Sarah KOURORIEZ

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1927-1944 | Naissance: | Arrestation: | Résidence:

Sarah KOURORIEZ

The Convoy 77 non-profit organization sent us a file on Sarah Kouroriez… but that was not all! To help us better understand her story, they also sent us files on her father, Abraham Léon Kouroriez, her mother, Joche Tadc’Aite, her brother, Simon Kouroriez, and her step-brother’s wife, Berthe Eisenberg. Although Sarah herself was deported on the 77th convoy from Drancy to Auschwitz, her father, mother and one of her brothers had already been deported on Convoy 76, while her step-brother’s wife had been deported on Convoy 56. Her other brother, Marcel Kouroriez, and her step-brother, Jules Kouroriez, survived the Second World War and have been researching and lobbying for recognition that their family members were deported and murdered by Nazi Germany. As these family members were not deported on Convoy 77, and as there are (for the moment?) no biographical projects for the other two convoys, the grade students decided to include them in Sarah’s biography, in order to share their stories along with hers.

Sarah Kouroriez’s extended family

Abraham Kouroriez, who was also known as Léon Abraham, was born on May 7, 1887 in Kiev, which at that time was in Russia. His parents were Zacharie Kouroriez and Sarah Kropotintziks. When he first arrived in France, he lived at 33 rue des Jardins Saint Paul in Paris. His first married Freide Gorosh, and the couple had one child, Jules, who was born on July 27, 1916. Abraham was a letterpress printer at the time. Through this marriage, he became a French citizen by naturalization on June 12, 1928, as published in the French Official Gazette on June 24, 1928. Freide subsequently died, but we do not know when exactly. On June 14, 1930, in Paris, Abraham got married for the second time, to Joche Tadc’Aite. Joche, who was Lithuanian and Jewish, was born on February 18, 1898 in Balkinai, north of Vilnius.

When they got married, Joche was already living with Abraham at 33 rue des Jardins Saint Paul. She was not working at the time. Since Abraham was by then a French citizen, this marriage allowed her to become French as well. When the couple got married, they already had three children: Sarah, Simon and Marcel. Sarah was born on September 8, 1927 at 19 bis rue Chaligny in Paris (Abraham was officially acknowledged to be her father in 1930), Simon was born on January 6, 1936 in the 12th district of Paris and Marcel was born on December 19, 1928 at 6 rue d’Ormesson in Paris (Joche was officially acknowledged to be his mother in 1930).

World War II, anti-Semitism and the situation in France

Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. This marked the Nazi Party’s coming to power. He introduced a racist, anti-Semitic system in Germany, with policies such as requiring Jews to wear a yellow star, setting up ghettos and banning Jews from various public spaces. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland as part of its plan to expand and create a “Lebensraum” (“living space”) for its citizens. France, as an ally, decided to help defend Poland and joined the war against Germany on September 3, 1939. However, Germany pursued a “Blitzkrieg” (“lightning war”) strategy and invaded the whole of northern France. From soon after that until early 1942, France was split into two zones: The Free Zone, in the south, governed by Philippe Pétain, and the Occupied Zone, in the north, governed by Adolf Hitler. In 1940, Philippe Pétain announced on the radio that he was willing to adopt the Nazi ideology of racism and anti-Semitism, capitulated and began collaborating with the Nazi party. Both French and foreign Jews on French soil were targeted, and several internment camps were built, such as Drancy. Jewish internees were then deported to concentration camps and killing centers such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The family’s first known victim: Berthe Eisenberg

The first time the Kouroriez family was directly impacted by deportation was in 1942, when Berthe Eisenberg was arrested. Berthe was the wife of Jules Kouroriez, Abraham’s first son from his marriage to Freide Gorosch. She and Jules were married on August 10, 1935 at the town hall in the 4th district of Paris. Since Jules was Sarah’s half-brother, Berthe was Sarah’s sister-in-law.

Portrait of Berthe Eisenberg (French Defense Historical Service in Caen, 21 P 470 243, file on Berthe Kouroriez).

