Herschkowitz family papers

Bezales Herschkowitz was born in Jerusalem in 1904, and worked as a self-employed furrier in Paris after leaving Palestine in 1928. He married Rose Reisman in 1932, and the couple gave birth to their daughter Brenda in 1933. The family continued life in Paris, but after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Bezales became worried. He applied for visas to the United States, but his cousins in Detroit refused to provide the necessary affidavits. At the outset of war with France, Bezales joined the French army. At this same time, Rose and Brenda fled Paris and lived for several months near the Spanish border. Once the French army surrendered, Rose was able to locate Bezales, and they decided to move back to Paris. In 1941, life began to be more oppressive for Jews in Paris, and the family lived in constant fear of arrest. Brenda was sent to live in the country through the resistance network in 1944, but she only stayed for several months due to fears by her parents that she was being abused. In the meantime, Bezales worked at a fur manufacturing plant making jackets for Nazi soldiers. In doing so, he was granted protection for himself and his family. That protection ended one day in May, 1944 when all Jewish workers at the plant were arrested. Bezales was sent to Dachau, while Rose and Brenda hid in the homes and attics of resistance network members until Paris was liberated in 1945. Bezales returned home soon after US forces liberated Dachau in the spring of 1945. The family continued life in Paris, and eventually moved to London in 1957. Brenda met her husband and moved to Boston that same year.