Rothschild - Fränkel family papers

Identifier
irn514952
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2004.248.1
Dates
1 Jan 1898 - 31 Dec 2013, 1 Jan 1940 - 31 Dec 1947
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
  • French
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

boxes

2

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Hermann Fränkel and Gertrude (née Josephson) Fränkel were residents of Danzig, and had two sons, Herbert and Werner. Following Hermann’s death in 1934, Mrs. Fränkel and her sons moved to France. It was there that Herbert met Mariette Rothschild, and after marrying and having a son, Edward, they immigrated to the United States in 1939, eventually settling in Los Angeles. With the outbreak of war, Werner, was conscripted into the French Army, and following the German invasion of France, was taken prisoner and interned at the concentration camp at Bram (Aude). In 1942, Werner Fränkel was deported to Auschwitz, and presumed to have been killed there. Gertrude Fränkel remained in France during the war, living in a village in the department of Seine-et-Oise, and immigrating to the United States following the war, where she was reunited with her family. The Fränkel family eventually anglicized the spelling of their name to “Francel” and then “Francell.”

Alfred and Marguerite (née Blum) Rothschild lived in France from the 1910s up until the early 1940s, where Alfred Rothschild had a business and used the last name “Redgis” professionally, a name that the family later adopted as well. As Mr. Rothschild was born in Columbus, Georgia, he possessed U.S. citizenship, which helped the family immigrate in 1942, after they had escaped by foot over the Pyrenees into Spain. In addition to Mariette Fränkel, the Rothschilds had one other daughter, Yvonne Redgis, whose married name was Yvonne Klug. She remained in France during the occupation, fought in the resistance, was arrested (and perhaps betrayed to the authorities by her then-husband), and deported to Auschwitz. She maintained a diary of this period, which she edited into a memoir and sought to publish after the war. Although initially unable to publish it, it was further edited several decades later by Jean Marc Dreyfus, and published in France as Survivre: Souvenir d’une réscapée d’Auschwitz (Paris: Larousse, 2010). After her liberation from Auschwitz and convalescence in Poland, Yvonne was repatriated to France and subsequently immigrated to the United States, living in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, where she established a dance studio.

Archival History

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ed Francell

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Mary Francell-Sharfstein

Donated by Ed Francell, 2004, and with an accretion in 2013. Werner Fraenkel is the donor's paternal uncle, and Yvonne Rothschild Klug Redgis is the donor's maternal aunt. A list of passenger was donated in 2014 by Mary Francell-Sharfstein.

Scope and Content

Correspondence, official documents, photographs, and memoirs pertaining to the experiences of the maternal (Rothschild) and paternal (Fränkel) branches of the family of Ed Francell, and how they were impacted by the events of the Holocaust. Includes documents about Yvonne Redgis (Rothschild) and her life in pre-war France, during the occupation of France, as a forced laborer at Auschwitz, and her post-war immigration to the United States. Collection also contains correspondence, photographs, identification documents, and other items about the Fränkel family, originally of Danzig, and later France. Includes documentation about Gertrude Fränkel and her son, Werner, in particular about Gertrude’s experiences in occupied France and her post-war immigration to the United States, and Werner’s conscription as a forced laborer in France and his subsequent deportation to Auschwitz. The Rothschild – Fränkel family papers document the experiences of the maternal and paternal branches of the family of the donor, Ed Francell, prior to, during, and following the Holocaust. On the maternal side of the donor’s family, most of the documentation is about Yvonne Redgis (Rothschild), with photographs, personal identification documents, correspondence, and printed material focusing largely upon Redgis’ experiences as a member of the Resistance in occupied France, her arrest and deportation to Auschwitz, her repatriation to France after the war, recognition as a resistance fighter, reunion with her parents, and her immigration to the United States. Also included are photographs and a pedigree about her dog, Nicolas; and versions of her memoirs in three languages, as well as correspondence about her efforts to publish the memoirs in the United States. This memoir, originally titled “Doors That Open from the Outside” or “Le 8618 revint,” was published in France in 2010 under the title Survivre: souvenirs d’une rescapée d’Auschwitz. Documentation about the Fränkel family includes photographs and identification documents about Gertrude Fränkel, correspondence to and about the French family who sheltered her during the occupation, and documents related to her immigration to the United States in 1947. Material related to Werner Fränkel includes postcards that he sent to his mother from a forced labor camp in southern France in 1942, and postwar documents related to the family’s search for his whereabouts, and reference material about forced laborers in France, including information about the convoy to Auschwitz that included Fränkel. The collection also contains an audiocassette that may contain a copy of a recording of Yvonne Redgis speaking in 1947 at an unspecified event, a medallion with a depiction of a concentration camp and the words “N’oubliez jamais” that was presented to Redgis (“Mme. Klug”) in 1950 by the FNDIRP, and five lapel pins from various organizations, primarily related to former French resistance fighters.

System of Arrangement

The collection is arranged into two series: I. Redgis, Yvonne, II. Fränkel family, with the latter divided into three subseries for Gertrude Fränkel, Werner Fränkel, and Fränkel family photographs. Arranged is alphabetic by folder title within each series.

People

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.