Sarah dite Suzanne ROTTMAN

1914 - 1944 | Naissance: | Arrestation: | Résidence: ,

 

Sarah ROTTMANN

The biographies of Mireille and Sarah Rottman were researched by the 10th- and then 11th-grade students seeking a diploma in care and service provision at the Simone Dounon private vocational high school in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire 58200.
They were assigned this historical enquiry by Madame Marie-Line Gauthier, their history, geography and French teacher. The historical research was completed with a writing workshop. The students first imagined Sarah and Mireille’s lives and then discovered the facts. ..
 
 
 
Sarah Rottman was born on February 21, 1914 in Paris, was arrested at Romainville, and died on August 5, 1944 at Auschwitz. (Note that Sarah and Mireille’s surname can be spelled Rottmann.)
Born in Paris on the 1st of February, 1914, Sarah ROTTMANN resided at n° 1 rue [Sous-les-Ceps] in Bourges (Cher department). She was the mother of Mireille and Albert Rottmann. Sarah was deported with her daughter from Drancy to Auschwitz in convoy 77 on July 31, 1944.
 
Mireille Rottman was born on September 7, 1931 in Paris, was arrested in Bourges (Cher department), and died on August 5, 1944 in Auschwitz.
50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_archives_Memorial
The faces of Sarah and Mireille were quickly found on the site of the Mémorial of the Shoah. Mother and daughter were constantly a presence in the classroom. They lived with us. We found Sarah’s brother, Albert Rottman, and talked with him on the phone. It was a very moving moment. He lived not very far from the school, an hour away in the Yonne department. We had hoped to meet him, but it proved impossible due to health reasons. However, Madame Soirat, Albert’s daughter and Sarah’s niece, came to us. She was able to tell us more about her aunt. As this family history had long been denied by her parents, certain gray areas still persist.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_et_parents_archives_familiales_1924
Before the War

