Toddler's red leather shoe worn by Alain Markon in Vichy France

Alain Markon (1941-1998) was born in Toulouse, France, to Jewish parents, Alexander and Raya Magid Markon. Raya (1910-2005) was born to Abram and Genya Settel Magid in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania, and had a sister, Katia (1905-1965). Alexander (Oswiez/Sasha, 1905-1989) was also born in Vilna, and immigrated to France in the 1920s. Alain’s parents met when Alexander was visiting his family in Vilna. After corresponding, the couple married in France on February 11, 1937, and settled in Paris.

On September 1,1939, Germany invaded Poland. Alain’s father, Alexander, was recalled to the French military. He was sent to the 55th Regiment of the artillery and stationed on the Maginot Line, a series of fortifications along the French-German border. Germany invaded France in May 1940, and in June, France surrendered. Alexander was demobilized and went south in the hopes of finding Raya, who had fled to Toulouse during the exodus from Paris ( L’Exode). He eventually found her by accident in a train station.

The Markon family wished to immigrate to the United States, and applied for immigration visas. Alain’s mother’s first cousin, Lillian Epstein, lived in the US, and was married to a psychiatrist, Joseph Epstein. Joseph had connections in the US State Department and pleaded their case, eventually helping them to obtain an affidavit to enter the US in 1941. Despite this, they did not receive visas until 1942. With the sponsorship of the American Jewish Joint, Alain’s parents obtained passage to America aboard a Portuguese ship, the SS Carvalho Araujo. The family sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, on October 20, 1942, and arrived in Baltimore, MD, on November 2. From there, they took a train to New York City. The Markon family was still there when Alain’s younger sister, Genya (b.1943), was born two months later.

Alain’s maternal grandmother, Genya, died of natural causes in the spring of 1941. Abram, Alain’s maternal grandfather, was executed that summer by German forces in Ponary, just outside Vilna. Alain’s maternal aunt, Katia Magid (1905-1965), was confined in the Vilna ghetto following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Katia survived being imprisoned in both Kaiserwald and Stutthof concentration camps, and immigrated to the US in 1947.