: File on Armand Blumberg © Paris digitized archives
A large family from the 18th district of Paris
The couple had six children:
- Anna Léone, born in 1922, in the 12th district
- Madeleine, born in 1926, in the 12th district
- André, born in 1928, in the 12th district
- Serge, born in 1930, in the 18th district
- Simone, born in 1932, in Gennevilliers
- Alain Louis, born in 1944 in Drancy camp
Alain is the only member of the family of whom we have no photos, because he was born in Drancy camp and murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau when he was just two weeks old.
Rose appears to have given up working as a seamstress, unless she occasionally did some work at home, but no doubt she was busy caring for her children. Her neighbors included the Grinberg and Sadicaris families. According to the biography of Nahama Sadicaris, the mother of family, Estréa Sadicaris, also came from Constantinople, so we can safely assume that the two women knew each other quite well. The Blumberg and Grinberg children were friendly too.
From left to right: Anna, Armand (Rose’s husband), Simone and Madeleine
Source: © photo belonging to Mr. Levha
André and Serge
Source: © photo belonging to Mr. Levha
Simone and Serge Blumberg
Source: © photo belonging to Mr. Levha
Wartime
During the war, the family had to wear the yellow star. In late 1943, Armand and his wife decided to send their two youngest children, Serge and Simonne, to stay with a Mrs. Boulland and a Miss Simon on a farm (L’Herbage in Couterne) in the Loiret department. Life in Paris had become so difficult that they felt it better to try to save the children by sending them to stay in the country. However, in January 1944, financial constraints and a heavy workload left the two women with no choice but to keep Simone with them (which ultimately saved her life: she died in Paris in 1933) but send Serge back to Paris.
The arrest
The building’s concierge, Anna Putmans, testified to having witnessed the arrest of the Blumberg and the Grinberg families. Nahama Sadicaris was arrested in a café on July 7, 1944. During the night of July 7- 8, at around 1 a.m., the Gestapo descended on the building and rounded up the Blumbergs and the Grinbergs (Esther Spatz, the mother, and three of the six children, Rebeka/Renée, Maurice and Monique).
Rose was heavily pregnant at the time. She, her husband and four of their children, Anna Léone, Madeleine, André and Serge, were taken to Drancy internment camp, north of Paris.
Source: File on Armand Blumberg © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n°21 P 711 473 74930
Nahama’s granddaughter, Karine, who wrote his biography, said that when he failed to come home that Friday evening, the rest of the Sadicaris family decided not to risk staying in the apartment. They sent the four older children to stay in the UGIF (Union Générale des Israélites de France, or General Union of French Jews) home on rue Secrétan. Estréa, Nahama’s wife, and her one-year-old daughter Hélène were kept hidden by a neighbor, Mrs. Maerten, who lived on the ground floor of their building.
She also said Nahama and Ybersz Armand got into a fight while they were in Drancy. The quarrel was probably about the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the family. However, we have no further insight into the matter because Mr. Blumberg, an Auschwitz survivor later said, “Nahama Sadicaris, I never want to hear his name again!”
When the family arrived in Drancy, Rose was assigned the prisoner number 24950. They were interned there for 23 days.
On July 17, Rose gave birth to a baby boy, Alain Louis.
The Convoy 77 deportation list
Source: File on Rose Blumberg © Shoah Memorial, Paris
Deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau
On July 31, 1944, the Blumberg family was deported on Convoy 77 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The baby, Alain-Louis, was transported in a little box lined with muslin.
When the train arrived in Birkenau during the night of August 3-4, 1944, Rose and little Alain-Louis were immediately put on a truck that took them to the gas chambers, where they were murdered. Armand, Madeleine, Anna, Serge and André were all selected to stay in the camp to work. There is a record of Serge being held in the Sachsenhausen camp in December 1944. André was admitted to the Auschwitz infirmary in January 1945 and probably died there, shortly before the Red Army liberated the camp.
Ybersz and his daughters Madeleine and Anna survived their time in the camps. Simonne, who was kept hidden during the war, also survived.
After the war
After the war, their father, Ybersz Armand, took the necessary steps to have his wife Rose recognized as a political deportee.
He succeeded in having her death certificate issued in 1958.
On September 30, 1958, Rose was officially declared to have “Died for France” even though this status was only normally applicable to people who had been born in France.
Rose’s death certificate
Source: www.geneanet.org
Confirmation of “Died for France” status
Source: File on Rose Blumberg © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen,
Dossier n°21 P 247 293 74923
Court ruling declaring Rose’s death
Source: File on Rose Blumberg © Victims of Contemporary Conflicts Archives Division of the French Ministry of Defense Historical Service, in Caen, Dossier n°21 P 247
293 74923
On the death certificate, an error in the court ruling was rectified. It states that Rose died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, rather than in Drancy.
We would like to thank Mr. Lionel Levha, Madeleine Blumberg’s son, for allowing us to publish the family photographs.
We would also like to thank Muriel Baude, a teacher at St Charles High School in St Pierre, Réunion, who began working on this biography in 2018, and a group of 12th-grade students from Camille Guérin High School in Poitiers who also contributed to the research.
Thanks also to Mr. Defranoux-Baticle whose work with Mr. Kerselion helped us a great deal.
