The last letter written by Jakob Michel from the Les Milles camp, addressed to Mrs. Wolffer, a woman in Switzerland who came from the same German village as Jakob.
Overview
- Caption
- The last letter written by Jakob Michel from the Les Milles camp, addressed to Mrs. Wolffer, a woman in Switzerland who came from the same German village as Jakob.
In the letter Jakob asks her to look after his family. When Marion was sent to Switzerland by the OSE, Mrs. Wolffer became her foster mother. - Date
-
1942 August 06
- Locale
- Les Milles, [Bouches-du-Rhone] France
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Michel Oliner
- Event History
- Les Milles, the largest of the French transit camps in the Bouches-du-Rhône, housed refugees who were classified as having an "imminent chance" of emigration. Situated in a community of the same name about 90 km. north of Marseilles, Les Milles was chosen for its proximity to the French port and the many foreign consulates located there. The camp, which was first opened in September 1939 to intern foreign nationals, was established in an abandoned brickworks known as the Tuilerie de la Mediterranée, consisting of twenty factory buildings surrounded by barbed wire. After October 1940 Les Milles was designated as an assembly center for refugees in transit to other countries. Most of these were German and Austrian Jews who had been expelled in May 1940 from Belgium and northern France. Another sizable group were Jews from Baden and the Saarland who had been rounded-up as part of Aktion Bürckel on October 22-23, 1940 and sent to France. Stateless Polish Jews constituted another large sub-group of the inmate population. More than 1,000 prisoners were interned at Les Milles at any one time. They lived in substandard conditions that deteriorated considerably as the war progressed. Prisoners suffered from exposure to severe heat and cold, shortages of food and clothing, lack of sanitation facilities, and disease. In addition, their spirits were crushed by their isolation from the outside world and the lack of things to do in the camp. All the inmates at Les Milles were men. The women who later appear on the camp rolls were the wives of prisoners who joined their husbands just prior to their deportation in the summer of 1942. Though the refugees who were interned at Les Milles were supposed to be on the verge of emigration, many were unable to surmount the various legal and bureaucratic hurdles that were put in their path. Those that were unable to complete the process in time became a primary target for Vichy authorities seeking to fill the new quota mandated by Eichmann in the summer of 1942 that 50,000 Jews from the Unoccupied Zone be delivered for labor service to Auschwitz. In all, 1,439 Jews were deported from Les Milles in the summer and fall of 1942, not including those who had been transferred to Gurs and Rivesaltes and deported from there. Les Milles was officially closed in November 1942 after the Vichy government order of November 8 terminated the issuing of all exit visas. Three days later the Germans occupied southern France.
[Sources: Ryan, Donna Frances, Vichy and the Jews: The Example of Marseille, 1939-1944. Georgetown University Ph.D., 1984]
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Marion Michel Oliner
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Marion Michel is the only child of Jakob and Charlotte Michel. She was born on October 18, 1929 in Andernach, Germany, where her father and uncle Julius owned a wine business. In 1936 the business was abandoned, and the Michels moved to Cologne. There Jakob worked with his other brother, Berthold, in the fur trade, until deciding to leave Germany. The Michel family left for Brussels in May 1939. Immediately after the German invasion of Belgium on May 10, 1940, all male Jewish refugees from Germany were ordered to report to the German authorities. Jakob turned himself in and was sent to the St. Cyprien internment camp in France. While his wife and daughter remained in Brussels, Jakob was transferred first to Gurs and then to Les Milles. In 1941 Charlotte and Marion fled to Marseilles, where they stayed for one month, before moving to Aix-en-Provence. The two lived in Aix until the summer of 1942, when the deportations began. Charlotte heard that the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) was sheltering Jewish children, and arranged for the Jewish welfare organization to take Marion. The day before she was to be picked up they traveled to Les Milles to see Jakob. This was the last time Marion was to see her parents. The OSE took Marion to the Hotel Bompard in Marseilles. Charlotte remained in Les Milles and was deported to Auschwitz the next day. Jakob was deported shortly thereafter. Marion lived at the Hotel Bompard until October 1942, when she was transferred to the OSE children’s center at Chateau du Couret. In May 1943 she was transferred to another home in Megeves, where she stayed for three months, until the OSE smuggled her into Switzerland. After crossing the border, Marion was hospitalized for malnutrition and chronic leg sores in two refugee camps near Geneva. In September 1943, she was taken in by the Wolffers, a Jewish family living in Zurich. Mrs. Wolffer came from the same German village as Marion’s father, and after the war, offered to adopt the orphaned child. Marion, however, wanted to try to contact some her mother’s relatives in the United States. Ultimately, she was able to reach her uncle, Julius, who had emigrated to the U.S. in 1940. In the summer of 1946, Marion sailed aboard the SS Gripsholm to the New York. In Philadelphia, she was reunited with Julius, to whom Charlotte had entrusted the family’s photographs. Marion was eventually adopted by her uncle and settled in Philadelphia. In 1955 she married Alan Oliner.
- Record last modified:
- 2010-02-24 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1088366