The Rottman family was made up of:
Anna Mintz, married name Rottman, a seamstress, who had fled the pogroms in Riga, Latvia. She had already had two sons in England with her first husband, one of whom perished on the Titanic.
Froïm Rottman, a leather craftsman,
and their children: Henriette (born in 1918), Simone ( born in 1921), Sarah (born in 1914), and Albert (born in 1924).
The family lived at n° 23 rue Vieille du Temple, as is attested on the daughter Sarah’s birth certificate.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_acte_de_naissance
The photos of Sarah as a child provided by Mrs. Soirat show her as a communicant, but with no missal in her hands.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_en_communiante
The family did not practice the Jewish religion, and Sarah called herself Suzanne, which is the name found on her Large Family I.D. card.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_carte_famille_nombreuse
She either was a pupil at one of the two schools for daughters of people decorated with the Légion d’Honneur, or she is merely wearing one of her relative’s decorations for the photograph.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_médaillée
It is the medal of a knight of the Légion d’Honneur, but we were unable to find out who in the family had received it. We do know that her father was wounded and gassed in World War I.
We were struck by Sarah’s beauty, her bearing. She exudes her zest for life. The Drancy counterfoil receipt of her confiscated affairs gives the sad list of what she was wearing.
Receipt N° 24684: – 7000 francs  – a watch and bracelet – a brooch –  a medal – two rings, one of which with a set stone.
This refinement is explained by the fact that she was a seamstress like her mother.
A photograph taken on Saint Catherine’s Day shows her with her friends, in costume for the occasion (indicating that she was at least 25 years old and already a mother). It is possible the picture was taken on November 25, 1939, at the start of the war. Her hat is decorated with seamstress’s scissors.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Ste_Catherine
Mireille
Sarah then lived at n°137 boulevard de l’Hôpital in Paris. Sarah was an unwedded mother, which at that time was an unfortunate situation.
Nevertheless, mother and daughter are posing with the other women of the family, indicating that they had good relationships.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_cartes_postales_en_compagnie
During the Occupation Sarah/Suzanne and her daughter lived in Bourges.
Albert, her brother, who was with the Resistance in Châteauroux and Saint-Amand-Montrond, visited her regularly. This photo was perhaps taken in Bourges.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_et_Mireille_campagne_cadrée
A happy moment when mother and daughter share in the joys of the countryside. Other children are visibly playing with Mireille. She is holding a pretty doll and radiant with happiness.
Then Sarah had to go back to work in Paris, entrusting her little Mireille to the care of a nanny, to whom she paid room and board. Unhappily, when Sarah was arrested the payments stopped and the nanny probably informed on Mireille. The little girl was sent to Drancy, where she was reunited with her mother.
It was Mireille’s grandmother, surviving hidden throughout the war, who declared the deportations.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_et_Mireille_delivrance_cartes_Anna50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_et-Mireille_cartes_déporté50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_certificat_internement_Bourges50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Mireille_témoignages_déportation_Mairie_13
Yad Vashem’s archives in Jerusalem provided us the transportation documents to the Auschwitz camp:
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_certificat_transport_Auschwitz_ITS_Archives50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_certificat_transport_Auschwitz_ITS_Archives
Transport cattle car at Birkenau
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_image_wagon_déportation
Mireille’s ITS (International Tracing Services) Certificate  (German archives from the Nazi period, Bad Arolsen)
50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_archives_ITS50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_archives_ITS_1
The testimonial page for Yad Vashem was established by Xavier Messalati in Israel. No testimonial was found for Mireille.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Yad_Vashem_témoignage
The Wall of Names at the Mémorial of the Shoah.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Mémorial_Mur_des_noms
Meeting with Serge Jacubert to present our early research
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_réunion_Mémorial_Convoi_77
Meeting with Madame Soirat, Sarah Rottman’s niece.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_réunion_rencontre_nièce_de Sarah_Mme_Soirat
What did the deportees take with them? What did they imagine? We have tried to put ourselves in their shoes. With our vocational teachers we also reflected on the conditions of transportation and dehumanization.
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_imagination
Several Memorial travel diaries at our Convoy 77 project report exhibition
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution_carnets_voyage50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution_carnets_voyage_a
Drawing by Estelle Mouligneaux  Memorial Journey to Auschwitz Birkenau 2018
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution_dessin_Estelle_Mouligneaux
On the occasion of our visit to the camp we organized a memorial ceremony for Sarah and Mireille. They will live forever in our memories, and especially in our hearts.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sarah ROTTMANN born on February 21 1914 deported from Drancy on July 31, 1944 in convoy n° 77.
50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_archives_Memorial
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_and_parents_family_archives_1924
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_birth certificate
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_as_communicant
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Large_Family_card
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_bemedaled
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Saint_Catherine
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_post_cards_with_others
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_and_Mireille_campagne_cadrée ??
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_and_Mireille_deportee cards
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_and_Mireille_issuance_cards_Anna
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_ internment_certificate _Bourges
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Mireille_testimonial_deportation_Town_Hall_13
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_certificate_transportation_Auschwitz_ITS_Archives
50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_certificate_transportation_Auschwitz_ITS_Archives
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_picture_cattle_car_deportation
50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_archives_ITS
50775-ROTTMAN_Mireille_archives_ITS_1
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Yad_Vashem_testimonial
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_Mémorial_Wall_of_Names
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_meeting_Mémorial_Convoy_77
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_meeting_niece_of_Sarah_Mme_Soirat
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_effort_imagination
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution_travel_diaries
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution_travel_diaries_a
50776-ROTTMAN_Sarah_travail_restitution_drawing_Estelle_Mouligneaux
Contributors
the 10th- and then 11th-grade students studying for the care and service provision diploma at the Simone Dounon private vocational high school in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire 5822, under the supervision of Madame Marie-Line Gauthier, their history, geography and French teacher

Contributor(s)

les élèves de Seconde puis 1re ASSP du LPP Simone Dounon, 58200 Cosne Cours sur Loire, sous la direction de Mme Marie-Line Gauthier, leur professeur d’Histoire-Géographie et de Français

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