Berthe was born on May 16, 1917 in the 12th district of Paris. Her parents were Mayer Eisenberg (who did not attend the wedding) and Blima Rauchwerk (then a sales assistant living at 57 rue de Douai). When she got married, she was officially living at her mother’s address at 57 rue de Douai, but was actually staying at 31 rue des Jardins Saint Paul (the house next door to the Kouroriez family, where Jules lived). She was a French citizen, and Jewish. She lived at several addresses: 35 (or 36) rue Poliveau in Paris, 17 (or 11) rue Jean-Beausire, in the 4th district of Paris and 21 rue de l’Expansion Anderlecht in Brussels, Belgium. She worked “in sales” and had two children, Jean-Michel, who was born on January 26, 1936, and Lucien, who was born on May 28, 1937.

On September 19, 1942, the Gestapo and the French police arrested her at 11 rue Jean-Baptiste Beausire on “racial” grounds (i.e. because she was Jewish) and for “not wearing a star”. One or more people had supposedly reported her on September 17 or 19, 1942. Mrs. Grinberg, the building’s concierge, witnessed the arrest. However, Berthe was most likely also arrested because she belonged to a Belgian resistance group, G. et WO, G. n° 3201. She was initially interned in Drancy on October 18, 1942, then transferred to Beaune-la-Rolande on March 9, 1943 and then back to Drancy on March 23, 1943. There she stayed until she was deported to Auschwitz on July 18, 1943. This was the date on which Convoy 57 left Drancy, with 1000 people on board, including 137 children. She was later declared to have died on July 23, 1943, this being the likely date on which the convoy in Auschwitz. It is impossible to say whether Sarah, then an apprentice lingerie worker, was very close to her in-laws or knew anything about Berthe’s resistance activities or that she had been arrested, interned and deported.

Sarah Kouroriez’s immediate family arrested and deported

As the war drew to a close, Sarah and her family were finally arrested. On May 30, 1944, the French police arrested Abraham, Joche and Simon at their home at 29 rue de Cotte in the 12th district of Paris, simply because they were Jewish. The building’s janitor later testified to the arrest. From June 10 through June 30, they were interned in Drancy, Abraham under the serial number 23,828, Joche under number 23,829 and Simon under number 23,830. They were deported to the Auschwitz killing center on Convoy 76 on June 30, 1944. The convoy arrived on July 5, 1944. Abraham had just turned 57, Joche was 46 and Simon was 8. Presumably, Sarah’s parents were deemed fit to work and sent into the camp for forced labor, at least initially, whereas Simon was most likely killed on arrival, since he was too young to work.

Sarah arrested and deported alone

Marcel states that Sarah was arrested, interned and deported alongside Abraham, Joche and Simon. However, it transpires that Sarah was not arrested at the same time as them but was in fact taken in by the UGIF (Union générale des israélites de France, or General Union of French Jews), which placed her in its home for girls on rue Vauquelin. This implies that she must not have been at home when her family was arrested, although Marcel may not have been aware of that. Given Marcel’s inaccurate account, we suppose that because he was separated from his family during the war, he lost track of his relatives, perhaps simply surmising what had happened to them.

The UGIF home on rue Vauquelin, Paris (Wikipedia)

The UGIF was founded in order to represent Jews in their dealings with the authorities. Sarah almost certainly stayed in the home on rue Vauquelin from May through July 1944. There were 33 Jewish girls staying there at the time, 25 of whom, including Sarah, were between the ages of 15 and 22.

About a month before Paris was liberated, however, on July 22, 1944, the Germans raided the Vauquelin center. All of the residents were rounded up and interned in Drancy, where Sarah’s registration number was 25,486. She was then deported on Convoy 77 from Drancy to Auschwitz on July 31, 1944. We do not know whether Sarah was murdered as soon as she arrived at Auschwitz, or whether she was initially sent into the camp to carry out forced labor.

