us-005578-irn521989-irn522684
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Rectangular paper postcard with a black ink and watercolor drawing and an inscribed greeting on the front. It depicts a long single story building with a peaked roof and a sign with the numeral 2 on the right above a door. To the right is a partial view of a roof; to the left and slightly in the background is a guard tower and flag. A split rail fence surrounds the scene. Four birds fly on a background of pink sky. The image, except for the sky, is rendered in black, white, and shades of gray. In the upper left corner is text in French.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1942 January
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had subject: 1974
has record set type: Item
history: Menachem Mendel Lichtenstein was born on January 19, 1908, in Plock, Poland. He was the son of a rabbi and had 8 siblings. Although he grew up in an Orthodox home, Menachem was religiously liberal and a committed Zionist. He met Shifra Kasimersky, born 1909, in Jaloshitsha, Poland, whose parents had died in the 1918 typhus epidemic. She had 5 siblings; her family was not religious, but they were taught Hebrew. Menachem and Shifra travelled to Italy, where they married in 1931/2. They hoped to get immigration certificates for Palestine, but instead emigrated to Paris. Their son, Yisrael, was born there on November 11, 1932. After the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in Germany in 1933, Menachem’s father and several of his brothers joined the couple in Paris. Menachem was a skilled artisanal tricoteur or knitter. He also served as secretary treasurer of the Poalei Zion, a socialist Zionist movement in France. When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, at Rabbi Lichtenstein’s urging, Menachem and his brothers enlisted in the French Army. One brother was killed at the front in 1940. During this time, Shifra lived alone and had to work to support herself and her young son, but in 1939, she sent Israel away to an orphanage in Montmorency. Following the German invasion of France in May 1940, the orphanage was evacuated and the children, including Israel, were sent to the Masgelier children's home run by Oeuvre de Secours des Enfants (OSE). After France surrendered to Germany in June, Menachem was demobilized in Toulouse. He returned to Paris and registered with the police as required by law. On May 14, 1941, he was arrested and sent to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp in southern France. He was deported on June 27, 1942, to Auschwitz death camp, where he was killed. Shifra fled Paris in 1942 with Israel, her sister-in-law, and her 2 nephews, Marcel and Joseph. They were separated at the border to Vichy France. Shifra was arrested and interned in seve…
history: The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Israel Lichtenstein.
identifier: irn522684
is or was included in: us-005578-irn521989
record resource extent: overall: Height: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm) | Width: 4.750 inches (12.065 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Postcard sent by Menachem Mendel Lichtenstein to his family wishing BONNE ANNÉE 1942 [Happy New Year] with a drawing of his barracks at the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp in France. Menachem was imprisoned there from 1941-1942. When France declared war on Germany in 1939, Menachem volunteered for the French Army. Demobilized when France surrendered in May 1940, he returned to Paris, where he was arrested on May 14, 1941. He was sent to Beaune-la-Rolande, then to Auschwitz death camp on June 27, 1942, where he was killed. His 10 year old son, Israel, was sheltered through the early war years in the Masgelier children's home in Montmorency; his wife, Shifra, remained in Paris until 1942, when she was interned in several camps. In May 1943, Israel and his mother were reunited at the home of his paternal grandfather in southern France. They obtained false papers and stayed there until liberation in 1944, when they returned to Paris.
title: Postcard with New Year's wishes and a drawing of a barracks sent from Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp