Marussia Filleul collection

Marussia Filleul (née Blums) was born on 8 Sept. 1910 in Rīga, Latvia. She and some members of her family fled Latvia and emigrated to Italy in July 1939. While in Italy, she was able to take on a false name and work to support a brother, Louis, who was suffering from a psychological disorder, and her mother, Anna Blums (née Samsonovitch), who was suffering from a heart ailment. When she was revealed and arrested as a Jew, she was interned in Venice before being sent to the concentration camp of Lamazzane, Italy. During her internment, the Germans deported her mother and brother from hospitals, where they were staying, in Venice, Italy to an unknown location; they were never heard from again. After the war, while waiting to emigrate to the United States, Marussia worked for various offices of the U.S. Army in Italy. At an unknown date, Marussia immigrated to the United States from Italy. In 1951, she married Marurice Arthur Charles Filleul, and she became an American citizen in 1955