Biography
Marcus Horowitz (born Markus Horowitz) is the son of Abraham (b. 9/1898) and Ita (nee Hornstein, b. 6/3/1901). Markus was born on December 12, 1930 in Antwerp, Belgium where his father was a merchant. Markus had one older brother Raphael (b. June 12, 1827 in Strasbourg). The family was religiously observant, and the boys attended Jewish schools. After the German bombing of Antwerp in 1940, the family fled to France by train. They came to a small farm in Lizac in Tarnet- Garonne owned by the Prouzet family. The family stayed in a shack behind the farm house and worked on the farm. In 1941, workers for the OSE offered to take the children to a children's home to keep them safe from approaching Germans. They were brought to the Chateau des Morelles, an Orthodox home in Brout-Vernet. Raphael was among the oldest children there. In early 1943 OSE representatives decided to remove the oldest boys and send them elsewhere where they would be safer. Rather than go to a farm, Raphael opted to move to another religious home, in Saint Germain des Pres. He returned to Brout-Vernet in December 1943 to attend Markus' bar mitzvah. Though they continued to correspond for another year, this is the last time the two brothers saw each other. In early 1944 OSE closed Chateau des Morelles. Markus, using the false identity of Markus Hendrick, went with four other children went to the Preventorium de Serviere Le Chateau Correze. Only the director knew they were Jewish. Markus remained there for the rest of the war. After liberation he was sent to Le Tremplin children's home and then to L'Hirondelle nears Lyons. Markus reunited with his father, who had been sent to work in Lizac, France and then deported to the Rivesaltes and Recebedou internment camps. While still living at Chateau des Morelles, Markus had received a letter from his mother, saying he was being sent to Germany and would write again. She was sent to Drancy and on September 9, 1942 was deported to Auschwitz on Transport 30. She died while being transferred to Gross Rosen in late December 1943. Initially, Markus' father had told him that Raphael had immigrated to Palestine. He later learned his true fate. On May 19, 1944 the Germans arrived at the farm where Raphael was living in Vilelmoutier and killed all the boys there; only one escaped and survived. The victims were buried in a mass grave in a Christian cemetery in Saint Germain des Pres. They were eventually reburied in individual graves in a Jewish cemetery. Although Markus reunited with his father in 1945, he remained in the children's homes until he was 18 because Abraham could not support him. Markus left the homes in 1948 and immigrated to the United States in 1951.
