Striped wool blanket used by Raya Markon during “L’exode” (The Exodus) in France

Raya Magid (1910-2005) was born to Abram and Genya Settel Magid in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania. Her father graduated from a teacher’s college, and ran his own insurance business. Raya had an older sister, Katia (1905-1965). Raya first attended Hebrew school, then a Russian school for three years, followed by a French lycee for six years, until graduating from a Polish high school. She attended a Polish university where she studied romance languages, and studied for a year in Toulouse, France. Her parents requested her return around 1932, and she took a position with the Association of Lumber Exporters. In 1936, Raya became reacquainted with Alexander (Oswiez/Sasha, 1905-1989) Markon, who was also from Vilna, though he lived in France and was a French citizen. She had attended school with his sister and they began a courtship while he was visiting his family. When Alexander returned to France, he and Raya continued the courtship by mail. The two were married in France on February 11, 1937, and settled in Paris. Alexander worked as a translator at a publishing company, Dunod, while Raya worked as a secretary.

On September 1,1939, Germany invaded Poland. Alexander was recalled to the French military, and on September 4, 1939, was drafted to the center of mobilization at Orleans, Loiret. 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. Later, they found refuge in Leguevin in Haute Garonne.

Alexander worked as a farm laborer, and later in a shoe factory. The couple’s first child, Alain (1941-1998), was born in Toulouse in June 1941. The Markon family wished to immigrate to the United States, and applied for immigration visas. Raya’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, the Markon family obtained passage to America aboard a Portuguese ship, the SS Carvalho Araujo. They 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. They were still there when their daughter, Genya (b.1943), was born two months later.

Raya’s mother, Genya, died of natural causes in the spring of 1941. Abram, Raya’s father, was executed that summer by German forces in Ponary, just outside Vilna. Raya’s sister, 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. She found work at the American Museum of Natural History using her language skills. Alexander held many different positions in the food industry, eventually becoming a food chemist for Dr. Brown’s Soda Company (American Beverages).