us-005578-irn520495-irn545991
type: RecordSet
archival history: The coin was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001 by Simon Jeruchim.
biographical history: Simon Jeruchim was born on December 25, 1929, in Paris, France, to Samuel and Alice Szpiro Jeruchim. Samuel was born on December 24, 1898, in Ostrow, Poland, and Sonia, on August 18, 1899, in Garwolin, Poland. They left Poland because of antisemitism. He had two siblings, Alice, born on February 18, 1928, and Michel, on April 4, 1937, both in Paris. The family lived in Montreuil, a suburb of Paris, and Samuel worked as a watchmaker in Paris. They were not religious and Simon did not know he was Jewish. When World War II started on September 1, 1939, the family was vacationing in Richebourg in Normandy. Simon and Alice stayed there and to attend school; Michel returned to Montreuil with their parents. Samuel returned on December 24, 1939, and brought Simon and Alice home. Germany invaded France in May 1940. School aged children, including Simon and Alice, were evacuated to the south of Paris. Samuel arrived shortly after to collect the children and go further south to St. Savinien, where Sonia and Michel were to meet them. After 2 months, Sonia and Michel had not arrived; they had returned to Paris and Samuel and the children followed. In November 1940, the family was ordered to report and register for identification cards stamped Juif [Jew] in red that all Jews were required to carry. Jews, primarily foreign born, were being rounded up and put in internment camps. Food was scarce and Simon was sent to Richebourg to obtain provisions. By the end of 1941, Simon had to wear a yellow star and, for the first time, became aware of his Jewish identity. On July 14, 1942, during a visit from friends with a young son, Joseph, they heard a rumor that all Parisian Jews were to be arrested. Both families hid with the Jeruchim’s gentile cleaning woman. On July 16-17, the mass arrests of the Vel d’Hiv roundup occurred. Samuel and Sonia arranged for the children, including Joseph, to go into hiding. They were sent to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bonneau, members of the underground who …
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has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn545991
is or was included in: us-005578-irn520495
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scope and content: A coin stored in a personalized coin pouch used by Simon Jeruchim, a hidden child in Normandy, France, from 1942 to 1945. The coin is one of 30 copper and silver alloy coins, some corroded, from France and Britain dated from 1910 to the 1940s. Germany occupied France in June 1940. Simon, age 11, his parents, Samuel and Sonia, and his siblings, Alice, age 14, and Michel, age 5, remained in the Paris suburbs until summer 1942. In July, Sonia heard of the Vel d'Hiv roundup, when thousands of Jews were arrested. The family hid with their gentile housekeeper and then arranged for the Bonneaus, members of the underground, to hide the children in Normandy. Simon often posed as a Catholic and worked as a farmhand, moving often. After the area was liberated on August 6, 1944, Simon returned to Paris and lived with the Bonneaus; his siblings returned after the war ended in May 1945. Their parents had been deported in fall 1942 to Auschwitz and murdered. Simon, Alice, and Michel immigrated to the United States in 1949.
title: Coin stored in a personalized, leather coin purse by Simon Jeruchim