Robert Sejwacz Collection

Robert Sejwacz was born on November 13, 1934 in Paris, France, to parents Walek (b. 1906) and Freida (b. 1915). Robert's parents had emigrated from Poland to France where his father worked as a tailor. Although he was foreign born, Walek volunteered to serve in the French Army and was taken as a prisoner of war following capitulation in June 1940. Walek was ultimately released and returned to his family in German-occupied Paris. When new strictures introduced by Vichy authorities required that French Jews register with police the Sejwacz family refused. Instead, they attempted to live clandestinely following the round-ups and deportations of foreign born French Jews and their families which had begun en masse in July 1942. In September 1942 Robert's younger brother Henri was born. Shortly thereafter Robert's parents decided to send Robert to the country where he was cared for through the Comite des Oeuvres Sociales des Organisations de la Resistance. The arrangement was orchestrated with help of Walek's colleague Mr. Piel. Piel, who had been entrusted with the family's small savings, was responsible for providing financial support to the farmer that kept Robert through the war. When Walek, Frieda, and Henri Sejwacz were denounced in hiding in 1943, it was also Mr. Piel who managed to retrieve the family's photo album. Following their denunciation to authorities Walek, Frieda, and Henri Sejwacz were deported to Auschwitz. They were killed upon arrival on July 25, 1943. Robert Sejwacz was the only member of his immediate family to survive the holocaust, he obtained those photographs saved by Mr. Piel after the war.