Susanne Rappoport Ripton papers

Susanne Rappaport Ripton was born in Paris, France, on July 23, 1936. Her parents, Josek and Nelly Spodek Rappaport, were Polish Jews living in France. In Aug. 1942, the French police came to their apartment to arrest them. During the arrest, their neighbor, Madame Colombe, came to claim "her daughter," Susanne, and proceeded to take care of her until the liberation of France. Josek and Nelly were sent on a transport to Drancy transit camp. In June 1943, Josek was sent to Janischowitz labor camp in Upper Silesia in Poland where he was a slave laborer in a coal mine. Nelly was probably deported from Drancy directly to Auschwitz. Both perished. Beginning in July 1944, Susanne spent two years working on a farm in central France. In 1946, she was sent by the Red Cross to England where she was adopted by a Jewish family.