Oscar Dulitzki photographs

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Oscar Dulitzski (1926-2006) was born Oscar Doulitchy on 1 October 1926 in Paris, France to Adolph and Perla Edelstein Doulitchy. In September 1939 the French government made arrangements for Parisian children to leave the city in preparation for the impending war. Oscar who was a member of Eclaireurs Israélites de France left Paris with his scout group and traveled to Saint-Affrique in southern France. In May 1940 there was an attempt to take the children to the United States, but when that plan failed, the children were redirected to Bordeaux, France, which had already been invaded by the Germans. The children were divided into small groups, and Oscar was placed in charge of four or five younger children. They wandered from village to village, looking for people to shelter them. In October 1940 they found safe haven at an orphanage for Jewish children funded by the American Joint Distribution Committee in Moissac, France. There were about 100 children at the orphanage. At the end of 1942, the Germans entered southern France. Because of his Aryan features, Oscar was overlooked by the Germans at first, but in the winter of 1943 he was arrested and sent to the Bour de Peize labor camp in the Alps near Grenoble, France. He was at the camp until liberation in August 1944. He then joined the Maquis resistance fighters and remained with them until the end of World War II. In 1948 Oscar immigrated to Israel. 

Oscar Dulitzki photographs 

folder 1 

The collection consists of photographs depicting the Holocaust-era experiences of Oscar Dulitzki (born Oscar Doulitchy), originally of Paris, France, primarily documenting Oscar’s time in a Jewish orphanage in Moissac, France. Photograph depictions include a group portrait of children and counselors in a Jewish orphanage in Moissac in 1940-1941, Oscar is standing on left in the second row from top, in the first row in the middle is Mme Shatta Simon, director of the orphanage; group of Jewish scouts in Moissac orphanage, Oscar is second from left with a rope on his arm, circa 1941; group of Jewish boys wearing uniforms of “Eclaireurs Unionists” (Protestant scouts), summer 1942 ; the house of the Jewish orphanage in Moissac, 1943; group portrait of Jewish children in St. Affrique, winter 1940; Oscar in the Israeli Army, circa 1949. Also included is one negative depicting Oscar’s mother Perla Edelstein Doulitchy. 

The collection is arranged as a single series.