Jules and Marcel, Abraham Kouroriez’s only surviving children, researched what happened to their family

Jules and Marcel were the only two of Abraham’s children to survive the Second World War. After the war, Marcel began to research what had happened to Abraham in order to have him recognized as a victim of the deportation. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Marcel was staying with David Cohen at 81 rue Vieille du Temple. He reported that he had not heard from his father since May 29, 1944, the day before he was arrested. He obtained missing person’s certificates for his parents and his sister Sarah on September 12, 1949. On April 8, 1950, Marcel had it officially acknowledged that his parents’ home at 29 rue de Cotte, Paris, “had been looted by the Germans in 1944” and that he was entitled to claim a furniture allowance “to restore the looted home”, as his parents had been deported and had never returned to France. On November 10, 1950, the Civil Court of the Seine department declared that Abraham Kouroriez and Joche Kouroriez née Tadc’Aite had died on June 30, 1944, the day they left Drancy for Auschwitz. On the same day, November 10, 1950, Sarah Kouroriez was declared to have died on July 31, 1944 in Drancy. On January 13, 1952, the court ruled that Simon Kouroriez had died on June 30, 1944, in Drancy. On October 22, 1956, Marcel obtained the status of “political deportee” (meaning that they had been deported for political reasons) for his father Abraham (card no. 1.1.75.10406), his mother Joche (card no. 2.1.75.10407), his sister Sarah (card no. 2.1.75.10408) and his brother Simon (card no. 1.1.75.10409).). Abraham’s two heirs were Jules (his son from his marriage to Freide), who lived at 126 rue P.-V. Couturier (Kremlin-Bicêtre), and Marcel (from his marriage to Joche), who lived at 36 rue de Poliveau in Paris. Joche’s sole heir was Marcel.

At the end of the war, on May 7, 1945, one of Berthe Kouroriez’s acquaintances, Blanche Wattebled Van Lysebeth, wrote a letter from 21 rue de l’Expansion Anderlecht, Brussels, on behalf of her Belgian sabotage group, to the “Service fichier” (“File Service”) in Paris. She asked for news of Berthe and requested that a search for her be carried out. If she was still alive, she asked that she be repatriated to Brussels, so that she could be cared for and reunited with her husband and two boys, aged 8 and 10. Berthe’s husband, Jules, also began researching her, and filed a missing person’s report on October 16, 1946. He was then living at 42bis rue de l’Ermitage in the 20th district of Paris. On May 16, 1947, the town hall of the 4th district of Paris issued a death certificate dated July 18, 1943, the date on which Berthe was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz. On February 21, 1955, Berthe was granted political deportee status and Jules received her political deportee card, no. 2.1.75.04950, and compensation of 60,000 francs. By that time, he was living at 69 rue des Malassis in Vitry-sur-Seine. In 1956, the French Ministry of Veterans and Victims of War agreed that the words “died for France” be added to Berthe’s death certificate.

Timeline by Matias D., showing the dates of recognition of deportations, disappearances and deaths

Sarah Kouroriez’s extended family tree, drawn up by the students

The students’ comments about the project

What did we like about this project?

“I enjoyed discovering information about people, which the general public do not know about”.

“I enjoyed finding out about and understanding the story of a girl who was deported”.

“I liked working on the project as a group and helping each other out”.

“I enjoyed putting myself in a historian’s shoes to look for information”.

“I liked learning about the work of a historian and searching for information in the archives”.

“While working on this project, I enjoyed researching real records, pooling them with those of my friends and building a family tree. Of course, I also broadened my knowledge about what happened to Jewish people during the Second World War”.

What have we learned?

“I learned that members of the same family were sometimes deported separately, in different years. In Sarah Kouroriez’s case, I learned that it was possible for one family member to survive and be able to research his or her family”.

“I learned how to extract information about people from the archives. I was thus able to gain an understanding of the lives of Jewish people during the Second World War”.

“I learned about Sarah Kouroriez and her family’s circumstances, and how she was deported alone to the Drancy internment camp and then to Auschwitz because she was Jewish”.

“I learned in greater detail what happened to Jewish families during the Second World War, that family members could be separated and find themselves alone in the concentration camps”.

What did we find difficult?

“The difficulties were finding the key information and deciphering the handwriting on the documents”.

“What I found difficult was that there was a lot of duplicate information and it was easy to get lost in it. It was sometimes difficult to get insights. At times, the handwriting on old records was difficult to decipher”.

Why we would recommend the Convoy 77 project to others?

“I would recommend this project because it teaches us how to search for information and to better understand the past”.

“I think this project can broaden one’s cultural horizons”.

“I could recommend this project to students who want to learn how to be real historians”.

“I would recommend this project for its historical insights and its introduction to the work of a historian and to learn more about deportees, especially those of our own age”.

