Dr. Nathan Salczberger and Kahnt family collection

Dr. Nathan Salczberger (Salez-Berger) was born in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania in 1901. As a young man, he immigrated to Paris, France and was naturalized as a French citizen in 1928. A Jewish doctor, Dr. Salczberger worked with the French military medical units and at one point, served as the head of the French Medical Mission. Sometime around 1940, he was taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans and held for two years. He was released in November, 1942 and lived for two years at the Purpan Military Hospital in Toulouse, France. During his absence from Paris, Dr. Salczberger was denounced as a Jew by his landlord, Amelie Susanne Lavergne and her daughter, Georgette. As a result, his apartment was ransacked and belongings were stolen. His brother, Melchior, who had been living in the “chambre de bonne,” was arrested by the Gestapo and his sister-in-law, Helene was sent to Drancy and never heard from again. Upon his return to Paris after liberation in 1944, Dr. Salczberger opened legal proceedings against Amelie and Georgette, who later admitted to stealing pieces of his furniture and both were arrested for unrelated “anti-French activities.” Sometime between 1944 and 1948, Dr. Salczberger returned to his original apartment on Boulevard de Sébastopol in Paris.

Georgette Lavergne Kahnt was born to George and Amelie Susanne Lavergne in Paris, France. Her parents were the landlords of the apartment building at 16 Boulevard de Sébastopol in which Dr. Nathan Salczberger resided. In August 1940 Georgette began a relationship with a German soldier by the name of Erich Kahnt. They carried on their affair for nearly a year until Erich was sent to the Russian front in April 1941. The couple continued to correspond while Erich was on the front. He returned to Paris in 1942 after suffering severe frostbite and a kidney disease. Back in Paris, Georgette and Amelie provided Erich civilian clothes and a false French identity so the couple could continue seeing each other. Georgette, Amelie, and Erich were ultimately all arrested. Erich was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Laon after being captured in Paris in December 1944 and Georgette spent time in Drancy. After the war, Georgette and Erich reunited and married. Georgette died in Mittenwald, Germany in 2000.