Oral history interview with Thérèse Zwiebel Michaely

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2016.198.70 | RG Number: RG-50.944.0072

Overview

Interview Summary: Thérèse Zwiebel Michaely, born April 27, 1943, discusses her family and early life; her father, who was a doctor (specialist in tuberculosis treatment) and moved to France from Romania around 1928 to finish his medical studies; her mother, who was from Austria and was in Paris studying languages; her parents’ marriage in Paris and their French citizenship; her sister’s birth in 1936; her father’s position as the director of a sanatorium along the Belgian border; her father’s mobilization, arrest at the battle of Dunkirk, and imprisonment in a stalag in what is now Poland; her father’s conversion from Judaism to Protestantism after meeting a student with whom he had long discussions day by day about religion; her mother and elder sister living in Paris until the Germans invaded France and they went to Châteauroux; her father falling very ill in the Stalag and being repatriated to Lyon in 1942, at the time of the Pétain legislation forbidding Jews to practice medicine; her family reuniting in Saint-Agrève at the Pension du Lac where there were Jewish and other refugees; her mother’s month-long perilous journey with elder daughter across the Pyrenees crossing the demarcation line to Saint-Agrève; her father journeying from Lyon; her father working with a village doctor (Docteur Tourasse [PH]) and joining the Resistance as a doctor; the hospital at the château de Clavières in Saint-Agrève that treated members of the Resistance; her father being wounded when his car was hit by the US bombardment in August 1944; her father’s death a day later when Thérèse was 15 months old; being raised by her godmother Octavie Jouve [PH], who ran the Pension du Lac, while her mother left for Soissons and then Paris to teach; being raised as a Protestant; the divide in Saint-Agrève between Catholics and Protestants; her marriage to her husband Bernard, a Catholic, which was a shock to her grandmother (she later accepted him); and her three children and seven grandchildren.
Interviewee: Thérèse Zwiebel Michaely
Interviewer: Borbála Kriza
Date: interview: 2018 November 05
Geography: creation: Saint-Agrève (France)
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection

Physical Details

Language: French
Extent: 1 digital file : MP4.

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
Conditions on Use: No restrictions on use
Copyright Holder: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Conversion--Christianity. Holocaust survivors--France. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--France--Personal narratives. Interfaith marriage--France. Jewish children in the Holocaust. Jews--Conversion to Christianity. Jews--France--Saint-Agrève. Protestants--France. World War, 1939-1945--Children--France. World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance--France. World War, 1939-1945--Jews--France. World War, 1939-1945--Medical care. Women--Personal narratives.
Geographic Name: Châteauroux (France) France--Ethnic relations. France--History--German occupation, 1940-1945. Paris (France) Saint-Agrève (France)
Personal Name: Michaely, Thérèse Zwiebel.

Administrative Notes

Holder of Originals: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch produced this oral history interview as part of the European Holocaust Survivors project.
Funding Note: The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive

Record last modified:: 2023-11-16 09:38:01
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn671400

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