“I would recommend this project because it is historically important and it teaches us about deportation during the Second World War”.

“I recommend this project because it gives us the opportunity to write the story of a person we didn’t know existed beforehand. It enables us to learn new things and commit ourselves to a project”.

Sources

  • French Defense Historical Service, ref. 21 P 470 245, File on Sarah Kouroriez.
  • French Defense Historical Service, ref. 21 P 470 242, File on Abraham Kouroriez.
  • French Defense Historical Service, ref. 21 P 470 244, File on Joche Kouroriez née Tadc’Aite.
  • French Defense Historical Service, ref. 21 P 470 246, File on Simon Kouroriez.
  • French Defense Historical Service, ref. 21 P 470 243, File on Berthe Kouroriez.

Links

The following links all lead to pages in French and unfortunately there are no English translations available. However, the English version of the Shoah Memorial website can be found here.

 

The following two paragraphs of this biography were initially translated into English by two of the students:

English translation proposed by Hanaë :

Abraham Kouroriez, sometimes called Léon Abraham, was born on the 7 May 1887 in Kiev, in Russia. His mother is Sarah Kropotintziks and his father is Zacharie Kouroriez. He comes in France at the 33 street des Jardins Saint Paul to Paris. He is getting married a first time with Freide Gorosh and they got one child, Jules, born on the 27 July 1916. Abraham is then a typographic printer. Thanks to this marriage, he becomes french by naturalization on the 12 June 1928, what is published in the Journal officiel on the 24 June 1928. But Freide dies at an unknown date. On The 14 June 1930, Abraham is getting married for a second time with Joche Tadc’Aite in Paris. Joche is lituanian and jewish , born on the 18 February 1898 to Balkinai to the north of Vilnius. At her marriage she has already lived with Abraham at the 33 street des Jardins Saint Paul and without a job. This marriage allows her to obtain french nationality too. When they get married, they have already had 3 children whom they recognize: Sarah, Simon, Marcel. Sarah was born on the 8 September 1927 at the 19 bis rue Chaligny in Paris (Abraham is recognized as her father in 1930), Simon was born on 6 January 1936 in Paris in the 12e borough, Marcel was born on 9 December 1928 in Paris, at the 6 rue d’Ormesson (Joche is recognized as his mother in 1930)].

 

English translation proposed by Thomas :

Adolf Hitler is declared chancellor in 1933. This year marked the arrival at the power of the nazi party. He set up a racist system and anti-Semitism in Germany, with measures like the port of the yellow star imposed for the jews, the setting up of ghettos, and many interdictions like the public places… Germany decided, to make sure a « life space », to invade Poland, on the 1st of September 1939. France, by alliance, decided to defend Poland and enter the war against Germany, the 3rd September 1939. But Germany took a strategy of « Blitzkrieg » (« guerre-éclair ») and invaded all the North of France. She is cut in two until the beginning of the year 1942: the free zone led by Philippe Pétain in the South and the occupied zone directed by Adolf Hitler in the North. Philippe Pétain proclaims at the radio in 1940 his will to share the ideas of the racist and anti-Semitism nazi system and he capitulates and begins a collaboration with the nazi party. The French Jews and the strangers in the french floor are threatened and many internment camps are created like the camp of Drancy. The deportees are then moved in concentration camps and in killing centers like Auschwitz-Birkenau].

Other biographies written by students from the Fernand-Léger middle school in Vierzon, in the Cher department of France :

Contributor(s)

This biograply was written during the 2023-2024 school year by Yanis, Anton, Hugo, Angélina, Tierno, Laly, Lilou, Allycia, Maëlia, Matias D., Senzo, Garance, Imran, Mélina, Mathis, Emma, Louis, Thomas, Maelle, Hanaë, Jade, Mila, Mathias V. and Zikhar, 9th grade students from the Queen class at the Collège Fernand-Léger middle school in Vierzon, in the Cher department of France, with the guidance of their history and geography teacher, Ms. Mahieu.

Reproduction of text and images

Any reproduction of a biography, even in part, must be approved in advance and in writing by the Convoy 77 association. To request permission, please fill in the form here: Form
If you wish to use any image from the French Defense Historical Service (SHD), please go to their online request page “Request a duplication”.

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