United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Monique Trompetter (1926-2003) was born in Nantes to American Louis J. Trompetter (1892-1972) and French-born Rose Marcelle Rosenbaum. Her parents met while Lou, an American vaudeville performer from Sioux City, Iowa, was stationed in Nantes during World War I. He married Rose Marcelle at the main synagogue in Nantes in 1920. Monique had one older sister, Betty (1922-1944). Lou returned to the United States in the late 1920s, he and Rose Marcelle divorced, and Lou remarried twice. Betty traveled to America to visit her father in 1938. On July 20, 1942, Rose Marcelle, Betty, and Monique were arrested in Nantes. Although they were American citizens, Rose Marcelle and Betty were deported via Drancy to Auschwitz on convoy 8 on July 25, 1942. Rose Marcelle’s mother, Lucie Rosenbaum, was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Monique was 16 years old at the time and was sent to Vittel, the French internment camp for British and American citizens. She was released in February 1944 as part of a prisoner exchange with the Nazis. She traveled via Spain and Portugal and reached America in March 1944 aboard the Gripsholm. Monique returned to France after the war and started a family in Rouen.
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The Trompetter family papers are arranged as three files: 1: Biographical material, 1938-1955 2: Photographs, circa 1910-1960 3: Printed materials, 1938, 1968
The Monique Trompetter family papers include biographical materials, photographs, and printed materials documenting Monique Tompetter, her sister Betty, and their parents, Lou and Rose Marcelle Trompetter. Biographical materials include identification papers, postcards, and certificates documenting Betty’s musical education, Monique’s internment at Vittel, and the deportation of her sister, mother, and grandmother to Auschwitz. Photographs depict members of the Trompetter family and document Lou Trompetter’s vaudeville career, Betty’s 1938 visit with her father the United States, Monique’s internment in Vittel, Monique’s 1955 visit with her father in Miami, and her father’s 1960 visit to France. Printed materials consist of clippings documenting Betty’s 1938 visit with her father in the United States and the Trompetter family story.
Monique Trompetter family papers