Yves de Boton (1907-1944) was born on 25 September 1907 in Jaffa, Palestine to David and Reine (née Jose) de Boton. He had three sisters, Marguerite (1905-1998), Alice (1906-2010), and Rosa (1910-1950), and one brother, Igael (1912-1988). The family moved to Egypt in 1913, and then back to Jaffa in 1918. Yves studied medicine in Montpellier and Paris, France, eventually earning his degree. He also became a French citizen in 1931. The same year, he married Esther Dondich (1911-1940), the daughter of Isrgel Nerach and Feiga Dondich, in Paris. They later divorced and remarried in 1936. Their daughter Aline was born in 1937. His sister Alice moved to Paris in 1932. She married Jean Robert Bernard (later Robert Bernard de Boton; 1903-1993) in 1939. Yves’s other siblings remained in Palestine for the duration of the war. Yves had difficulties obtaining work in his field. He became politically active in Paris in various working class and anti-fascism movements. In 1938, he opened a clinical laboratory in Paris with his brother-in-law Robert Bernard. Later that year, he served as a medic in the Cavalry Corps of the French army. He and his family were transferred to Brive-la-Gaillarde where his wife Esther died in 1940 of endocarditis and septicemia. Alice and Robert would then act as the guardians of Aline. Yves then joined them in Marseille. They went to le Puy by 1942 to join his friend George Schwartz involved in liberation groups that would eventually become part of Les Mouvements Unis de la Résistance (MUR). On 1 August 1944, Yves and others are arrested by the Gestapo in Lyon. They were interrogated and sent to Montluc prison. On 20 August 1944, Yves and about 120 other prisoners were taken to the Saint-Genis-Laval cemetery where they were murdered. After the war, Alice, Robert, and Aline travelled to Palestine in 1946 so that Aline could meet the rest of her family. They then returned to France and immigrated to the United States in 1947, settling in San Francisco, California. Robert was eventually able to resume his career, and later became the director of Alta Bates Hospital Laboratory in Berekley. Robert and Alice adopted Aline in 1953.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
box oversize folders 1 2
The collection is arranged as three series: Series 1: Biographical material, 1904-2012 and undated; Series 2: Correspondence, 1935-1963 and undated; Series 3: Photographs, 1929-circa 1960s
The de Boton family papers document the Holocaust experiences of French Resistance activist Yves de Boton, his daughter Aline, his sister Alice and her husband Jean Robert Bernard (later Robert Bernard de Boton). The collection includes materials related to Yves involvement with several resistance groups, including Les Mouvements Unis de la Résistance (MUR); his arrest and murder by the Gestapo in 1944; his medical career and his military service. Other material includes family photographs, correspondence, passports and other identification papers, and school notebooks and adoption papers of Yves’s daughter Aline. Most documents are accompanied by descriptions, translations, and transcriptions created by the donor.
de Boton family papers